Dear Editor,
A friend recently advised me that Canadian Wilderness Adventures was applying to extend and expand their operations on Sproatt Mountain. When I pulled up the application (http://www.arfd.gov.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=51065) I was shocked by what I read. Under the Sea to Sky LRMP, the Mount Sproatt alpine is zoned non-motorized for commercial recreation. CWA is proposing to build new snowmobile trails all over the non-motorized zone, expand their tenure into parts of the non-motorized zone where they aren’t already grandfathered in, and construct a new snowmobile trail right over top of the popular Hanging Lake backcountry ski access trail. This last one is the real kicker for me, as I’ve volunteered a lot of my time developing this trai.. Overall, volunteers from the BCMC, VOC and Whistler ACC clubs have contributed more than 500 hours of time to improve this trail for backcountry skiers and snowshoers.
This application makes a mockery of the commercial recreation licensing process. Certainly CWA must be aware of the Sea to Sky LRMP zoning. And the hanging lake trail is very popular with backcountry skiers (a report from December 2015 had 38 people using the trail in one day to go skiing around Hanging and Rainbow Lakes) so there’s no way they could be ignorant of its existence. I think the real reason behind this trumped up application is to set an unrealistically high starting point as a distributive negotiation tactic.
CWA needs to come up with a long term plan to transition their business to comply with the LRMP zoning. Their current tenure is grandfathered in, having been issued just prior to the LRMP coming into effect in 2009. This plan is the opposite: more snowmobiles, more noise and more pollution in an area which the LRMP calls out as “for the quiet enjoyment by the public”.
-Scott Nelson
Hello Scott,
Have you posted this information elsewhere, or is this post unique to the BCMC website? Are you looking for assistance with regards to how to offer up resistance to the success of this tenure application?
FMCBC is aware and I've posted to the VOC too. I plan to submit a letter to the editor of the whistler pique newspaper tomorrow.
Unfortunately I don't have much time to stir up support. There is a public comments mechanism on the website I linked, so feedback there, or to your MLA, or to Jordan Sturdy who is the MLA for Whistler would all be good.
-Scott
Another way to help is to demonstrate our high usage of the area by filling out the 21 mile creek user survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MR2HSW8?sm=56RbxoE%2byQyzviMoYDFctg%3d%3d). You can do this even if you only went to hanging lake and didn't go all the way into 21 mile creek.
-Scott