No more chainsaws
Three Island politicians got a taste of things to come this week when they responded to an urgent call from a group of residents in the Richmond/Miscouche area.
The residents were concerned that serious road building was taking place on the weekend in their own backyards. In what had previously been a pristine watershed area, the Evangeline ATV Club was using heavy equipment to tear through the forest and construct a new clay road to join the Allen Road to the Nebraska Road.
The road is part of the ATV Federation’s strategy to establish a 350-kilometre network of ATV trails that would stretch from tip to tip on the Island.
The Evangeline ATV Club has been emboldened by support from new Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy Minister Steven Myers, who promised in a CBC P.E.I. interview several weeks ago to bring forward legislation this fall to give ATVs permission to cross the non-motorized Confederation Trail and gain access to a number of provincially-owned clay roads. The Nebraska Road is one of these clay roads. Myers and Tourism Minister Matthew McKay have met with groups opposed to this expansion, but government plans to change the legislation remain in place.
Walking on this new road this week with washouts at every stream crossing and ditches swimming in mud, Environment Minister Brad Trivers, Opposition Leader Peter BevanBaker and Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly listened carefully as incensed residents asked how this could happen without their knowledge or consent. It turns out that the Department of Environment had recently issued permits to the Evangeline ATV Club to build the trail, but conditions relating to the size of the trail, signed permissions with all affected land owners, and the need for new bridges to span the streams had been ignored in a rush to “Get ’er done!”
As a result of the inspections carried out by Department of Environment staff, work on this new trail has been temporarily stopped.
According to media reports, the Evangeline ATV Club has been fined and the club’s president has been issued a summary offence ticket.
The Department of Environment will now oversee remediation work which will include removal of three culverts and replacement with suitable bridges. The remediation work needs to be completed by Sept. 15.
In the meantime, a petition opposing the new ATV trail system is being circulated by residents of the Richmond/ Miscouche area.
Peter Mellish, president of the ATV Federation, admits that mistakes were made, and lessons were learned in this rush to complete work while there is political support for the project.
One must ask if this is an isolated incident, or a sign of things to come as the current government caters to a small group of ATV enthusiasts. This group may have a different agenda than the majority of Islanders who are cautious about off-road vehicles getting more access to the Confederation Trail and other public lands and roadways.