Government Boosts Fines for illegal fires, ATV riding,etc

[Reynolds]

Read this in the journal this morning. I'm not familiar with the present restrictions and fines in these areas. FYI

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[honda450]

Holy smokes I did not realize there were so many laws, Some perhaps I have to take into account. What if you are speeding on a horse within 10 meters of a body of water?

[Grizzly Adams]

None of these mean anything, if there is nobody around to enforce them. We really need some bodies on the ground and I don't think that's on the government's agenda.
Grizz

[honda450]

Grizz alot of them G-men down south.

[grandzillaa]

They should up that fine for improper disposal of waste, but as was mentioned the laws must be inforced or it meaningless.

Oh the reason I want to see that one inforced is because each year near Brazue Dam there are a number of campers(out side of the campground) that leave many garbage bags laying around. Came across that 5 times after the Canada weekend. A mountain of garbage per spot. They are ATV users that is why they do not stay in the campground.

[> Re: Government Boosts Fines for illegal fires, ATV]

I hope there is sufficient enforcement and that this is not a case of too little too late. I fear it may be.

[Tucumseh]

Typical government. They should have imposed all these restrictions and fines years ago. Perhaps today we would still have half decent ATV trails to use in the Waiperous/Ghost area and 80% wouldn't be shut down. Talk about doing things backwards but then again thats our government for ya.

[Cordur]

Personally I think it's nice that cattle get to wander through recreation areas. Actually everytime I see a cow wandering through the woods in the middle of no-where I can only think of it feeding some predators instead of a nice trophy elk.

The thing that really bothers me about ATV users is when they use a small stream to "clean" the mud off of there machine before loading it up to go home. I'm sure you guys know what I mean, when you see them passing back and forth through a stream 6 or 7 times to get the mud off. Guess they don't know what a car wash is >:

[gunner 83]

Typical government. They should have imposed all these restrictions and fines years ago. Perhaps today we would still have half decent ATV trails to use in the Waiperous/Ghost area and 80% wouldn't be shut down. Talk about doing things backwards but then again thats our government for ya.

or how about some accountability by the users? the place wouldn't be shut down if the people using it didn't destroy the place

[Tucumseh]

I agree gunner but it takes a long time for some people to grow up.

[bobcatguy1]

Rule #3 says that you must be more than 1 k of the road if you are going to have a fire. Am I reading this right? Do they consider roads to be regularly maintainsed hwys? can we still go down a lease road & camp & have a fire by some creek & let the kids play?$ 500 fine now ? I didn't even know it was illegal.

[Duffy4]

Bob catguy
#3 when it says "Forest Recreation Area" it is talking about one of the camping type areas that are designated as "FOREST RECREATION AREA" and signed as such, like "South Ghost Recreation Area" or "Jackfish Lake Recreation Area".

You cannot have a fire outside a "designated facility" (fire pit or fire ring)in a Forest recreation area, or within 1km of a forest rec area. Then they put "or road" and I can only think that they mean a road in a forest rec area or something like that.

Doesn't make much sence otherwise.

Tuc
I thought awhile back you were complaining that the Gov't was making too many regulations and should stop. Now you are saying they should have upped these fines a long time ago??

Have a good one all, it looks like spring is winning the battle with winter today in Rocky.

Robin

[RollnBurn]

While i agree that something does need to be done to help protect our forest reserve rec areas my opinion is that this may not be the best way to do it. Many people i speak with at; Waiparous, hunter valley, ghost, burnt timber, indian graves, oldman, dutch creek, areas are very ill informed of the rules and laws governing these areas. I would prefer to see some funds diverted from developing and revising rules such as these and instead be used to help raise public awareness and especially user awareness of the issues. I have stopped young people from riding in the rivers many times and after explaining that it can destroy fish habitat and cause siltation of spawning redds i usually learn the user is an avid fisherman who definately doesn't want to harm the fisheries they use. In a case such as this my opinion is that an ounce of prevention/foresight (instilling user awareness) is worth a pound of cure (fines and more bloody rules).

I know there will always be those who abuse the situation and no amount of information will change that, but i also know many good people who volunteer to help clean and maintain these areas as well. Hopefully the good can outpace the bad, we all need to do our part to help keep these areas clean and useable.

I am curious as to the reasoning behind such a low fine for leaving waste behind when littering on a public highway can be up to 2000$ if i remember correctly?

I would personally rather pay money up front as user fees or donations to be able to keep responsibally using the land rather than have it taken away or so tightly controlled as to be unenjoyable using it.


Rolln