To all outdoorsman and Albertans regarding the castle closure
 

This closure is not just about ATVs. I've seen a lot of discussions against them, and I agree this area needs better management. However people don't realize that banning ATVs and turning this into a provincial Park is going to affect everyone and everyone's passions. In the beginning they said ATVs would be allowed. And now there to be phased out completely. Right now they say hunting is allowed, but for how long? They lied once. Think about it. It won't be long until hunting is not allowed, fishing is closed, and you won't even be allowed off designated hiking trails. They left room in the draft for development. There are already talks a full service campgrounds with hot showers and stores. And at one time there were rumours of a proposed townsite in the flat area where you turn off to be beaver mines lake and Castle bridge.
This is a threat to outdoorsman of all kinds. The ATV community, the hunting community, the backcountry community, the campground community, The fishing community, is all at stake here. They will start with the castle side, and then draft in the upper old man area. And they won't stop there. This is just the ball rolling for them and wants this park is in place they will continue as far north as the Yukon and as far south as Yellowstone, and the entire Rockies will be off-limits.
150,000 ha of land are being taken from public use. Technically you can't even walk your dog off leash without penalty. They say random camping is allowed in tents but for how long? Soon you will have to pay to enter the park, you'll have to pay for firewood, You have to pay for your campsite, and right now for hunters, not only do you have to pay for your wildlife certificate and hunting license, you will now have to pay for a permit to discharge a firearm, and a permit to harvest game in the park. And when hunting is them for bidden eventually, farmers and landowners will be bombarded with people asking for permission to hunt and they will get fed up and shut that down to. Or have paid hunting.
People who camp incamp grounds,you think it's hard to find a spot now now that random camping is eliminated those campgrounds will be so packed it will be like a feedlot. The whole purpose of going being in the outdoors, is to have your own little piece of solitude.
For the fisherman, cutthroat and Bulltrout are considered threatened species. And once the environment minister gets this idea in her head, she will eliminate that to. There has already been a bill table once, about wildlife harassment which would basically eliminate any hunting fishing varmint hunting. And once all these parts are established that Bill will be easier to push through.
This is no longer the ATV people versus the mountain bikers, the random campers versus the campground campers, the flyfisherman versus the spin fisherman, the rifle Hunter versus the bow hunter, This affects everyone and what we love to do.
I am a flyfisherman at heart, and I bought my ATV three years ago solely to help my ageing father access the places we used to fish when I was young. It's not that he's in bad shape, age catches us all and he is just unable to carry himself like we used to. It broke his heart to realize he may never see some of the places he grew up, I grew up, teaching me how to enjoy the outdoors. My boy is three months old, and he may never experience the outdoors like I did growing up . And one day, my body will no longer be able to take me back there to enjoy my fishing hunting and backcountry camping. For people with disabilities ATVs make it possible for them to access this beautiful land.
Alberta is already full of provincial and national parks for people to enjoy that may want to be have no hunting and atvs and are full of campgrounds.
This government is pushing for the legalization of marijuana yet restricting your outdoor recreation. They would rather you or your kids go smoke a doobie than camp, fish, hunt or ride atvs.
Think of the big picture. This will effect atv and rv dealers, businesses, stores like cabelas, wholesale, basspro as well as smaller indipendant buisnesses.
Those in north and central Alberta pay attention. They will come after your areas as well. Please help support those in the south. All Alberta outdoorsmen need to put differences aside and support each other. All our public lands and recreation are at risk. This is just the start. They continue to ram taxes and bills down our throats. The outdoors is our only refuge, our only break from reality. Please Alberta unite and help us keep our lands multi use. Let's come together and find a way to manage them to suit us all and for generations to come and enjoy as we have.
Please take the time and write a letter or email to environment minister Shannon Phillips and express your concern. Thoughts opinions, experiences. Please be politically correct.
Thankyou



Shannon Phillips

aep.minister@gov.ab.ca

Read the way hunting is addressed in the plan as well as consultation. Only cow elk and does potentially? Only hunting by FN people potentially? Everyone should be contacting the minister asap.

Very well said!!! This isnt about ATV's.. This will mean lost oppurtunities for all user groups..

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

This is so true. It is all about divide and conquer.

While I agree somewhat with the op...this government has repeatedly shown it simply does not give a damn what albertans think about any policy.

The fun we have with our system of elected dictatorships and no recall legislation. Gonna be a long two years.

Sometimes it's best to let people learn the hard way.

Email Phillips. 20 emails won't matter. Couple hundred won't matter. There are 64000 members on this forum. Everyone write her. Send the message!!

After reading the draft......
 

I am inclined to agree with this assessment.

We're in this together....... simply by how stuffs been phrased in this draft. They are like point for slippery slope consent. It is a misguided nature preservationist agenda.

I for one will fight this.

I would ask that you write a letter to the MinIster. And send copies to your local media as well.

Very small window here to sound off.

Economic policy, sure. But that can and does change with a new government. Once a place is off limits for hunting, it is a rare thing for it ever to open again. That can't be allowed to happen.

Save your pennies boys! In 20 years or less you will need them to go on guided hunts, buy land to hunt on or find a new hobby. Enjoy while it lasts

Message sent .....

Thankyou!!!

There are petitions floating around Facebook as well. There will be a rally in Lethbridge at galt gardens early February. This affects everyone.

I doubt Shannon Phillips had anything to do with this. When she was elected there were folks on AO posting how great she was going to be for outdoorsmen.:thinking-006:

First step
 

Your right, its only the first step. I am already seeing the changes and seeing more restrictions in the Ghost.

There is a small vocal group that has the new governments ear...

Those people didn't know who she was.

Everyone around Lethbridge knows her to be an eco freak...

