Why is so important to comply with Caribou Closures?

[MOMMA]

So yet again, we find riders in caribou closure areas near Nakusp/Trout Lake BC. For the love of snow, come on people, get it together. According to Conservation officer's Service these riders were not members of any club or from the area. That really isn't surprising.
Right now we're at a point in time that compliance is more important than ever before. A few adaptive management strategies in the province of BC are being implemented. Rather than full sweeping closures, we're seeing more of a give and take and compromise. The Kokanee Country Snowmobile Club in Creston maintained 100% compliance and now has a permit issued to the club allowing club members to ride previously closed areas. That came about with a lot of hard work, meetings and compliance.
The Ymir Outback Society was formed, and they too have a permit issued to ride in what once was caribou closure lands.
In Trout Lake and Nakusp, a pilot project is being implemented utilizing telemetry from GPS collars on caribou. This telemetry data is used to create a rotating closure, allowing for access in areas that the caribou are not currently utilizing.

This is all super positive and uplifting, but for the fact that we still have riders either blatantly ignoring the closure, or riders who couldn't be bothered to research where the off limit areas are potentially screwing it up for the rest of us. Make no mistake, there are those who firmly believe that we do not belong in the backcountry. There are well funded organizations trying to shut us down, under the guise of conservation. It is more important now than ever before to be compliant. PLEASE please please respect the closures and know before you go, and know exactly where TO go. Thin ice is what we're on right now so please spread the word.
The future of our sport relies on compliance.

 

[catinthehat]

According to the article it states that two of the three were not from the area.
That leads me to believe that one was and should have known about the closure.

 

[LID]

The amount of people with knowledge of these closures is pretty low I think

I don’t know about Nakusp, but there was zero signage about this in Trout Lake last week. I try and mention it to everyone I see up there and around town

Not to mention one of the guys renting to sledders mentions nothing of the closure or the need to have a membership so that doesn’t help either. Maybe he’s changed by now, who knows

 

[Bikeswithtrax]

Before jumping to conclusions, and judging these guys, do we know for a fact they were aware of any closure? I was dirt biking about 10 years ago in a supposedly closed area, there was no way to tell it was closed. In fact the only way I knew was some woman told me...and it could well be that she was a liar.

 

[Caper11]

I dont know about the circumstances of that incident, it would be very crappy to be charged for being in a area and not knowing the area was closed.

Im very thankful for the hard work VARDA does for the Valemount area with their signage.

 

[Mike270412]

There's this really cool thing out there called the world wide web. It is available to everyone and would probably contain information on any area you were planning to ride your snowmobile.

 

[Caper11]

https://sleddermag.com/trout-lake-nakusp-adaptive-management-strategy-caribou/


Daily rotating closures, that looks like it was just implemented in Dec 2019. Only club members are allowed to access this area.
Being local, Knowing this riding area would be critical to knowing where the closures are for that day.
Looks like to me this would definitely not be a area to ride unless you have a guide.

https://snowmobileselkirks.ca/

 

[LID]

I think this was the first enforcement possibly, first I heard of
What I had heard was that the government wasn’t going to do any till the signs were up on the road. Maybe they are up now
I also heard they have a huge budget for enforcing this new pilot program

 

[MOMMA]

The amount of people with knowledge of these closures is pretty low I think

I don’t know about Nakusp, but there was zero signage about this in Trout Lake last week. I try and mention it to everyone I see up there and around town

Not to mention one of the guys renting to sledders mentions nothing of the closure or the need to have a membership so that doesn’t help either. Maybe he’s changed by now, who knows

Thank you for this. I'll mention it to the clubs and see if we can get better messaging and signage out there.

 

[kimrick]

https://sleddermag.com/trout-lake-nakusp-adaptive-management-strategy-caribou/


Daily rotating closures, that looks like it was just implemented in Dec 2019. Only club members are allowed to access this area.
Being local, Knowing this riding area would be critical to knowing where the closures are for that day.
Looks like to me this would definitely not be a area to ride unless you have a guide.

https://snowmobileselkirks.ca/

Great post. Thank you.
Lots of good information here.

A step in the right direction.
Very user friendly site.

