[RussFEST]

Kinda misleading with the title.. but its written by a paper looking for headlines. All it is about, is continuing to allow recreational users into ares that they have been allowed into for years.

http://www.vancouversun.com/roaders+want+roll+into+Island+parks/2696463/story.html


The link to the story below is above
(hope I did this right, lol)
Theres a comments section...



Off-roaders want to roll into Island parks


BY BILL CLEVERLEY, TIMES COLONISTMARCH 18, 2010 8:26 AMCOMMENTS (60)


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Island all-terrain vehicle owners want access to backcountry trails and land but there is concern about environmental impact.
Photograph by: Debra Brash, Times Colonist
In what would be a reversal of policy, the Capital Regional District parks committee is talking about allowing recreational off-road vehicles into some wilderness park areas.

The committee has asked for investigation of the idea after hearing from representatives of off-road vehicle groups, who said that as former logging properties are sold and converted into parks, they have fewer places to go.

The topic came up amid discussion of a proposed management plan for Ayum Creek, Kapoor, Sea to Sea and Sooke Potholes regional parks. Following existing CRD policy, the plan calls for a ban on use of motorized vehicles in wilderness areas.

Several committee members said the CRD should try to accommodate recreation and preservation. "Christians were fed to the lions by a majority vote. That doesn't make it right," said Metchosin Mayor John Ranns. "So I don't think it's particularly right that we continually ignore the fact that motorized users are being squeezed right out."

Terrance Martin, who wants to turn the outback near Sooke into a destination for off-roaders, asked the committee to consider opening the Harbourview Road gate in Sooke for access to logging roads that were used by off-roaders for years -- before the CRD bought the property.

Dan McLaren of the Victoria Motorcycle Club, which leases about 1,000 hectares of Crown land near China Beach for recreational use, asked the CRD to work with off-roaders to resolve the issue of displaced users. He said the property is the last place off-roaders can go without trespassing.

Committee chairman Christopher Causton said he has met with the user groups and believes the solution lies not in CRD parks but on forest land. "The solution to this problem is actually in the hands of the forest companies and the province. ... We don't have any money to buy more land for this."

Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said allowing off-road vehicles in a wilderness park is a bad idea. "They're generally regarded as a destructive element," said Wu.

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© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

 

[lars]

Thanks for that post.

...lars

 

[Wil]

It's a fight to get Harbourview lands open. The Greenie LYING BASTARDS (otherwise known as The Land Conservancy) took BC Government money/private donations and Federal Govt money and bought Harbourview and turned it over to the CRD to make it a park, CRD policy is that no motorized vehicles are allowed in their parks. For those that don't know this is an area that has been logged multiple times and they have the nerve to say 4x4s and other off road users are a destructive force? CRD does not have to buy more land to accommodate off roaders, they just have to open up Harbourview which is not the pristine wilderness they continue to attempt to make it out to be.

Well thanks to Terrance Martin and others on Vancouver Island they have used the system to fight for access and possibly make a change in CRD policy.

We have to realize that 4x4's and others involved in the motorized off road lifestyle bring a LOT of money to local economies and they cannot shut us out any longer. Governments both Provincial and Municipal cannot avoid this, they are losing too much money. As an example I use to travel from Vancouver to Sooke at least 6 times a year, since the closure of 4x4ing in the Sooke area I have not been there in the last 7 yrs. The gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants of Sooke got nothing from me because of the policy of land closures in Sooke.

Btw : Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance :finger_1:

 

[xj_ridin_dirty]

I didnt read link/artical...but i did here from a buddy, who jus drove to Sooke to buy a dirtbike, he said they are opening a new offroad park there??....I remember a few years back they used to have a comp there in May, if im not mistaken....

 

[POWERWAGON]

ah yes....the IRC was good times....