Quad Riders Association of British Columbia

As stewards of the Fort Shepherd conservancy, the Trail Wildlife Association is well aware that they, and the community, are being entrusted with a generous amount of leeway from the land’s environmentally oriented owners.

Teck donated the rugged 2,200-acre site to the Land Conservancy in 2006. The land stretches south from Trail along the west side of the Columbia River.

“Normally, they don’t allow motorized access and normally they don’t allow hunting,” said association chair Rick Fillmore.

The local group of avid hunters and outdoorsmen has a contract to manage the property. It got special permission to allow access, as long as off-road vehicles stay on the main trail, and the environment and wildlife are not put unduly at risk.

They are keen to keep it accessible, but that privilege may be on the verge of slipping away, Fillmore said, due to disrespectful use by unidentified dirt bikers and a recent bout of expensive vandalism.

The group spent $16,000 this spring installing fencing and signage to mark the main trail that riders are permitted to use and the areas that they are not, but dirt-bike tracks have been cropping up where they shouldn’t. Last week a TWA member witnessed eight riders tearing it up in a restricted area.

The large sign marking the conservancy entrance was torn nearly off its frame and damaged. At four-by-eight feet and embedded in concrete and timber, the vandalism is expensive and clearly deliberate, Fillmore suggests.

“It looks like they had a crowbar or hammer, or something like that,” he said, noting the structure is worth between $4,000 to $5,000.

Smaller signs were knocked down over the summer, and the off-road use degrades banks, which in turn threatens trees and important wildlife habitat, and spreads invasive weeds.

With a landowner whose mandate is to preserve the land in perpetuity, Fillmore knows the consequences of the disrespectful use, even if by a minority of users, could be huge.

“The easiest thing to do would be just to say, ‘Stay out altogether,’” he noted. “But we want access. I’d like it to be accessible to everybody. That’s what we’re worried about. Even though we manage the land, they’re the owners.”

The damage will have to be reported to the conservancy liaison in Nelson, and will be a priority for discussion at the next stewardship council meeting in January.

But Fillmore and his group are determined to ensure access. He indicated that education efforts have led to a decrease in illegal dumping this year – a long-standing issue – and the association has had no trouble with snowmobilers. They also have a good relationship with the local ATV club.

He’ll be recommending charging anyone caught misusing the property with trespassing and fining them for property damages.

But first he’ll have to catch them.

As a private property, the province offers no enforcement, and the area will not fall under the new regulatory regime that will make off-road vehicles obtain licences and registration to use provincial lands. The riders and their vehicles are fast and essentially anonymous.

So enforcement “is gonna be hard and those guys know it,” said Fillmore. “But if we have to do it . . . we’ll do it. There’s a few ‘pinch’ points” where riders have to park their cars to unload.

“We are responsible for them.”

The Fort Shepherd Conservancy closes to the public from Dec. 1 to March 1, for deer and elk wintering season.

http://www.trailtimes.ca/article/20091118/TRAIL0101/311189998/-1/TRAIL/m...