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K.S.A. Newsletter - October 2009 |
Welcome and Update – Mark Daniels I hope everyone had a great summer and you’re looking forward to another great year of sledding. We finally got a hot summer after a couple of cloudy, rainy duds. It was great to see Yukoners enjoying the lakes and campgrounds again this year. Here’s hoping we get another winter of healthy snowfall.
As always, the KSA executive kept busy over the summer meeting and planning projects. I’m happy to report that the association continues to be financially healthy and membership levels keep climbing. We ended the year with a record 655 members and 37 corporate sponsors. I can’t say enough about the importance of having dues-paying members and supportive business partners to the continued existence of the association. Our 2009/10 membership drive is on. Once again, the board is keeping individual and family membership prices unchanged. Please renew your membership and let your friends, neighbours, and coworkers in on the benefits of being a KSA member.
The AGM is scheduled for October 5 this year. We’d love to see members attend this meeting and provide input to the direction they want the association to take. We’re always looking to host more activities and we’d like to hear from members who have ideas and the time to help coordinate events. Keep and eye on our website (http://www.ksa.yk.ca) for details on meetings, trail conditions, membership benefits, coming events, and more. Speaking of our website: we’re looking for anyone who has some computer savvy and is willing to work with Jim to keep our website looking fresh. Give Jim a call at the KSA office (667-7680). Our last official event of 2008/09 was the Family Ice-Fishing Day held on March 22 at Hidden Lake in Riverdale. Phil Perrin, the KSA Secretary/Treasurer, hosted this event. We met at the dam and rode in as a group to where Phil had the site selected and the holes drilled. I never was much into ice fishing. From my point of view: if the weather is good enough to sit on a frozen lake, I’d rather be riding across it. Phil, on the other hand, is an avid ice-fisherman and uses his sled primarily to get to the frozen lakes. He’s an expert on the local lakes and he rarely goes home empty-handed. He provided advice, equipment, and hot drinks for the event. The fish in Hidden Lake are just the right size for the kids to catch and they really enjoy themselves when the fish are biting. The weather was a little windy and cold for late March but we had a great time anyway. Thanks to Phil for hosting what I hope will become a regular series of KSA ice-fishing events.
Over the course of the summer, we managed to get an agreement signed with the City of Whitehorse allowing us to use a Bobcat for summer maintenance on the trails, granted we follow some reasonable guidelines. Previously, we had to apply for a permit every time we wanted to go out and fix a hole in the trail with anything bigger that a goon spoon. This will really make life simpler and will allow us to take advantage of equipment that is doing other work close by, instead of having to pay to mobilize equipment each time it’s needed.
Skipping Rock Creek - Mark Daniels After two years, we finally made some progress with the Skipping Rock Creek washout on the haul road between Sima and Wolf Creeks. By the time you read this article, we should have the culvert installed and the road back in shape. Where possible, we like to use culverts instead of bridges on our trails. They’re virtually maintenance free and don’t narrow the trail like our small bridges. Other than a flood, the only real enemies of culverts are beavers. Hopefully, we have that issue resolved, as the beaver was washed downstream with the last bridge when his dam broke. This project, like all major trail projects, requires both funding and environmental approval. We run the risk of getting caught in the funding/approval loop where our approval runs out before we can get funding for a project or we can’t get funding without prior environmental approval. Since we’ll be in the creek bed on this project we had to submit a YESA application – not something I recommend unless you have a lot of time on your hands. This was my first shot at a YESA application. Nice people, long process. It starts with a ten-page written application and leads to a bunch of questions, supplementary submissions and some meetings. If you get busy doing other and things (like sledding) and fail to reply in time they send you polite reminders that they might drop your application. We got environmental approval for the project in the spring and started looking for money. Fortunately, the federal government is spending millions of dollars in stimulus cash on recreational trails across the country and we were able to get some loonies from them. The National Trails Coalition, a consortium of snowmobile, ATV, and non-motorized trail user groups, is distributing this funding on behalf of the feds. We qualified for the funds because of our affiliation with the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations. The Yukon Community Development Fund matched the federal funds so our loonies turned into toonies and we ended up with $40K for the culvert installation and assorted other work on the trails. The CDF has funded KSA projects in the past and continues to be a major supporter. Thanks to both the federal and territorial governments and their respective funding programs for helping us get this project done.
Atlin Region Land Use Planning – Mark Daniels The Atlin Taku region remains one of the only areas of the province of BC yet to complete a land use plan. Land use plans provide guidelines to balance economic, environmental, and social needs when contemplating how land is classified and used. The BC government, represented by the Integrated Land Management Bureau (ILMB), and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN) have undertaken a joint land use planning initiative in the Atlin Taku region.
The Atlin Taku planning region covers the Atlin Lake and Taku River watersheds located in northwestern BC where the boreal forest, coastal mountains and Alaskan panhandle meet. The region is approximately 5.5 million hectares in area. It’s rich in natural resources, cultural significance, history and abundant animal life. The land use plan will include decisions on management principles and practices, resource management zones, protected areas, and local and regional access strategies.
This is important to the KSA because many local snowmobilers ride in areas within this most northwesterly corner of BC, including Atlin, Bennett, Tutshi, Log Cabin and the White Pass. We want to ensure that we maintain reasonable access to these areas of historical usage.
