With a letter to the provincial government, Sicamous council is looking to prevent the proposed deactivation of the Owlhead logging road.
At the April 24 Committee of the Whole meeting, Coun. Gord Bushell explained the situation with the road, which would significantly impact the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club that uses it to access the cabin and other sled trails.
“They’re talking about deactivating some of our snowmobile trails, which is a little bit of a problem. We rely on the snowmobile trails for winter economic development for our community,” said Bushell, asking the district send a letter to Environment Minister Jim Standen, whom he spoke with about recreation concerns at last year’s Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting.
Council agreed the deactivation would have a big impact not only on the club, but also the community as a whole.
“I want to amplify what Gord said, that this is critically important to our community… we talked about trying to broaden out our appeal from the summer – well this is definitely one of the areas that I think the community is building on,” Coun. Ian Baillie said. “This is a much bigger issue… it affects the entire economic construct of what is Sicamous in the winter.”
In addition to the road deactivation, Bushell outlined a few other concerns to be included in the letter, including the snowmobile club’s management agreements with the province. He explained club has signed these agreements annually for last 50-60 years. Last year, however, the government told them they don’t have registered snowmobile trails and now wants the club to do the environmental studies and other requirements which “takes years to do.”
Bushell said Standen would look into the matter but the club hasn’t heard anything from him.
Another situation Bushell mentioned was the Shuswap Backcountry Riders quad club’s Section 57 application, which is required to construct or maintain a recreation trail.
“We were told we were going to get a small trail approved… and again, that has been pushed back,” he explained.
His final point was the delay in getting permission to start on the Owlhead Bike Park, which the district was supposed to get from Standen last fall.
At council’s direction, staff will write a letter of support regarding the concerns about the Owlhead logging road deactivation, the delay to the Owlhead Bike Park, the quad club’s Section 57 application and the snowmobile club’s management agreements.
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