In an effort to better understand the thoughts surrounding ATV Trails in Moose Mountain Provincial Park, Saskatchewan Parks asked MMM Group to conduct an open house event to receive public opinion regarding the trails.
A local meeting was hosted on Tuesday, Oct. 20, between 4:30 p.m. And 7:30 p.m. at the Moose Mountain Provincial Park Recreation Hall.
Concerns arose surrounding a lack of signage, the wetness of the back country, if someone gets into trouble while in the back country how it would be handled, disrespect of the animals and land, as well as a lack of enforcement on the trails.
The recreational trails currently in use are the snowmobile trails, which with the wetter seasons lately have led to issues. So, before making any decisions regarding trails, Saskatchewan Parks wanted to see what public opinion was regarding them.
Although there were concerns, many people were for the trails as they enjoy them in a recreational capacity suggesting that now would be an opportune time to rework the trails with the wetter back country in recent years.
Many also wanted the trails open for longer periods of time and there were suggestions that an ATV club could be formed to help take care of them.
In an effort to better understand local sentiment regarding the park the open house was well attended, while an online survey is also open: www.surveymonkey.com/r/MMPP_ATV_Trails_Survey.
This survey is open until Nov. 10. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Brad Wiebe with MMM Group, explained that they already had 132 responses through the online survey.
“We encourage everyone who has any concerns or suggestions to take the survey and voice their opinion,” Wiebe added.
“We've held different meetings to discuss technical thoughts and have held a couple of open houses, as well as meetings in Regina about environmental aspects.”
“There have been quite a few responses and there have, so far, been common themes.”
MMM Group will submit their report to Sask Parks at the end of November and from there Sask Parks will make their decisions regarding the matter.
