BC government finally attempts to do something about snowmobilers ignoring snowmobiling ban in the 21 Mile Creek watershed (Rainbow Mtn.) area

Article By Michael Feller

After years of agitating by the FMCBC Recreation and Conservation Committee and bringing to the government’s attention of the massive ignoring of the rules by snowmobilers through the documentation on Robin Tivy’s bivouac.com website, an attempt is finally being made by the BC government’s Recreation Sites and Trails BC to control snowmobiling in the 21 Mile Creek area near Whistler. This attempt involves making snowmobilers pay fees to access the Sproatt Mountain area this winter.

The government has appointed Canadian Wilderness Adventures, which has a snowmobile tenure on the Callaghan valley side of Sproatt Mtn., to collect fees of $20 per snowmobile. Recreation Sites and Trails B.C. will also place signage at the toll booth and kiosk. The kiosk to collect fees will be placed at the beginning of the 11.5 km trail that ends at Canadian Wilderness Adventures’ cabin. Trespassers in the area could be fined up to $1,000 and have their snowmobiles seized, according the province. The government believes that if this approach doesn’t work, then the entire area could be shut down to motorized vehicles, but the government would only consider closures if the fees and fines approach doesn’t solve the problem and if there is multi-agency support and available resources for such an approach, according to Alistair McCrone, Recreation Officer with Recreation Sites and Trails B.C.

As part of the agreement with Canadian Wilderness Adventures, some of the fee money will go towards trail maintenance and grooming. This winter, the government will also put fees in place for snowmobilers to access the trail at Roe Creek, which it says is a culturally sensitive First Nations area.

It is therefore critically important that every club member who visits the 21 Mile Creek watershed this snow season looks for evidence of snowmobile use within it. Any such evidence, particularly if supported by photos, should be reported to the FMCBC Recreation and Conservation Committee at fmc-rctb@interchange.ubc.ca

If you visit the 21 Mile Creek area, the FMCBC would also be grateful if you could fill out a short (1 minute) survey, found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MR2HSW8