Olds and area residents have added their voices to the provincial government's controversial decision to ban snowmobilers and quadders from the newly created Castle Provincial Park and the Castle Wildland Provincial Park.
The parks cover more than 1,000 square kilometres in the southwest corner of the province.
Lyle Statham, president of the Olds Snowmobile Club, convened a meeting on the matter at the Olds Legion recently. Twenty-eight people showed up.
Statham talked to the Albertan afterward.
He said rather than banning snomobilers and quadders altogether, the provincial government should allow them to use the trails there responsibly and use fees for that right in order to finance the policing and maintenance of the area.
Secondly, he fears the current plan for those two parks to ban snowmobilers and quadders is just the thin edge of the wedge.
He fears from there, the provincial government will use that template to eventually ban snowmobilers - and others, like campers -- along the entire Eastern Slopes of the Rockies -- including the Bighorn area near Sundre.
Statham says an action plan has been devised to fight the ban.
"We've got petitions going. We've got paper petitions plus an online one. We've got letter-writing campaigns plus emails to the ministers, dropping off letters at the MLA's office," he says.
Statham says those petitions will be delivered to Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper's office as well as to Premier Rachel Notley, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips plus Culture and Tourism Minister Ricardo Miranda.
"I want them to reconsider the way they did the consultation in the area because a lot of the stakeholders were not heavily involved in the consultation process," Statham says.
"We also want them to reconsider the total ban and instead, consider the same thing as other provinces use where there's a proper, marked, managed, sustainable trail."
He says that's the way the issue of snowmobiles and quads on environmentally sensitive land has been handled in Ontario and Quebec.
"It's a beautiful area. I can see why they want to do some protection work down there; that's obvious," Statham says.
"But do it the right way, right? Build proper trails that are actually already built, but just enforce them and keep people on them. And manage them properly so it's like the Ontario model. Don't just ban people."
Statham says snowmobiles and quads are a great way for seniors and the disabled to get into the outdoors.
"By making this ban against the quads and snowmobiles, you've just taken a major activity away from senior citizens and the disabled and families; all because a few people were jerks about it and did some damage," Statham says.
"Well, those people should have been fined and kicked out and then let the responsible riders still have access."
Provincial officials were contacted by the Albertan to provide their response to Statham's concerns but did not do so by press time.
"Build proper trails that are actually already built, but just enforce them and keep people on them. And manage them properly so it's like the Ontario model. Don't just ban people."LYLE STATHAMPRESIDENT OLDS SNOWMOBILE CLUB
