Hell Half Acre Debate

[kbrunlees]

Residents fight ATV park on wildlife habitat west of Edmonton - Edmonton - CBC News
TylerG has this up in facebook. So I am not taking credit for this. However, I feel this needs to be discussed along with the ongoing discussion of Designated Sled trails. If you read the comments, the vitrol directed to quadders is outright nasty. Only us as a group can we make this better. The Club mentioned, The Yellowhead Overlanders ATV club are trying to do something about it. So quit your bitching and join them and make a place to play. This is how it all starts.

 

[rzrgade]

I hope they stop it....That might be the worst place around Edmonton to give quads a nastier reputation than they all ready have...
Why would we want a riding area where no one wants it,surrounded by bird watchers and frequented by teens partying !!! This is not the right place for this.It is in the middle of an acreage subdivision !!!

The old addage "outa sight outa mind" would certainly be more desirable here......This could come back to bite us with a county wide ban & extra registration fee in the long run.
Recipe for disaster,all blamed on quadders....IMO

 

[TylerG]

I can go either way with this, if they turn into into an ATV park, and can regulate and police usage and such it could be a great thing. However if they leave it as is we're going to really be thrown to the wolves painted with a giant brush again. Closures are happening all over the province.

Here's a group proactively trying to come up with a solution, be it not in the most organized fashion and not with a lot of user backing (yet) but at least they are trying to do something. I personally could see a trail system thru Lac St Anne County over thru to this area of Parkland County. Making nice areas for families to go out for rides.

There again this is strictly my opinion on this matter.

 

[chop]

new to the area so i don't know enough about it . going to the yellowhead overlander's club meeting on the feb 12th to here more . it should be interesting in what they plain to do.

 

[rzrgade]

I hear what you are saying T, BUT if it fails the club will be held accountable even though they are trying there best !!! (Through no fault of their own).To concentrate that many mudding machines in a public policed area is a disaster waiting to happen...again IMO.

I thank and respect the clubs involvement,however my GUT tells me big mistake .........For ever guy out there with an HMF and snorkels there wil be a fish finder with a camera, count on it !!! Now if we DRIVE a little farther ,out of sight/earshot do we make ripples ? Go out to Rob,drayton, the biggery not many see you or care.....
All i am saying is be carefull what you wish for....Haha
I have a "friend" as a local councilor in a county close by, and believe me we have no idea how close we are to being SHUT DOWN....

 

[TylerG]

new to the area so i don't know enough about it . going to the yellowhead overlander's club meeting on the feb 12th to here more . it should be interesting in what they plain to do.

Chop can you post more info on the meeting? Location etc?

 

[TylerG]

I hear what you are saying T, BUT if it fails the club will be held accountable even though they are trying there best !!! (Through no fault of their own).To concentrate that many mudding machines in a public policed area is a disaster waiting to happen...again IMO.

I thank and respect the clubs involvement,however my GUT tells me big mistake .........For ever guy out there with an HMF and snorkels there wil be a fish finder with a camera, count on it !!! Now if we DRIVE a little farther ,out of sight/earshot do we make ripples ? Go out to Rob,drayton, the biggery not many see you or care.....
All i am saying is be carefull what you wish for....Haha
I have a "friend" as a local councilor in a county close by, and believe me we have no idea how close we are to being SHUT DOWN....

Oh I know how close we are to being shut down, in many areas of the province. I plan to join the Overlanders this year as well as the Lac Ste Anne ATV club, strength in registered numbers and see what we can do to keep areas like Stanger Hills open to ATV usage, and hopefully take over some new areas. If we don't do something POSITIVE as ATV/UTV users we're going to lose a lot!

I encourage everyone to join an ATV Club, its the only way we will ever be able to make headway & gain ground in this province.

 

[chop]

I e-mailed them several time and they finally got back to me with an invite to there meeting . Feb. 12, 2013 at Rosenthal Hall at 7 P.M.

 

[Summiteer]

"In 1991, the land was set aside under the Buck for Wildlife program where money from fishing and hunting licences was used to repair, enhance and manage important wildlife habitats.
The County agreed that for 30 years it would not “undertake, cause, permit, or allow the commencement or carrying out of any clearing, breaking, plowing, drainage, grazing, haying, or other activities or operations of any kind which would reduce or destroy the existing woodland or wetland habitat on the ‘habitat lands."

This quote from the news article makes me wonder why anyone would think that this would be a good area in which to concentrate ATV traffic. Heavy ATV traffic is not exactly conducive to "Enhancing important wildlife habitat".

 

[rzrgade]

I agree totally . As always a few guys wreck if for the rest.
I think all the people need to work together to keep areas open as well....
Funny thing is ,even the tone of a lot of sledders on here with the anti quad bs is overwhelming sometimes, let alone the vast amount of the public.....