 

[Bnorth]

signage is important
being responsible and knowing where you are and the regulations around that is importanter

 

[Teth-Air]

So yet again, we find riders in caribou closure areas near Nakusp/Trout Lake BC. For the love of snow, come on people, get it together. According to Conservation officer's Service these riders were not members of any club or from the area. That really isn't surprising.
Right now we're at a point in time that compliance is more important than ever before. A few adaptive management strategies in the province of BC are being implemented. Rather than full sweeping closures, we're seeing more of a give and take and compromise. The Kokanee Country Snowmobile Club in Creston maintained 100% compliance and now has a permit issued to the club allowing club members to ride previously closed areas. That came about with a lot of hard work, meetings and compliance.
The Ymir Outback Society was formed, and they too have a permit issued to ride in what once was caribou closure lands.
In Trout Lake and Nakusp, a pilot project is being implemented utilizing telemetry from GPS collars on caribou. This telemetry data is used to create a rotating closure, allowing for access in areas that the caribou are not currently utilizing.

This is all super positive and uplifting, but for the fact that we still have riders either blatantly ignoring the closure, or riders who couldn't be bothered to research where the off limit areas are potentially screwing it up for the rest of us. Make no mistake, there are those who firmly believe that we do not belong in the backcountry. There are well funded organizations trying to shut us down, under the guise of conservation. It is more important now than ever before to be compliant. PLEASE please please respect the closures and know before you go, and know exactly where TO go. Thin ice is what we're on right now so please spread the word.
The future of our sport relies on compliance.

View attachment 222229

They are going about this all wrong. We need sledder collars that ping us when we get too close to the caribou! Never worry about it again unless the collar starts dinging.

 

[MOMMA]

K I just got word that there have been more situations of non compliance in the province, Trout and Sicamous seem to be areas that people simply aren't getting it. I had the perfect analogy given to me the other days. How many of you are hunters out there?
Imagine if someone came into your management area, started plucking off wildlife without reservation or concern for regulations. His/her excuse, "I'm not from here I didn't know".. "there were no signs saying that I needed an LEH draw for this monster moose I shot. Where is the signage?!" Ya like that really flies. It is the same with snowmobiling. It is ABSOLUTELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to 1. Know where to go (and which areas are off limits) and 2. it is your responsibility to research closures, and special regulations before venturing forth into an area. We have a lot to gain or lose depending upon the action of our riders. Personally I would rather continue to gain lands back, and have the option for adaptive management strategies rather than sweeping closures.

Please help spread the word. We need your help, your voice, and your membership numbers to secure our sport for future generations.


Much love Homeslices.. It's hip and fly to comply

 

[catinthehat]

K I just got word that there have been more situations of non compliance in the province, Trout and Sicamous seem to be areas that people simply aren't getting it. I had the perfect analogy given to me the other days. How many of you are hunters out there?
Imagine if someone came into your management area, started plucking off wildlife without reservation or concern for regulations. His/her excuse, "I'm not from here I didn't know".. Ya like that really flies. It is the same with snowmobiling. It is ABSOLUTELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to 1. Know where to go (and which areas are off limits) and it is your responsibility to research closures, and special regulations before venturing forth into an area. We have a lot to gain or lose depending upon the action of our riders. Personally I would rather continue to gain lands back, and have the option for adaptive management strategies rather than sweeping closures.

Please help spread the word. We need your help, your voice, and your membership numbers to secure our sport for future generations.


Much love Homeslices.. It's hip and fly to comply

Unfortunately in our area the ones we had the most noncompliance from were locals, and some of them were club members. It was the old story: We've always ridden there, not stopping now.

 

[tex78]

K I just got word that there have been more situations of non compliance in the province, Trout and Sicamous seem to be areas that people simply aren't getting it. I had the perfect analogy given to me the other days. How many of you are hunters out there?
Imagine if someone came into your management area, started plucking off wildlife without reservation or concern for regulations. His/her excuse, "I'm not from here I didn't know".. "there were no signs saying that I needed an LEH draw for this monster moose I shot. Where is the signage?!" Ya like that really flies. It is the same with snowmobiling. It is ABSOLUTELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to 1. Know where to go (and which areas are off limits) and 2. it is your responsibility to research closures, and special regulations before venturing forth into an area. We have a lot to gain or lose depending upon the action of our riders. Personally I would rather continue to gain lands back, and have the option for adaptive management strategies rather than sweeping closures.

Please help spread the word. We need your help, your voice, and your membership numbers to secure our sport for future generations.


Much love Homeslices.. It's hip and fly to comply

Lmfao, sicamous


The people in the caribou closure last week where sled skiers

And get this, shuswap trail alliance main guy, and last year they tried to take the tenior from the sled club and ckmp on the back part of queest, that get this, where they were caught in the closure

 

[MOMMA]

Lmfao, sicamous


The people in the caribou closure last week where sled skiers

And get this, shuswap trail alliance main guy, and last year they tried to take the tenior from the sled club and ckmp on the back part of queest, that get this, where they were caught in the closure)

I wasn't told that part of the story. Let me get back into that email and ask some questions. Thank you.