Just like how they had the 'announcement' planned to avoid any opposed to this, and just like how they've already planned to close the Three Sisters Campground, the decision is already made. :mad3:

Growing up in Alberta and enjoying all aspects of the outdoor life in our breathtaking Rockies and foothills. The largest challenge, is the problem of people abusing nature, crown lands, and taking advantage of our landscape. People need to be held accountable for their actions. The governments money will be much better spent on educating people, enforcing the rules and supporting groups that care about outdoor activities. Plain and simple. It's easy to shut it down and take it away than it is to allow free range of activities. In their eyes its much cheaper this way. We don't want tourism in the Castle area, that's Waterton's job. That area will just turn into another Canmore/Banff. Support your clubs, organizations and groups in opposing the governments plans for Castle area. Thanks everyone for speaking out.

Good plan.

I sent an email to her and my MLA. Hope it will help. I just wish they'd quit banning things and enforce the rules.

If they are so worried about OHVs, then why don't they spend some money on ads, similar to ads against drunk driving, etc..

You can say "they should know". Well everyone knows not to drink and drive, but they still have the ads on TV, the radio.

Why can't they try that instead of just banning things? I really think it would help with some people.

An approach and consultation for multi use is what is required for our Public Land. Please sign this petition “Amend Castle Provincial Park, Castle Wildland Provincial Park Plan to include OHV Use..” I think this is important.
Here’s the link:
https://www.change.org/p/amend-castl...iter=671468582

Mass non compliance is in order..They only get what they want if everyone obeys thier so called laws. I fully intend on NOT listening to this Granola eating goof. :fighting0030:

If legislation goes through, I advocate this. Anything less is implied permission to repeat elsewhere.

Your right it was the PC that got the ball rolling!!! :shake2:

Y2Y(Yukon to Yellowstone) and CPAWS are two very strong extreme wilderness groups pushing for this. Cpaws goal want 50% of Alberta and Canada protected. Y2Y wants a park from Yukon to Yellowstone. The entire Rocky Mountain range off limits to ANY outdoor recreation. Our environment minister has been known to support such groups. If we don't stand up now we will lose A lot of our public land use. Hunting, camping, fishing, ohv will be a thing of the past. Even the pin horn in south east Alberta is slated to be protected in the next three years. Please show your support and write your mlas!!

There will be a rally at galt gardens in Lethbridge Alberta February 11 hosted by Rocky Mountain trail blazers atv group. Wild rose Brian Jean will also be there to show support for the outdoorsmen. We need people!! Show up and take a stand for public lands or we will ALL lose it eventually. The castle is just the first step for them, and they are using OHV use as their in as it's the easiest way for them to put in closures. It's not just atvs. Random camping, hunting, back country camping, fishing, firewood harvest will all be lost if they get their way. It will be a provincial park and with that all the rules that apply. They will not stop at castle.
http://lethbridgenewsnow.com/article...trail-closures

Thanks for posting this!

just look up the quad squad. as usual the offroad groups are doing most of the work so far to stop this. there are rallies and specific letters they need written to specific people.
Mayby now all the people who blame ohv's for everything will wake up and listen to what the ohv groups have been saying. THIS AFFECTS EVERYONE!

One of the worst management schemes for ecological management is the park system. All harvesting is stopped including sustainable timber harvesting, fire gets suppressed so you end up with a perpetually senescent forest that when there is a fire it becomes a very large scale reset event.

proper timber management allows for natural secession to take place and works like fire on the landscape with smaller scale renewal events and allows for a rotation of early succession patterns (meadows) which creates more habitat for large ungulates.

All harvesting is stopped on ungulates (all ecosystems have harvest by man throughout out the populated world since before history. Aboriginal populations hunter/gatherer societies harvested more ungulates than agrarian societies. Then the top level predator niche gets over balanced and you have more wildlife/human conflicts as well and the spike in ungulate population creates more car collisions, disease and a spike in predator populations to unsustainable levels.

Look at Banff or Jasper and how out of whack the wildlife are, they have lost their natural fear of man, predator populations are out of control, yet fires is suppressed... but a ski hill being constructed is fine in all of Alberta's "Unnatural Parks".... Our parks are no longer a representation of a Natural Wilderness with sustainable management.

I have recreated in The Castle Area because it was not a National Park. I could camp, ATV, Fish, hunt etc. and do it with minimal impact on the environment. We will always have an impact on the environment and that is same as every single organism that inhabits this Earth. We just have the logical and ethical mind to be able to "not be a douchebag" when it comes to utilizing the outdoors. Unfortunately we have conflicts of interests and ,media has more say than it ever should in public land management decisions.

So I am a person that harvests fish, game, berries, uses an ATV for access, recreates in winter with Snowmobiles, does not leave garbage other than feces...

Why is that being discouraged....

Meanwhile that person who travels from the far side of the world, using a space age bicycle, that eats pre-packaged plastic wrapped food, that is factory produced and mass farmed, that comes to look and take pictures of the scenery is being promoted?

Meanwhile I work, live, recreate, and pay taxes here and am treated like a second class citizen in my own land...

Much the same argument made here after 1492....

Many of the same arguments were presented when K Country, Peter Lougheed, Spray Valley and Don Getty Wildland Parks were established by the PC's. They seem to be working out OK.

Southern Albertans love their K Country with it's restrictions and regulations - and the way they perceive it as being properly managed. It was once a "free-for-all" there too.

These same arguments and fears were going on 35-40 years ago. I'm not saying it will never happen. Just that these discussions aren't knew. K country was a big fiasco when they made all those parks in that area.

BW

The minister is doing a big announcement on the plan in 15 minutes.

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=68597