ATVANS Trail Assessment for Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area Report and Recommendation. December 28, Prepared by.

Transcription

1 ATVANS Trail Assessment for Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area Report and Recommendation December 28, 2011 Prepared by Peter Bush Background This report documents the results and recommendations of an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) trial assessment at Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area, undertaken on November 25 and December 7. Jointly by: NSE, NSDNR, ATVANS, Safety Minded ATC association (see Appendix A for participants). Vehicle use in provincially-designed wilderness areas is generally prohibited; however, under S.23(4) of the Wilderness Area Protection Act, an essential trail link with a more extensive regional trail network can be authorized for new wilderness areas, such as Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area, provided the route will eventually be relocated outside or near the boundary of the wilderness area, and that the continued use or operation of vehicles within the wilderness area will have minimal environmental impact on the wilderness area. Authorization is provided through a trail management agreement with a group or organization, such as ATVANS. The objective of this trail assessment was to identify the most suitable ATV trail through Wilderness Area, which will link to the regional ATV trail network, and to describe which upgrades or improvements, if any, may be needed to minimize environmental impacts of ATV use on this trial.

2 Trial Assessment Findings The recommended trail route, within Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area, shown on the attached map was based on previous public consultation and field assessment. All of these trails, uses existing road and routes, and is approximately 13 km in length. The Fire Road route is located on the western portion of the Wilderness Area and connects to a regional trial network in the north and to The Coach Road. The Coach Road route connects communities of Greenwood (the east side of the Wilderness Area) with Seabright and Glen Margaret (on the west side of the Wilderness Area). The routes are generally in good shape with a number of exceptions. The first priority will focus on water management and hazard removal: Installing bridges or culvert structures on stream crossing, improve drainage to prevent water from running down the slopes eroding the trial, wetlands crossing, and removal submerged rocks from depressions. The second priority is infrastructure remediation: replacing heaved culverts and washouts, replacing large wooden culverts with bridges, draining and repairing the deep waterholes (Fill), bring bridges up to DNR OHV trail bridge standards. The third priority is User Management: blocking access to unauthorized side trails, reducing width of trail to 2-3 m, construction of connector trail, access control installation of bollards gates and appropriate parking at access points. The attached map identifies the routes and highlights some of the key areas of concern of the Fire Road and western portion of Old Coach Road, within the Wilderness Areas, as well as connecting routes. Other areas of concern may exist on the trail and will still be required to be repair. *Note no fieldwork has completed on the Old Coach Road East of the Nine Mile River.

3 ID Comment Sections 1-6/ These sections to be worked on in /13[phase 1]intention is to finish by end of 2012[weather/funding permitting] 1 Decking on existing Bridge 1a 24 culvert x 20 foot 1b 24 culvert x 12 foot 2 8' bridge[supervised by corey robar[atvans] 3 Water on road over of Culvert, ditching, culvert-24 x 12 foot 4 Gravel pit play-area, needs signage and restricted access, and rehabilitation 5 Water running down road, starts at T junction Dicthing/culvert. 6 Water problem at T Junction west on Coach Rd ditching and surface water diversion to downhill slope. Sections 7-13[in red] This section will be worked on in 2013[phase 2]Some road work may be done this year if first phase is completed and weather permits] 7 Long term Bridge Replacement, existing wood culvert currently working 8 Big Mud hole, build up road with fill 9 8' Bridge 10 Wetland raise platform work needed 11 Fill need 12 8' Bridge ' Bridge culvert culvert 16 Fill and ditching,24 culvert 17 8 Bridge[supervised by Corey Robar[atvans] 18 Fill needed, few loads, remove big rocks Sections 19-22[in green] This section is TIR [DOT]jurisdiction,LOA applied for by SMATVA,needed before we can apply to address work required.[pending] 19 Small stream, culvert 20 Underground streams (3) culverts or cross drains 21 8 foot Bridge 22 Broken Culvert, new Culvert needed

4 Appendix A November 25 Trail Inspection Peter Bush, NSE Mike Marriot, SMATVA Club President Sandy Anderson, NSDNR Corey Robar, ATVANS Trails Coordinator December 7, 2011 Trail Inspection Peter Bush, NSE Mike Marriot, SMATVA Club President

5