A SHOW OF FORCE

[KTMgirl73]

I need your help. I am asking you to please attend the March 13, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. meeting at the UCPR office in L'Orignal, where Ken H. and I will be presenting our delegations. I would like as many of you present as possible (I know it is hard to get time off work, but please try) and bring your helmets to show that you are a motorcycle rider, a sign or anything else you find would help with the visual, and that you support us. I need to show that I am not representing only me, but represent all of you.

FYI my son will be attending also.

Thanks,

Marlene

 

[Terry]

I should be able to attend (unemployment has its advantages). Could someone that has figured out where this meeting is to take place please post the coordinates or an address I can google for. UCPR office in L'Orignal means very little to me.

 

[KTMgirl73]

Here you go and thank you.

From Old Hwy 17

Turn LEFT onto LONGUEUIL ST / CR-11. 0.6 miles Map

Turn RIGHT onto JOHN ST. <0.1 miles Map

Turn LEFT onto VICTORIA ST. <0.1 miles Map

End at:

59 Court, L'Orignal, ON K0B 1K0

 

[Terry]

Thanks Marlene,
Thats a very very long drive for most of the BMA members. I'll try my best to get there.

BTW, I don't see how a helmet will differentiate use from the ATV riders.

Terry

 

[KTMgirl73]

Me either, but can't think of anything else. How about a big protest sign?

 

[Terry]

I was thinking more like name tags with BMA in Big letters on them. Some of us got business cards with our names and phone numbers on them last year, I'll put one of mine in a name tag holder and pin it on my shirt unless some one can come up with another idea.

 

[weekender]

Are there any BMA t-shirts left over from any events? This might be a good time to sell of the remainders at a decent price to all BMA members planning to attend.

 

[smokin]

Someone has our big BMA sign. Not sure who. Perhaps Doug H. I'll try to get it to someone going if I cannot make it.

 

[KTMgirl73]

VISION - Nouvelles
Motorcycle group stands ready to challenge United Counties over Larose Forest
16 mars 2007
par Gregg Chamberlain


Dirtbikers are determined to get onto the trails in Larose Forest and are ready to take legal action if the United Counties of Prescott-Russell won’t let them in.

Ken Hoeverman, executive director of the Ontario Federation of Trail Riders (OFTR), hinted that his organization is ready to launch a challenge with the Ontario Municipal Board if the United Counties of Prescott Russell (UCPR) tries to pass a bylaw restricting motorized vehicle access to the Larose Forest.

Hoeverman, together with Marlene Bleau of the Ottawa-based Bytown Motorcycle Association (BMA), met with the United Counties council during its March 13 committee of the whole meeting.

“Our normal role is not confrontational but helpful,” Hoeverman said. “The general notion is that (trail) stewardship works and that banning never does.”

Right now ATVs and snowmobiles are the only motorized recreation vehicles allowed in the Larose Forest.

The BMA has asked the UCPR for permission to use the same riding trails in the community forest that are available to ATVs in the summer.

The UCPR council, following a recommendation from its planning department, has refused the request until a review of the user plan for the Larose Forest is done.

Bleau, who lives in Hawkesbury, told the UCPR council that its decision discriminated against off-road motorcyclists like herself and Hoeverman suggested the United Counties did not have the legal right to forbid dirt bikes and other off-road motorcycles access to the Larose Forest trails.

He noted that off-road motorcyclists had been using the Larose Forest as a riding area long before ATVers and snowmobilers, since 1956 when the BMA’s predecessor, the Bytown Ramblers Club, had existed.

“Motorcyclists did develop a lot of your trails,” Hoeverman said. “We have prior use and prior use denotes right of passage.”

Hoeverman also noted that the UCPR has had a trails master plan for the Larose Forest since 1994 that includes provision for existing uses of the trails to continue.

He said that any bylaw the UCPR tries to pass dealing with motorized access to Larose Forest must conform to the existing plan.

Hoeverman said that banning responsible off-road motorcyclists like the members of the BMA will still leave the UCPR having to deal with bikers who ignore both trail safety and restrictions on which trails are allowed for motorized vehicles.

Rather than see the situation deteriorate into a legal confrontation, Hoeverman offered the Simcoe Plan, a mutual-use agreement for off-road trails that the OFTR developed several years ago during meetings various user groups and local government agencies in Simcoe County to allow both dirtbikers, ATV riders, cyclists, hikers and others to use the forest trail network in that area.

He said that if the United Counties was willing to allow limited access for motorcycles in the Larose Forest then the BMA and the OFTR are also ready to help the UCPR to educate riders about responsible trail use and also help patrol the forest and deal with illegal biking.

Denis Pommainville, The Nation mayor on the UCPR council, noted that the ban on motorcycle access to the Larose Forest is not a permanent situation and may be lifted once the United Counties is finished reviewing its user plan for the forest.

“It’s a moratorium of sorts,” Pommainville said. “We are not saying you are denied forever.”

Ken Hill, Russell Township mayor, noted that the UCPR’s focus right now for the Larose Forest is on conservation and using the community forest as an education source for local schools teaching children about the environment.

“I can support a moratorium right now,” Hill said. “I would like to see more conservation efforts, more education efforts.”

During a later interview with media Hoeverman repeated his offer of help from the OFTR and BMA in looking after trails in the Larose Forest if the United Counties allowed riders access.

But he also indicated that the OFTR is willing to challenge the UCPR bylaw before the Ontario Municipal Board if necessary.