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Trail closures in D3


Bigfish

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We have been made aware of this a short time ago.

As it stands right now, the county will not sign a land use agreement with our club, unless we agree to insure ALL users in the Northumberland Forest including the county itself!

Therefore E108 may not connect Bewdley with Warkworth. We are currently investigating whether the road allowances in the forest fall under the forest mngmt.

If we can use road allowances we will groom E108 only and no side trails.

This effects not only our club and the OFSC, but also the ATV club as well, the pres of the ATV club posted the following on FB today

 

This is some information about the Northumberland county forest trails and what is going on and if your a user of these trails it should be an eye opener for future use. The County and their wisdom have been putting a new forest master plan together and in that plan they want to close trails and the hydro lines where they are in control of. ( This is all users ) I am sure the county has done some information strategy but getting to tax paying residents should not be done half assed and using our tax dollars to take our privilege away is something I can’t agree with and you shouldn’t also.
I sit on the forest advisory committee and yes I have missed a few of the last zoom meetings but I haven’t been detached. So I read the new forest master plan only a few weeks ago. When the county first started the forest advisory committee say 2010 ? There where about 20 user personal on it and now there is 2 and a few conservation land spokes persons and county staff. At this point I don’t know what they are doing next. When that group started up, We lost a substantial amount of trail then and now they have closed the lookout tower and any land their in control of along the hydro line. Their still hasn’t been an agreement with the snowmobile club to groom the county forest this year, because the county doesn’t like some wording of the OFSC liability insurance. So we may not have groomed snowmobile trails this year. ( Great ) to date this agreement is not signed. Our county is the first hub east of Toronto and we have links that can take us to Ottawa to the east and Algonquin park to the north. As a club president we have worked hard to put a trail system together and bring ATVs under control in Northumberland county. And try to become what the OFSC has become over the years they have been looking after the snowmobile group. We have worked with municipalities in our county to enact road use bylaws so ATVers can safely leave their homes and get to the trails. We have policed our own and picked up approximately 45 tones of garbage throughout our county and donated approximately $20,000.00 to charities in our communities . We have multiple land use agreements and with land owner’s through out the county to link our 350km of trail that reaches Hastings, Campbellford, Warkworth,Brighton, Cramahe, and Alnwick Haldimand and belong to the OFATV organization. We did this so our residents had a safe and legal place to ride and to give back to our communities. All we ask is to not take anymore of our trails away for some bogus reason. Both ATV Club & Snowmobile Club has offered bodies and monitary help to bring any trail in the hydro line up to standard. To date that has fallen on deaf ears. ? So what is the real reason. If you are a user or even a supporter of residents using local trail, get ahold of our county council, CEO, and one on ones with our Mayors and tell them Your not happy how the county is closing trails now and for our future. The new forest master plan can be found on the CTY website or their FB page. Much more to read and heard about this issue. Thanks
Edited by Bigfish
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1 minute ago, signfan said:

Need to post an e-mail address so we can all e-mail them.  Who do we contact?

I believe that info is on the Northumberland county website, which I don't have at my fingertips right now

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I commend the volunteer(s) taking on this issue on behalf of organized snowmobiling. 

 

Most do not understand the work that goes into advacting on our behalf every single year. Something new comes up it seems yearly. 

 

Please keep up the good fight, and thank you for bringing this to our attention Fish!

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26 minutes ago, Yukon Cornelious said:

I commend the volunteer(s) taking on this issue on behalf of organized snowmobiling. 

 

Most do not understand the work that goes into advacting on our behalf every single year. Something new comes up it seems yearly. 

 

Please keep up the good fight, and thank you for bringing this to our attention Fish!

I second this.

 

 

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This is sad news. If its not the EOTA its the various county's. There are a lot of people who just hate sleds and ATV's. 

I thank you and your club for all the hard work bending over backwards to keep these trails open. The damages to trails is probably high on their list of issues and sledders are not the problem. 

 

Keep up the fight and I'll send my comments to the County.


jerry

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14 hours ago, grover_yyz said:

This is sad news. If its not the EOTA its the various county's. There are a lot of people who just hate sleds and ATV's. 

I thank you and your club for all the hard work bending over backwards to keep these trails open. The damages to trails is probably high on their list of issues and sledders are not the problem. 

 

Keep up the fight and I'll send my comments to the County.


jerry

I'm not so sure they hate sleds and ATV's. I think they hate the small handful of disrespectful entitled snowmobile and ATV riders that abuse the privilege of riding. They endanger other trail users, trespass and damage property. If riders abided by the rules there wouldn't be the problems there are.... or at least very few problems.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is a map showing the now closed trails in the Northumberland forest, as the county refuses to sign off on a land use agreement.

