Clearwater Trails Initiative (CTI)
Rig Street Pilot Project Description
Feb 04 2015
General Project Overview:
The Clearwater Trails initiative (CTI) has brought together industry, municipal and local
provincial government people as well as local citizens and user groups to address
issues arising from large numbers of random campers and recreational motorized
vehicle use in the West Country. The focus area will be east of the Trunk Road where
Public Land Use Zones are not designated and management plans are not in place. Our
initial efforts will be a pilot project in the Rig Street area. CTI has been registered as a
synergy group under Synergy Alberta.
Industry has been taxed with expensive repairs to maintain compliance on their
dispositions when overuse by motorized vehicles, particularly in wet and steep areas,
damages ROW’s. There are also the risks and liabilities associated with public camping
on or near facility sites.
Random camping and trail riding is a culture in Alberta and is not likely to be regulated
to any great degree in the foreseeable future. Presently the liability for users on industry
dispositions lies with the disposition holder. The CTI group feels that there is opportunity
to softly manage recreational use through education and the provision of safe, suitable
random campsites connected to trails designed to reduce impacts on sensitive
environmental areas and industry dispositions. This could involve something as simple
as designating the safe side of a Right of Way (RoW) as the trail and keeping users off
the pipe to bridging sensitive areas to new trail construction around sensitive areas or
facilities. Industry could also participate by identifying abandoned or shut in sites as
suitable camping areas while higher risk ones are identified as unsuitable.
Clearwater County has an ongoing educational initiative that has branded respectful use
of the West Country with the Sasquatch as a mascot. CTI has been experimenting with
campsite and trail signage that features the Sasquatch directing people to the suitable
sites and trails and away from unsuitable ones. While sample size is still small initial
results are encouraging and we think we are on to something to reduce risk, liability and
even expenses to industry in a way that the average user will respect.
The CTI group includes members from Bighorn Heritage ATV Society, Alberta
Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD), Alberta Energy
Regulator (AER), Clearwater County, Sundre Forest Products, Husky, Keyera, Shell, Apache as well as local citizens. Members are currently providing financial as well as inkind
support to the project.
The CTI Groups has identified the Rig Street area of the Clearwater Forest in central
Alberta region of the province.
Complete document here->
http://docs.clearwatercounty.ca/ckfi...%202015(1).pdf
April 2015 coverage in Alberta Outdoorsmen magazine
Trail Map