The threat of losing most off-highway vehicle (OHV) access to Grizzly Wildland Park certainly got a lot of people interested in the public involvement process. At an information meeting last week, Parks officials received a 1,200-signature petition protesting the proposed restriction of OHV access in the new park to a couple of trails. They also peppered Parks District Manager Ken Zurfluh with objections, opinions and questions about the draft management plan for the park.
“We’ve definitely heard from the OHV community that they want unrestricted use,” Zurfluh told The Leader. “I think it’s probably back to the drawing board to see what trails were heavily used prior to the establishment of the park.”
That’s good news to the regular users of the park, most of whom get there by means of off-highway vehicles.
“I think we got a lot of good points across,” says Norm Block – one of the organizers of a recently formed OHV club. “We will be included in the planning committee from now on.” Whatever that planning committee comes up with, it will have to be a compromise between the various users and values of the area. OHV users obviously represent the strongest local interest, but there are conservation issues under the Parks Act to consider.
The province is bound to take them into account.
“It’s a balancing act,” says Zurfluh.
What the OHV club proposes is to work with the Parks department over a five-year period to monitor activity and its impact in the park. Block says they are willing also to talk about bridging and trail re-routing around sensitive areas. In return, the club hopes to have much greater freedom of access.
But as Block points out, even allowing OHV travel on 50 or 75 trails won’t solve all the problems. Hunting is allowed in the park, and hunters can’t be expected to stay on the trail if they need to haul a moose out.

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