 

[TylerG]

"In 1991, the land was set aside under the Buck for Wildlife program where money from fishing and hunting licences was used to repair, enhance and manage important wildlife habitats.
The County agreed that for 30 years it would not “undertake, cause, permit, or allow the commencement or carrying out of any clearing, breaking, plowing, drainage, grazing, haying, or other activities or operations of any kind which would reduce or destroy the existing woodland or wetland habitat on the ‘habitat lands."

This quote from the news article makes me wonder why anyone would think that this would be a good area in which to concentrate ATV traffic. Heavy ATV traffic is not exactly conducive to "Enhancing important wildlife habitat".

The heavy atv traffic is already there and its completely unruly, this group is trying to come up with a plan to get it more controlled and put in proper trails, and try to somewhat revitalize the area. There are so many entrances to this area right now there is no possible way of policing it, if a group can go in put in steel & cement barriers and take it down to 1 in/out it would make the policing easier.

The vandalism, littering, and disrespect that goes on out there right now is disgusting. So I do understand where the residents are coming from.

 

[magnet]

I see you noted stanger area as well in your post up farther. Another bad area. Got friends that live close them and the neighbours starting to get cranked up as well cut fences gates left open torn up pasture garbage dumped in back yard. We even have a picture of a lifted 4x4 on the trail cam that is 1/2 mile from the house in a completely fenced and locked pasture One real big azzhat i think he does it just to spook deer etc cause you only hear him during hunting season but all he does al say is rode up and down the fence line on the trail. And it is freekin loud can hear him at the house 1 mile away Etc the list goes on
It wouldn't be a problem if qauders, yes I said qauders but should probly include bikers, as they have never had sleds crossing fences or opening gates in the area. But if everybody would just ride the trail respectfully there would be no issue
It wouldn't be bad if everybody stayed on the trails but because of a few azz holes we all pay.

 

[TylerG]

I e-mailed them several time and they finally got back to me with an invite to there meeting . Feb. 12, 2013 at Rosenthal Hall at 7 P.M.

Thank you Chop. I'll be there

 

[TylerG]

I see you noted stanger area as well in your post up farther. Another bad area. Got friends that live close them and the neighbours starting to get cranked up as well cut fences gates left open torn up pasture garbage dumped in back yard. We even have a picture of a lifted 4x4 on the trail cam that is 1/2 mile from the house in a completely fenced and locked pasture One real big azzhat i think he does it just to spook deer etc cause you only hear him during hunting season but all he does al say is rode up and down the fence line on the trail. And it is freekin loud can hear him at the house 1 mile away Etc the list goes on
It wouldn't be a problem if qauders, yes I said qauders but should probly include bikers, as they have never had sleds crossing fences or opening gates in the area. But if everybody would just ride the trail respectfully there would be no issue
It wouldn't be bad if everybody stayed on the trails but because of a few azz holes we all pay.

Lac Ste Anne atv club is working to fix issues & complaints such as these. Its a tough battle though unfortunately and it WILL get all OHV usages in areas shut down, and YES this WILL include snowmobiles.

 

[kbrunlees]

Judging from some of the reaction to the "Quads on the AB Sled only trails" thread, I suspect we are doomed. I didn't realize that stanger Hills was having issues as well. Unfortunately there are twits everywhere with this incredible sense of entitlement.

 

[Summiteer]

I agree totally . As always a few guys wreck if for the rest.
I think all the people need to work together to keep areas open as well....
Funny thing is ,even the tone of a lot of sledders on here with the anti quad bs is overwhelming sometimes, let alone the vast amount of the public.....

I see the damage done to the sled trails by the ATVs in the summer and I've seen zero effort from the ATV community to repair any of it . Once, 2 years ago, some of the folks from the quad club came out trail cleaning for a weekend, that was awesome. As far as I know that's it, if not, I apologize. They ride them in the summer, often if they encounter a tree, they cut it wide enough to get through, leaving the rest for the sled club members to clean up in the fall. The people that burned down the summit cabin sure didn't walk in there and I'd guess they had no expectation of using the cabin in the winter.... leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[TylerG]

I see the damage done to the sled trails by the ATVs in the summer and I've seen zero effort from the ATV community to repair any of it . Once, 2 years ago, some of the folks from the quad club came out trail cleaning for a weekend, that was awesome. As far as I know that's it, if not, I apologize. They ride them in the summer, often if they encounter a tree, they cut it wide enough to get through, leaving the rest for the sled club members to clean up in the fall. The people that burned down the summit cabin sure didn't walk in there and I'd guess they had no expectation of using the cabin in the winter.... leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

I fully understand what you are saying Mitch, and I think you bring forward another great point in that all OHV users need to start helping the other groups out. I guess with the Alberta Beach Club we are fortunate in that we do work quite closely with the ATV club to better our common trails and the ATV club for the most part understands that they have to stay off the trails. Of course there will always be people out there that will wreck everything we try to accomplish. There are bad apples in every sport, activity or adventure out there and unfortunately they never get what is coming to them. The Whitecourt cabin is a great example of this, and I'm sure it's not the only and won't be the last. We all need to start "self policing" and speaking up when we see people doing stupid chit that could very easily get our recreation areas shut down on us.

