Dealing with the damage
Melvern Square farmer says wheat crop chewed up by snowmobilers
An Annapolis Valley farmer says a chunk of one of his crops was recently damaged when snowmobilers tore through 10 fields that were only lightly covered in snow.
William Spurr, of Spurr Brothers Farms in Melvern Square, said he wants riders to know that farming isn’t only a summer activity.
He said when a layer of snow started to melt off he saw track marks where one or more snowmobiles had gone through a field of winter wheat and chewed up both the soft ground and the crop in several areas.
The snow was not deep on the field.
“With the ground not being frozen I don’t know if it killed the wheat but, if it did, that whole track is going to be
nothing but weeds,” Spurr said.
“That makes (the field) harder to manage, for sure.”
Winter wheat is a crop that is planted in late fall and overwinters before growing in the spring.
Spurr posted the damage on the farm’s Facebook page, saying snowmobiling is a great winter sport but asking people to stick to the trails.
He asked followers to “please share and help us bring awareness, as we know education will hopefully help people understand and be part of the solution.”
The old rail line that runs through the Annapolis Valley runs alongside Spurr’s fields. He said there were tracks in several of them.
He posted about the damage on his Facebook page to try to educate snowmobilers that they need to stay on groomed trails and understand that farms can still have crops in the winter.
“Most of the time when people are on it and the ground is frozen it's not too bad, but when it isn’t frozen, it causes a lot more damage.”
Wild blueberry growers always have a bit of trouble each year, as well, he said.
Snowmobile clubs have posted on social media about the incident, asking members to stay off and educate other riders, Spurr said.
There have been issues in the past, and “I just wanted to make more people aware of it. Even one of my friends had no idea it can tear up a crop whenever you drive over it,” said Spurr.
A representative for the local snowmobile club couldn’t be reached, but the group shared Spurr’s post on its Facebook page.
It had also shared a post earlier in the month about damage to another field that happened before snowmobile trails were open, saying the disregard for the trail opening date and disrespect for crop land could potentially shut down large sections of the trail system that is allowed to be open along agricultural land.