Off-highway Vehicle Action Plan Fails to Protect Wilderness
13 Oct 05
Halifax, NS - The Nova Scotia Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS NS) is sceptically optimistic about the Nova Scotia government's Off-highway Vehicle (OHV) Action Plan, released October 12th. The Action Plan represents a step towards better regulation of OHV use in the province, but misses the opportunity to resolve crucial, long-standing issues relating to irresponsible OHV use, especially where wilderness protection is concerned.
CPAWS is disappointed that the government's Plan fails to take a strong, decisive position on issues like OHV use in protected Wilderness Areas and sensitive ecosystems. Instead, the government has modified the content of 31 proactive, reasonable recommendations made by the Voluntary Planning Task Force on OHVs in November 2004, a balanced consultation process in which CPAWS participated.
"Upon reviewing the government's Action Plan, we noted troubling modifications to recommendations 34, 35 and 36, put forth by the Voluntary Planning OHV Task Force in November 2004," noted Alexander MacDonald, Outreach Coordinator for CPAWS NS. "The Task Force's recommendations proposed solutions to the real environmental problems of recreational OHV use in our Wilderness Areas and in sensitive ecosystems such as barrens, beaches, bogs and wetlands, and watercourses," he added.
The current Plan will amend existing legislation to permit OHV use in Wilderness Areas under some conditions that CPAWS believes to be part of the current OHV problem. For example, one condition would provide access to "pre-existing legal interest[s[," including leased campsites inside protected Wilderness Areas. Recreational OHV use in these areas compromises their integrity.
Similarly, action 35 of the Plan aims to reinforce and implement protection for some sensitive ecosystems by amending the OHV Act; however, the proposed amendments would allow periodic recreational OHV use in such ecosystems. Such OHV use is incompatible with the protection of sensitive ecosystems around our province.
The Plan's two actions relating to sensitive ecosystems will require "further detailed review, analysis and/or legislative changes" over the next 12 to 24 months, which also causes CPAWS some concern. "The government wishes to clearly define sensitive ecosystems in a comprehensive OHV Act, especially those protected by existing statutes," said Carolyn Hedley, President of CPAWS NS. "While this may allow better coordination on the issues between departments, decisive action to protect these areas was needed back in 2004," she continued.
In 2004, CPAWS NS and other conservation groups strongly opposed recreational OHV access to all protected areas and sensitive habitats in a series of submissions to the OHV Task Force. "The actions being undertaken by government do not address the long-standing problem of OHV-related impacts on the ecological integrity of our Wilderness Areas and sensitive habitats," Ms. Hedley observed.
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Contact Information:
Alexander MacDonald - Outreach Coordinator, CPAWS NS - 902-446-4155 (w)
Carolyn Hedley - President, CPAWS NS - 902-423-7709