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The party's over
Four wheelers back to bog-running and bush whacking

Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 20/00) - Four-wheel drive trucks found their way around a boulder barrier to again chew up the turf of a little used road leading toward Walsh Lake.

As it did in setting up a boulder barrier to the road in August, the territorial government acted swiftly.


Federal law in place

Mackenzie Valley Land Use Regulations ground pressure limit on off-roading without a permit: five pounds per square inch.

  • four-wheel drive truck with normal tires: 30-50 psi
  • four-wheel drive truck with oversized tires: 10-25 psi
  • ATV 4-7 psi
  • person walking: 4.6 psi

The territorial government may not be willing to bring forward legislation governing the use of recreational vehicles, but the federal government already has.

Ecology North member Petr Cizek pointed out that the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act requires a permit for most trucks travelling off-road outside municipal boundaries.

The provision applies to vehicles exerting a ground pressure of 35 kilopascals (five pounds per square inch) or more. A four-wheel drive truck with normal sized tires exerts a ground pressure of 30-50 psi.

"Trucks definitely do most of the damage," said Cizek. "It's not the ATVs or the snowmobiles."

The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is responsible for enforcing the regulations on federal lands.

Floyd Aldem, director of operations for DIAND's regional office, said enforcement of the regulation is difficult.

"A road may be used by many people and it's difficult to decide who actually did the damage. You'd have to be there, and the resources that would be required to do that kind of thing would be fairly significant."

Adlem said that educating people about the damage four-wheel-drive trucks cause is a better approach.

"We don't have any formal program in place at the moment, but that might be something that we might look at in conjunction with the territorial government."




Last Wednesday morning a Department of Transportation crew strung a steel cable across the entrance to a quarry used to get to the illegally built road.

Following a board meeting last week, the NWT environmental group Ecology North issued a statement on offroading four-wheel drive trucks.

"Four-wheel drive is meant to keep your truck on the road, not to rip up public lands off the road. Unlike snowmobiles and ATVs, the high ground pressure of truck tires scars the land with permanent ruts."

Ecology North asserted the Mackenzie Valley Land Use regulations prohibit driving vehicles that exert more than 35 kilopascals (five PSI) on Crown lands without a land-use permit.

"Given the desecration that has occurred around Yellowknife, (the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development) obviously needs to begin enforcing this regulation."

"If we were to put legislation in place, I doubt we would get to first base," said Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Minister Joe Handley.

"While some people who are very environmentally conscious and don't even like to see tire tracks on these old roads would probably support it strongly, we'd have a lot of people who would say it's unreasonable."

Handley said blocking off roads when they receive complaints is about all the government is prepared to do at this time. Handley said many people have come to rely on the old roads for hunting and would regard a ban on the use of such roads as an infringement on their rights.

Environmentalists say more regulation is needed to rein in those who use the wilderness as a testing ground for their machines.

Where deep water and mud had formed on the road crews were blocking access to, drivers pushed detours through the bush alongside it.

Handley said that behaviour is already illegal.

Karen Hamre of the NWT chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said what's needed is both regulation and education.

"When it isn't regulated at all and people aren't aware of the damage they can do then there's a lot of problems," said Hamre. "So we think there needs to be more regulation, but also self-regulation, and that comes with education."

Calling off-roading an "interesting and thorny issue," environmental consultant Jamie Bastedo said the issue is one of perception, attitudes and values.

"For some the bush is something to penetrate with a motorized vehicle," said Bastedo. "I don't think they're maliciously out to do damage and it may be that they're not even aware of the damage they're doing because they may have no sense of connection with that piece of land."

Bastedo said he's driven fast boats and pushed vehicles to their limit, but added, "It's something I personally left behind."