Something needs to be done, as of right now I can get on my sled or quad in my driveway and head out for a ride in the county so long as I follow the guidelines set out in the OHV policy. However I fear that this privilege is very soon going to no longer be there. Yes folks I said it's a privilege not a right because the laws can and do change and then it's gone. Let's use our heads out there.

//end rant

 

[Bogger]

I live there... I sled, quad, etc...

My observations are... the area was awesome for quadding when I first bought my place. I invited people to stage at my place and ride, thats how I first met Ron, Murray, Lyle, Mike #'s ...SledderDoc lived on the other side and we met in the middle. after the area became "well known" it was quickly overused and all of a sudden my stock quads were no longer usefull in the area. Some guys have had trucks back there yes, but they have been few and far between and one truck does not do nearly the damage of packs of ATV's lifted with 30" rubber. This is why when guys come on here and spout off about how jeeps and trucks are ruining the riding areas I scoff at them, I've seen much more traffic and destruction from the quads & SxS's.

I have not ridden the area in 3 years on a quad, Marty & I rode back there over christmas on our sleds and even frozen with a good snow cover some areas are tough sleddin. I've since retired the quads and bought a boat, the area is not big enough nor maintained to accomodate 250 atv's daily.

All that said I would support it being used and maintained by an ATV club, obviously the individuals involved in the club could not possibly control all users, however some control is better than none. I personally don't really understand why this new club is proposing to take it over rather than joining up with the current AB Beach ATV club which already lacks volunteer support.

Not all of us locals oppose this area open to ATV's, infact I would guess that 80 of the 188 lots in my subdivision own ATV's and would support a "stuctured" user system but unfortunately as in most cases we are our own worst enemies, "I'm not the problem. he is..." etc..

Life aint fair, if it were the gas tax paid on fuel in our sleds and ATV's as well as our registration fees would go to support OHV areas & trails instead of the paved roadways we are not allowed to access..

Fawk it, until it's sorted out my fleet of quads can rot and I'll spend my summers on the lake...

 

[Summiteer]

I live there... I sled, quad, etc...

My observations are... the area was awesome for quadding when I first bought my place. I invited people to stage at my place and ride, thats how I first met Ron, Murray, Lyle, Mike #'s ...SledderDoc lived on the other side and we met in the middle. after the area became "well known" it was quickly overused and all of a sudden my stock quads were no longer usefull in the area. Some guys have had trucks back there yes, but they have been few and far between and one truck does not do nearly the damage of packs of ATV's lifted with 30" rubber. This is why when guys come on here and spout off about how jeeps and trucks are ruining the riding areas I scoff at them, I've seen much more traffic and destruction from the quads & SxS's.

I have not ridden the area in 3 years on a quad, Marty & I rode back there over christmas on our sleds and even frozen with a good snow cover some areas are tough sleddin. I've since retired the quads and bought a boat, the area is not big enough nor maintained to accomodate 250 atv's daily.

All that said I would support it being used and maintained by an ATV club, obviously the individuals involved in the club could not possibly control all users, however some control is better than none. I personally don't really understand why this new club is proposing to take it over rather than joining up with the current AB Beach ATV club which already lacks volunteer support.

Not all of us locals oppose this area open to ATV's, infact I would guess that 80 of the 188 lots in my subdivision own ATV's and would support a "stuctured" user system but unfortunately as in most cases we are our own worst enemies, "I'm not the problem. he is..." etc..

Life aint fair, if it were the gas tax paid on fuel in our sleds and ATV's as well as our registration fees would go to support OHV areas & trails instead of the paved roadways we are not allowed to access..

Fawk it, until it's sorted out my fleet of quads can rot and I'll spend my summers on the lake...

Same here, pretty much the only time I use my quad now is for trail cleaning. The problem is as much the pressure from the sheer number of machines out there as it is abuse.

 

[rotaxrider]

The way the area is treated now , I could see it being closed down, I've been riding the area for 18 years with quads, ski doos and the odd time a truck, atvs have by far done the most damage , in my opinion don't care is it gets closed cause its such a small area, maybe I can enjoy my hot tub with out listening to atvs at all hours, find someone else's subdivision to wreck