Residents in the Ghost/Waiparous area have expressed their concerns upon learning about an event that was to take place at a designated Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) trail in the Ghost Public Land Use Zone May 16-18 — which has now been cancelled due to public backlash.
The OHV activities in the Ghost/Waiparous region have long been a contentious issue in the popular off-roading and camping area, where Fish and Wildlife and RCMP patrols increases during the spring beginnings of the recreational season.
Lori Haywood, whose family has resided in the pristine area since the 1940s, wrote a letter to Minister Fawcett urging him to ‘take a stance and send a strong message about stewardship expectations and cost-recovery that the off-road community needs to hear…’
Hugh Pepper, a 40-year area resident and former MD of Bighorn councillor, said that the entire recreational area ‘needs a break’ and is calling for a moratorium on all recreational and industrial (logging) activities.
“The risk to the environmental and the watershed is too high right now. It makes me sad when I see the degradation and the devastation occurring in the area,” said Pepper, adding that the blind eye the government has turned to the watershed that impacts everyone living downstream (Cochrane, Calgary and further south) is ‘astonishing’ — and all to accommodate a privately-owned company (Spray Lake Sawmills) and some 15,000 OHV trail users.
Pepper cautioned that poorly regulated logging activities, combined with increasing recreational use (with no facilities, such as bathrooms, in place) is putting the watershed in an alarmingly dangerous position.
According to promotions company president, Mike Stevenson, the whole thing was a big misunderstanding and the event has been labeled with an unfair, bad rap based on assumptions.
Stevenson, who was only willing to speak to his ‘hometown paper’ (the Eagle), said his team runs a legitimate, fully insured promotional company, promoting record labels, booking and managing DJs and off-road events.
He said that all of the pictures used for his propaganda for the event were wrongfully assumed to be pictures of off-road vehicles tearing up the water crossings in the Ghost-Waiparous region — when in fact, they were photos taken on private property near Stettler, Alta.
“They needed somebody to make an example of,” said Stevenson, adding that writing off the entire off-roading community only pushes off-roaders to use undesignated trails and cause destruction to the land.
He was adamant that his company had all their variables in line — including security and emergency medical services, as well as diligent clean-up and enforcement of the rules and regulations to comply with clean-up — when receiving their temporary field event permit application from Alberta Environmental and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD), but because of the backlash, he decided to pull the event.
He has since rescheduled the event to take place at a privately owned indoor facility 45 west of Cochrane. For off-roaders looking to attend the event, they can get in touch through [email protected].
According to Chara Goodings, AESRD spokesperson, it is highly recommended for any OHV trail users to consult with their local AESRD office to clarify any lingering questions on what constitutes an organized event.
Applications for organized events must be submitted a minimum of 30 days prior to a planned event; criteria would then be reviewed and either outright rejected or approved or sent back to the applicant with instructions to clarify or change some criteria for their proposed event.
Users of OHV trails are not permitted to cross water, except at designated crossings; they are permitted to bring in their own temporary structures to cross water — which must not leave any lingering evidence that they were ever there in the first place.
Haywood maintains that using derogatory language on social media platforms to promote the event and posting links to YouTube videos that promote illegal behaviours (driving through streams) sends a clear message that these individuals have no regard for the environment, including the watershed where several species have been identified as sensitive — including the cutthroat trout and bull trout populations.