Prior to initiating a plan, the ILMB and the TRTFN developed a “framework agreement” regarding protocols for land use planning in the Atlin Taku region. This agreement confirms that both parties will undertake a land use plan and outlines the proposed scope, terms and conditions for jointly developing land use and wildlife management plans in the Atlin Taku region. Public consultation started in July 2007 when the Province held meetings with the community of Atlin, and with other stakeholders. They developed a strategy for community and stakeholder involvement in the land use planning process. Both the ILMB and the TRTFN are committed to ensuring that local community members and stakeholders have input into the land use planning process.
The proposed planning area includes traditional territories of other First Nations, including the Tahltan, Carcross Tagish, and Teslin Tlingit First Nations. These First Nations will be consulted in the planning process.
The desired outcomes are of the planning process are:
The KSA was first notified of the land use planning process in the spring of 2009. I attended a meeting to identify all the areas in the planning region that are of interest to snowmobilers. To date, nobody has indicated that snowmobiling will be restricted. However, there are groups who have pushed for restrictions on motorized access to some of these areas in the past. We’ll keep up with the planning process and report back any significant developments. For more information of the planning process, go to http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/slrp/lrmp/smithers/atlin_taku/index.html
Greetings from Dawson City – Bill Holmes Greetings from Dawson City, home of the last Great Gold Rush! Over 30,000 people descended on the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers to seek their fortunes in the Goldfields. Although the rush lasted for only a few short years, placer mining has been the life’s blood of Dawson City for over a century and continues today.
Over the years, exploration for minerals has left the Dawson area with an abundance of roads, trails and cat tracks that offer excellent riding and exploring opportunities for both ATV’s and dirt bikes in the summer and fall, and snowmobiles in the winter.
After shredding miles of both groomed and un-groomed trails, Dawson City has a wealth of heritage and culture to share with the weekend warrior. Excellent food, affordable lodging, shops and attractions are open throughout the year but February through early April offer the most to the avid snowmobiler.
During late February and early March, Dawson welcomes the Trek over the Top. Up to 200 international and Alaskan snowmobilers travel over the Top of the World highway to participate in a number of banquets and events here in Dawson, including poker runs organized by the Dawson City Sleddawgs, our fantastic local sledding club (http://www.dawsoncitysleddawgs.net/).
We pave our streets with snow during the winter and licensed sleds are welcome to drive throughout the town which affords direct access to the trails from your hotel or B&B. Dawson is a festive town, and although we know how to party, there is zero tolerance for stunting or driving under the influence. At the end of the day, park the sleds and get ready to enjoy the evening, Dawson Style!
Diamond Tooth Gerties opens for weekends and entertainment during the evening runs from the Sourtoe Cocktail to Can Can shows to the Pointer Brothers at the Westminster Hotel (affectionately known to the locals as The Pit). The Downtown and Eldorado hotels offer an excellent menu and often host fun nights for both locals and visitors alike.
So if you are looking for some fun with your sledding buddies this winter, look no further than Dawson City, Yukon. For more information on the Trek over the Top, Dawson City Sleddawgs, or any of the amazing events that take place in Dawson City, please visit www.dawsoncity.ca .
Friends of McIntyre Creek - Mark Daniels Whitehorse’s McIntyre Creek watershed is a natural landscape in an evolving urban setting. It runs from the highlands near Mt. McIntyre to the Yukon River. There is pressure to develop the area around the creek, particularly from the highway to the river. Development is being contemplated or pursued in the Takhini subdivision, the Porter Creek Lower Bench, Porter Creek “D”, Raven’s Ridge, Fish Lake Road, and lands adjacent to Yukon College and across the highway from the Kopper King. This has the potential to reduce the area accessible to snowmobiles and could cut through the trails used to travel from the subdivisions to the main Trans Canada Trail and beyond. Such was the case when Raven’s Ridge was developed.
The Friends of McIntyre Creek is an advocacy group dedicated to the protection of the area for the benefit of all Whitehorse residents. They would like to see the establishment of the McIntyre Creek Urban Natural Park. The objectives of this group include education and awareness-raising activities and wildlife and fish habitat enhancement and improvement projects.
The Vision of the Friends of McIntyre Creek is to maintain in perpetuity the wilderness quality, the diversity, abundance of wildlife and the ecosystems on which it depends, while accepting recreational uses in parts of the McIntyre Creek Urban Natural Park that are designated for those uses. These uses may include skiing, snowmobile passage, quad passage, dog sledding, hiking, birding and orienteering.
They say they will:
The KSA supports, in principle, the protection of the McIntyre Creek watershed from further commercial and residential development. Our support is contingent upon the protection, and reasonable continued development, of our existing multi-use trail system. The McIntyre Creek watershed contains several of our trails, including feeder, main line, and connector trails to the main Trans Canada Trail. It is a popular and heavily used recreational area frequented by individuals, families, and recreational user groups. Recreational trail use, and other transient or occasional uses, has far less impact on the area than would continuous use such as residential or commercial developments. Its location within the city and proximity to many schools presents a unique outdoor educational opportunity. The KSA would like to see the McIntyre watershed governed according to a multi-use recreational plan that takes into account the historical uses and existing rights of land owners and land users.
Other editions of the KSA newsletter: October 2009 December 2009 January 2010 March 2010 |