[troutman]

The "bad apples" may have gone too far, and there may be no turning back:

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...3-8720ad2d5575

Long-weekend partying is getting out of control and an opposition politician is calling for tougher enforcement before the rowdiness scares off campers and park users.

RCMP officers, municipal special constables, conservation officers and provincial sheriffs watching over three popular destinations wrote a total of 433 traffic tickets and recorded 150 liquor violations during the Victoria Day weekend.

The Calgary Jeep Association tried its hand at education with Indian Graves users on Friday, handing out information on responsible off-roading and garbage bags with Sustainable Resource Development officers.

Yet the 12 truckloads of garbage hauled out of Indian Graves is a fraction of what Sustainable Resource Development workers still have to pick up at the site, a department official said, adding: "It's disappointing."

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...d-4c14e9684ddd

In the meantime, riding quads is one of the fastest-growing recreational activities in Alberta. And until recently, riders enjoyed a vast wilderness in the Ghost-Waiparous forest northwest of Cochrane.

Too many abuses on that swath of Crown land, however, prompted the provincial government to introduce an access management plan that designated a set of trails and closed the rest to the public.

That closure has pushed people south to McLean Creek and Indian Graves.

After his helicopter tour Saturday, Morton said it might be time to consider a similar access plan for Indian Graves. McLean Creek has trail restrictions, but they haven't been strictly enforced.

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/...01153-sun.html


"When it was a couple of dozen people using the area and riding their off-road vehicles, it was one thing," he said yesterday. "But now, it's come to the point where ... it's a couple of thousand people camping, using off-road vehicles in these small valleys, with no camping facilities, no toilet facilities, no fire facilities and a fair amount of irresponsible behaviour and a lot of environmental damage being done.

"We have reached a breaking point."

Can it be that only "1%" of the people are causing the problems? I don't think so. What % are driving machines through creeks and streams? Because every one that does so is violating the Fisheries Act.