Residents raised concerns and offered suggestions for the proposed Island Bay Provincial Park at Shaw House on Friday.
Kay Lee Kinch, environmental co-ordinator for the MD of Bonnyville and a member of the Moose Lake Watershed Society, presented the rationale behind establishing a provincial park and recreational area to the over 20 people in attendance.
Attendees offered various suggestions which Kinch said the society would take to an upcoming shareholders meeting for consideration. She also encouraged people to become shareholders.
She explained the area would protect spawning grounds and the rare jack pine forest while permitting traditional uses in the area, like quadding and berry picking. However, a key concern for the society would be getting quads to stick to a designated trail system.
“It is like a maze, you can see quad trails running everywhere right now. It is out of control,” said Kinch. She said Sustainable Resource Development lacks the authority to protect the land.
The provincial park designation would provide the maximum level of protection along the shoreline, while the recreational area would allow users to maintain current uses - but curb bad habits, like destroying peat moss and shoreline. The plan would create a single figure eight quad trail and rely on enforcement to help vegetation reclaim other paths currently in use.
Two landowners adjacent to the proposed park said quads and trucks were trespassing over their land by driving over fields and grazing land, something they would like to stop.
“If there are sensitive areas that would be damaged by improper use, we could enforce that by keeping people off of it, and certainly we usually mark our boundaries so people know where the grazing area is and where the park area is,” said Cara Gill, senior parks planner for the northeast region.
She said the park designation would give Alberta Parks the authority it lacks now to enforce land use designation. Several people said keeping quad drivers on trails would be difficult, and that without enforcement it would be impossible.
“Once people realize there is a real risk of getting caught, they stop doing it,” Gill said.
Gordon Poirier, second vice-president with Alberta Fish and Game Association, said the proposal lacked a proper game management plan. “If you leave out game management, I think you're making a mistake,” he said. After the meeting he said he'd like to see enough protection for fish and jack pine forest, but as little park-designated space as possible.
Reita Poirier noted that the area is also a traditional hunting area. While Alberta Parks makes hunting exceptions for treaty first nations in parks, Poirier and her family might not qualify to keep hunting in the area under a park designation - even though they have traditionally used the area for hunting.
Gill said the hunting status for non-treaty hunters would depend on circumstances. “It is not a simple question that you're asking, and I can not give you a simple answer, yes or no,” she said. Kinch invited Poirier to become a stakeholder, and suggested she could add hunting to the proposal.
One woman asked how opening the park would protect the land if the result would be more visitors. Kinch explained that additional camping is not in the plan, and that as many people currently use the area, the park designation would make enforcement of staying on trails easier.
The crown currently owns the 13 sections of land, which starts where Thinlake River enters Moose Lake on the west side and follows down to Eastbourne Hall.