{"id":61864,"date":"2021-05-31T10:18:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T16:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=61864"},"modified":"2021-05-31T10:18:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T16:18:49","slug":"new-bill-is-a-start-to-educating-careless-users-of-public-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2021\/05\/31\/new-bill-is-a-start-to-educating-careless-users-of-public-land\/","title":{"rendered":"New bill is a start to educating careless users of public land"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Without Care or Concern:<\/strong> A concrete berm is graffitied, with spray paint cans left on the ground in the Ghost Public Land Use Zone, Alta. on Saturday, May 15, 2021. The provincial government intends to put new user fees being introduced for the area toward better environmental and waste management, and also to educate careless users of public land. (Photo by Jessica Lee\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he irresponsible use of Crown lands in Alberta is forcing the province to discuss conservation, and pushing forward a new public land use bill.<\/p>\n

I<\/span>f passed by the provincial government, Bill 64 will mandate fees for random camping in Crown lands along the eastern slopes of the Rockies beginning June 1. The fees will be $20 per person for a three-day pass and $30 per person for an annual pass.<\/p>\n

The new bill also includes fees for access to Kananaskis Country, where visitors will need to pay $15 per day to access the area or purchase an annual vehicle pass for $90. Low-income earners and First Nations people are exempt from all new costs.<\/p>\n

Those familiar with some of Alberta\u2019s Crown lands say that this is a good start toward educating the users who abuse it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen forest fires ignited by careless camping. I have seen very dangerous use of firearms in places that, while they were being used, weren’t safe for other people that might be using the landscape as well. I’ve seen poaching. I’ve seen the use of vehicles on trails and in waterways that is highly destructive. I have seen lawless behaviour that comes under civil and criminal law,\u201d said Dene Cooper, reeve of the Municipal District of Bighorn.<\/p>\n

The MD of Bighorn includes the Ghost Public Land Use Zone west of Calgary, but like other Crown lands within the province, it\u2019s expansive and difficult for officials to monitor and educate all its users.<\/p>\n

About 60 per cent of the province is made up of public lands which see a large number of people each year hiking, riding Off-Highway Vehicles, and camping for free within its boundaries. These environmental impacts have gone mostly unaddressed and under-monitored due to a lack of funding.<\/p>\n

“We support the philosophy of the deal,\u201d said Cooper. \u201cIn the sense that Alberta must update its understanding of lands and land use, because we will only have in the future what we learn to protect today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The provincial government intends to use the money collected from passes to upgrade infrastructure, improve education, fund conservation officers, enhance public safety and improve environmental and waste management.<\/p>\n

While more enforcement is evidently needed, education also needs to play a crucial role in conservation efforts, says Alberta Off-Highway Vehicle Association (AOHVA) president Garett Schmidt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think on the whole, you know, we see that some people will leave garbage,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cBecause they think someone else was going to come through there and clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOr they\u2019ll leave it beside a dumpster in the Ghost. But they actually don’t know that the AOHVA, through our member clubs, does all of the garbage disposal. And we’re a volunteer organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most Albertans support user fees in Crown land areas found a recent survey<\/a> by the Alberta Government. Over 30 stakeholder groups were invited to participate, including the Alberta Hiking Association (AHA).<\/p>\n

Chair of the AHA Don Cockerton says that in his experience, recreation in parks and public lands is \u201coften one of the first parts of a government budget to be cut, and one of the very last to be reinstated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of care given to existing trails, even in the prominent area of Kananaskis Country where a lot of money was spent to build good trails and other facilities \u2013 a lot of them were really not getting anywhere near the proper care and maintenance that they needed,\u201d said Cockerton.<\/p>\n

Bill 64 will generate an estimated $15 in revenue to be reinvested into public lands, but education will be the key to the province\u2019s long-term success.<\/p>\n

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Garbage left behind by irresponsible visitors litters a trail in the Ghost Public Land Use Zone, Alta. on Saturday, May 15, 2021. Much of the litter left behind is picked up by volunteer organizations who regularly use the land, many of which are Off-Highway Vehicle clubs. (Photo by Jessica Lee\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 60 per cent of the province is made up of public lands which see a large number of people each year hiking, riding Off-Highway Vehicles, and camping for free within its boundaries. These environmental impacts have gone mostly unaddressed and under-monitored due to a lack of funding. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":684,"featured_media":61865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Bill 64 JL","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[40,1640,110,164,1645,762,1641,1642,1644,1643],"class_list":{"0":"post-61864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-bill-64","10":"tag-calgary","11":"tag-cochrane","12":"tag-conservation","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-public-lands","15":"tag-rocky-mountains","16":"tag-sustainability","17":"tag-waste-management"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61864"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61886,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61864\/revisions\/61886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}