Kieran, thanks for responding, it's nice to hear from the other side of the story. I understand your reasons for wanting to keep the public safe, but think there should be other ways of doing it.
You state now that the "intensive" use sites are 300m X 6m, but in the application it states 5m x 3m.
We as snowmobilers have accessed these ridges for literally 3 decades or more, so you can see why we have a problem with a company coming in and stopping us from riding these areas just so they can make money. It is OUR crown land, is it not? We have been accessing these ridges for a lot longer then you have been building snowcat roads up there, snowmobiles can go places a snowcat can't go. The snowroads just made it that much easier!
You say that the restriction only includes 0.002% of your tenure. That is a very misleading statement as those restrictions keep us out of other areas, therefore the restriction would be much larger. We fear that this application is just the first of many to come, which will eventually lead to this area being completely banned from public snowmobiling. You obviously have a business plan, and I'm sure it includes future ventures such as snowmobile touring. In this case, public access will definitely be banned as your snowmobiles will be on all of the trails at any given time, creating a safety issue once again. Do you see where we are coming from?
You didn't mention what "temporarily restricting access" means? That is a very vague statement. Could mean anything from certain hours of the day to the entire time you run the snowcat business on the mountain, several months. And like skiiers, snowmobilers also like to access powder which isn't as common after March26th.
So, instead of restricting snowmobiles from these areas, why can't you place someone at each of these posts with radio contact with the cats. That would make the control of these dangerous spots much easier to control, and still allowing the general public access to their crown land.
Kevin