Road De-Activation

[BCBRAD]

In the valley friends and I have been hunting over the past 25yrs there has been an ongoing program to de-activate roads. At first it seemed like it was for erosion control, eg: establish water flows down hillsides to minimize erosion, seemed to make some sense as silt may be a problem in streams and creeks. Over the years ruts have become deeper and not near any water.
This past two years a machine came out to de-activate one road, just destroyed it, dug half way to China then put huge boulders in the hole , not near any water courses ,natural or run off. This year the same performance.......one machine 2 hours from town comes out destroys one road and leaves.
They do not do the whole road just enough to limit access with a regular 4x4 pick up. Quads and such can make it but is becoming more difficult. horses can make it no problem.
I view this as limiting (with the long term effect of banning) vehiclular access to our forest lands. This will be proven out as more and more restrictions are put on quads and their like.
This has nothing to do with saving wildlife from hunters as we operate under a sustainable wildlife program. Others do not , however, but then they get their game when ever and were ever.

[Jeffb]

This is nothing new, been going on for years

[carnivore]

I've always been suspicious when a road or spur is just deactivated at one spot , usually near the beginning. A road that is deactivated for the purpose of restoring the land to it's original condition is most often raked along it's length with a dozer pulling big steel rakes.

[jml11]

Forestry roads under road permit will get deactivated at one point or another once the licensee has completed their logging and or/silvicuture requirements along that road. They are not concerned with recreational access at all, this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry of Tourism. If there is a recreational benefit of keeping the road open, the road permit will be transfered over the the Ministry and it will be called an FSR or Resource Road. Otherwise the licensee will deactivate it as quickly as possible to alleviate them of maintenance and liability (if deactivated probably). Licensee's are private companies so think, if it was your company would pay thousands of dollars every year to keep a road graded, culverts in place and bridges up to weight tolerances just so recreationalists can use it?

[Wild one]

My brother was hired to do some road deactivation and what he was told was make the trenches so a truck can't get through but a quad still can.

So you take your guess at what deactivations are meant to do ;)

[StoneChaser]

My brother was hired to do some road deactivation and what he was told was make the trenches so a truck can't get through but a quad still can.

So you take your guess at what deactivations are meant to do ;)

The reason vehicle access is hampered has nothing to do with wildlife management or acccess restriction (in most cases), unless the area is under an "access management plan".

Pickups cut through water bars and cross drains when the roads are soft, negating their effects and essentially making 2 ditches right down the road prism....erosion ensues and liability is increased (sedimentation into the streams etc).

Trust me, it would be much cheaper to totally close a road off than it would be to construct functional, ATV friendly water bars/cross drains.

[Chuck]

It's a Government conspiracy to get lazy and obese hunters out of their trucks, into some boots and exercising their hearts & lungs! LOL.

[Mark_S]

It is a liability issue. The licencee is responsible for any failures that happen along the road system. They limit access so people can't go up and do anything that may change a water course and cause a failure. It keeps limited access so that free to grow surveys and stocking surveys can continue but you will keep out 90% of the traffic otherwise.

Gates get torn down and cause a more immediate public reaction. A trench in the middle of the road is more easily called "a deactivation".

[steelheadSABO]

makes me like the idea of a dirtbike for hunting

[Kudu]

makes me like the idea of a dirtbike for hunting


I love roads with locked gates.........

This one, was one of the easiest, and there are some tools that think they have the only accesses to Norish Creek road................


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/Gogga2/Fearnogates.jpg

[M.Dean]

Why is this page so wide??? Any way, if you want to see devastation drive into Andy Lake, just above our place, the MOE came up with a great plan to deactivate it, so they had a big cat come in with a ripper blade and tear up the walk in trail, never have I seen such a bloody mess!!! For a couple miles the ground is ripped to shit, massive boulders unearthed, a goat couldn't get in there!!! Each year a bunch of fishermen and riders move boulders and fill holes so we can go in there again!!! I'm not sure who the Christ there saving this area for, if they don't want people in there who or what do they want there??? What gives them the right to keep me out??? I've paid taxes for 37 years and am still paying bloody taxes to keep these A-Holes in the MOE employed, I'd sure like to know what there saving this area for??? Will they reopen it when I die??? Is it for certain people??? Do they want it for there own little private lake??? I'd like to drag who ever authorized this over the rocks until it leveled the trail out back to the way it was!!!