^^Good post Locke. I was at Indian Graves Saturday night. While the area I was at was pretty quiet, all the that went down was up the road. It's embarassing.
I have two Jeep's, a KJ and a ZJ, both stockers but they get me in and out and I had the KJ flexin' pretty good this weekend. I have no problem with OHV areas like Mclean and Waiporous but Indian Graves is different. It's crown land and a very sensitive area. Mclean and Waiporous can be managed and changes to policy will result from what has happened in all three areas in the past few years. It already has at Waiporous. I think if access remains as OHV areas, club membership should be manditory. Be it AURS, Calgary Jeep Association, whatever. If your not a club member and want to "camp" and party out of your Sunfire, areas near the entarnces can be set up and protected by the fish cops and RC's. Stricter enforcement is also required by those groups as well.
The area that most call Indian Graves is infact crown land and borders the Kananaskis boundry north of the hwy. It was PACKED south of the hwy this weekend. Way to many people for that area. Mostly quads and not that many trucks but a lot of damage was done. While I don't quad and 99 percent of people that do are responsible from what I have seen, but that 1 percent does do alot of damage. Same can be said for the campers.
This area is on public land meaning we have access for recreational activities. Because of what happend this weekend, I can forsee the government pushing the southern boundry further south preventing random camping and limiting access. A continuing erosion of public access rights by the Alberta government but this time we can only blame ourselves.
Will this help? I doubt it. You can't legislate stupidity. The area further west up the Hump and south of Hailstone Butte and down to forrestry trunk road would then be at risk of becoming the next party destination. That I do not want to see. It is one of the best areas for random camping and is very sensitive. An area that is well traveled by hunters, fisherman, campers, quaders and oil and gas companies who will not stand for what happened may long.
Those that would like to outright ban certain activities, take a look at the Calgary Jeep and AURS websites and see the work they do. These groups do a lot to manage, protect and unfortunatly clean trail systems and work closely with govenment branches such as SRD to help protect access rights as well as the environment.
Tread Lightly.
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