 

E108 remains available for users through the use of road allowances.

 

However unless we get some snow, it will be a moot point

NCF closed trails.PNG

 

RED - Closed

Blue - E108

Yellow - road allowances

Edited by Bigfish
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This sucks big time!

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  • 4 weeks later...

The latest update from the clubs FB page

 

OFSC TRAILS CLOSED IN NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY FOREST
 
After trying to negotiate on a land use agreement to maintain the trails in the Northumberland County Forest we received this letter on Friday Jan 29 telling us that Grooming and other activities performed by GPRSA volunteers is not permitted on County property.
A little background on this issue. Just over a year ago our club was approached to sign an agreement in order for us to continue to groom and maintain the trails in the Northumberland County Forest (NCF). We have been negotiating unsuccessfully back and forth during this time. We have presented two different agreements which are the same as, or very similar to agreements that have been signed by neighboring municipalities and associations including the County of Peterborough and EOTA.
The agreement the Northumberland County has presented to our club has been referred to as an agreement that would be presented to a multinational corporation and not a volunteer driven non-profit club. While most of the conditions in the agreement can probably be worked out, there are two major sections that unless removed our legal council and insurance provider won’t allow us to sign this agreement. Basically the Northumberland County is asking our insurance provider to cover everyone and any vehicle that uses the NCF.
If you are interested in the legal part of the agreement it can be downloaded from the County’s website and starts on page 77 of the following link:
On Wednesday Jan 27th a Council meeting was held and this issue was presented to Northumberland County Council leaving the decision up to them on the future of snowmobiling in the NCF. Unfortunately they held this part of the meeting behind closed doors so we had no opportunity to be part of the discussion and have no idea which way each of the councilors voted.
The Northumberland County Council, who made this decision, are comprised of the seven elected Mayors from the Municipalities located in the Northumberland County. They are Municipality of Brighton, Township of Cramahe, Municipality of Trent Hills, Township of Alnwick/Haldimand, Hamilton township, Town of Cobourg, and Municipality of Port Hope.
If you live in Northumberland County please help us to try and get these trails back by contacting your Elected Mayor and if you don’t live in Northumberland County but visit the Northumberland County Forest please contact the County Warden. They can be contacted by using the following link.
Thanks for taking the time to read this
 
GPRSA
 
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I guess the dogwalkers and hikers will have to groom their own trails now...

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On 1/31/2021 at 11:32 PM, revrnd said:

I guess the dogwalkers and hikers will have to groom their own trails now...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |

I remember a trip to Prince Edward County back in 2013.....cross country skiiers, horse people, dog walkers, etc. woke up to this \/ one Saturday morning on the MilleniumTrail....

 

988708441_IMG_2373(Small).jpg.a894413d616ebe9ddffbc77d8dcd16ac.jpg

 

                                                      |

and were sure happy when this \/ occurred .....

 

1825376888_IMG_2406(Small).jpg.4c7f8b32fa81ceb6ec23f77a3140805f.jpg

 

Hope the club can get things sorted out eventually.

 

I think Barbech was there that weekend....

 

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I wonder how the county will react when the other users start calling about overgrown trails, downed trees, deep snow and drifts essentially making the trail unusable. 

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12 minutes ago, Turbo Doo said:

HMMM, interesting.  Lindsay.....:ph34r:

She needs an FXR jacket LOL

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1 hour ago, revrnd said:

Yes I knew that was coming.

She called me yesterday to get the club's perspective. 

I thought it best to have her talk to the prez, Steve

Surprised by how much the MPP for the area is onside with this.

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13 minutes ago, Bigfish said:

Yes I knew that was coming.

She called me yesterday to get the club's perspective. 

I thought it best to have her talk to the prez, Steve

Surprised by how much the MPP for the area is onside with this.

LOL

 

I dropped some stuff off @ my brother's today, he asked me what I was doing w/ my sled in the truck. I told him I was parking @  Technology Dr & riding over to Hastings. "Is Lindsay riding with you?"

 

I seem to recall a segment a few seasons ago her or Caley doing a segment on sledding down in the Northumberland Forest east of Bewdley.

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7 hours ago, Turbo Doo said:

FXR Bikini??...:wtf:

Not sure how much riding i would be doing if that happened :ph34r:

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2 hours ago, WinderFab said:

Not sure how much riding i would be doing if that happened :ph34r:

@Turbo Doo Does Royal have them in their catalog? :poke2:

 

I have seen bikinis for the redneck girls on Realtree shopping sites.

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29 minutes ago, revrnd said:

@Turbo Doo Does Royal have them in their catalog? :poke2:

 

 

Royal has a Victoria Secrets section????

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