This editorial was published in the Edmonton Journal a few days ago.... I usually don't agree with columnist Elise Stolte as I find her viewpoint too left-leaning. But in this case I completely agree with her assessment of the situation out in the Bighorn. Mostly it has become political.... Some politicians don't want to come across as going against the ATV riders, the hunters, the fisherman, and other users of the outdoors... so they blame the current government for a lack of communication and consultation. The reality is that this area needs to be protected and we need to put partisan politics aside. There is no significant change as it is just a matter of increasing the level of protection for an area that is already protected... as columnist Stolte points out...
Elise Stolte: Cut the rhetoric. Bighorn Country 'bomb' is a minor change to what's already protected
Protesters take part in a rally opposing the province's planned changes to Bighorn Country in Drayton Valley on Monday, Jan 7, 2019.
To hear Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon talk, Alberta’s Bighorn Country recreation plan is a twisted sales job about to send the provincial economy into a mud bog.
It’s a “Bighorn bomb” with “far reaching tentacles,” he said, preparing for an anti-park rally in Drayton Valley early this week.
Guyon argues the new land-use designation will create a new layer of red tape and freeze out new oil and gas investment. That it’s part of an American environmental conspiracy meant to shut down Alberta’s fossil fuel development in some of the richest areas of the province.
But seriously. This “bomb” isn’t much of an explosion at all.
Does anyone really think it took until 2018 for the province to realize it needs to protect the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River? No. Albertans and their successive governments aren’t stupid.
These subalpine slopes act like a sponge, soaking up rainwater and slowly releasing it for farms and cities throughout the summer. That land tucked up against Jasper National Park, covering 3,700 square kilometres, has been protected from industrial development by the Eastern Slopes Policy since 1984.
So stand down from the rhetoric. And you green types, forget popping the bubblies. Premier Rachel Notley can celebrate this as the next Kananaskis County if she wants, but all this really does for that key conservation area is add some campsites and change a long-standing Progressive Conservative policy to legislation.
Yawn.
Now the Bighorn proposal is a bit more complicated than that. Because, in addition to this large, subalpine wildland provincial park, the Alberta government is proposing to eventually restrict some off-road vehicle use in a much larger area reaching from the mountains to Drayton Valley. That’s where now tens of thousands of off-road vehicle users camp and play on a long weekend.
But that’s not creating a park. It won’t affect industry.
There is no new regulatory body for this land. No extra application for oil and gas drilling, forestry, coal or gravel mines. And when a small part of this area — a specific wetland or area with fragile soil — is eventually proposed as a no-go zone for off-road vehicles, that only means no public access. Industry still has every right to travel.
There are three actual provincial parks — land with real restrictions on development meant to give Albertans easy-to-access camping before they set out into the backcountry. But that’s a tiny fraction of the whole Bighorn Country proposal, 149 square kilometres.
The issue blew up again this week after the governing NDP cancelled four open houses on the plan. Minister Shannon Phillips said businesses supporting the plan and open houses experienced harassment and intimidation. They’re proposing more telephone town halls instead.
Phillips and Notley first proposed the park and land use changes in November. There’s an online survey to gauge the public interest open now until Feb. 15.
Plan supports local volunteers
This could have been communicated better. What came off as a new idea from an NDP government is actually the result of a multi-year stakeholder consultation for land use planning in the whole North Saskatchewan watershed.
It’s also a natural next step to support local conservation efforts. In each of the three major zones (the Bighorn Wildland Provincial Park, Kiska-Willson Public Land Use Zone and West Country Public Land Use Zone), the same volunteer groups creating rules and maintaining trails today are expected to continue.
According to the top bureaucrats involved, these groups are the ones who will suggest the best new off-road trails and any future restrictions in the west country. They’re hikers, off-road vehicle campers and hunters themselves, local volunteers who want to continue to enjoy the wilds without destroying them. The new land-use designation simply gives conservation officers the authority to ticket scofflaws after those new rules are created.
Without the designation, enforcement in the west country is tough. People destroying the backcountry actually have to be taken to court.
Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon speaks at a rally opposing the province’s planned changes to Bighorn Country in Drayton Valley on Monday, January 7, 2019.
‘Coax people to the table’
Back in Drayton Valley, Guyon is making some good points. He calls for a greater emphasis on collaboration, conservation programs that reward landowners who keep livestock and forestry back from the creek edges. “We need to coax people to the table, not drive them to the table,” he says.
Totally with you there, sir.
But it’s not either/or. We need to celebrate landowners who protect their creeks, recognize the many volunteers supporting intelligent recreation in the backcountry. We also need a legal framework so conservation officers can back up those volunteers, when necessary. We need in-stream monitoring to understand if any restrictions are necessary and effective.
If we cut the rhetoric from all sides and focus on facts, maybe we can do just that.
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