Significant loss of trails…

Significant loss of trails in Ontario started with the Lands for Life and Living Legacy initiatives in the late 1990s to early 2000s timeframe. It was stated in the original Ontario Living Legacy Approved Land Use Strategy (pdf attached) that "Existing authorized recreational trails will be permitted to continue in all land use categories and will receive additional protection in some of the areas". However, in practice the this did not occur. The reclassification of General Use Crown Lands as Natural Environment parks, resulted in the existing historical motorized trails being closed . The number of trails and percentage of land used land occupied by these trails was very low and hence their net environmental impact was negligible. However, the loss of access to these historical motorized trails was hard felt by the large off road vehicle community that used these trails to the extent that the community became organized and formed official provincial advocate associations.

We request that the Ontario government take a more reasonable and understanding approach when it comes to reclassifying/rezoning public lands. Historical recreational motorized use is very important to the community and constitutes a comparatively minimal footprint. As such we request amendments to the PPCRA Regulation 347/07 General Provisions – Provincial Parks :
- recognize and protect existing uses on Crown land
- bring the motorized recreational vehicle definition in line with the current actual Off Road vehicle types, i.e. Off Road Vehicle is more accurately defined as ATV, Side by Side, UTV, 4 Wheel Drive automobile, Off Road and dual sport Motorcycle.
- by appointment, include representation of the motorized use communities on the Ontario Parks Advisory Board