Photographs

This rock blew a $20,000 front tire. It happened because ATVs travelled during the mud season, March 1 to April 30, driving over 20 km/h. OHVs displace most of the gravel between rocks, making roads impassable for cars, pickup trucks, and logging trucks without thousands of dollars of repairs.

Regrowth of decommissioned porter harvesting road not destroyed by OHVs.

Destruction of a decommissioned porter harvesting road by OHVs.

Approximately $15,000 was spent to repair damage done by OHVs on the BLC Timberlimit Road on the west side of Beaver Bank Road near the Villa. Drivers were going too fast during the mud season March 1 to April 30 or drove while the road was wet, causing ruts. Then rainwater that would normally run in the ditches runs down the ruts, doing more damage to the road. There was no way I could haul out wood with a logging truck without expensive repairs.

A walking path destroyed by OHVs. The land will never heal and return to forest as long as OHVs keep destroying it.

In August 2021, a person or a group didn’t properly extinguish a fire near Horseshoe Lake and it got into the roots of nearby trees. A walker first tried to put it out with a water bottle, then the chair of the Lakeland Gate Committee and her husband tried to extinguish the fire but couldn’t because it was very deep in the roots. Finally, they called the fire department, which put it out with a lot of digging, etc.

This damage was caused by OHVs making ruts and changing the water flow on this hill, thus helping to silt the nearby stream and lake.

Thousands of dollars’ worth of damage done to our harvesting road behind Rosley Road in Beaver Bank by OHVs driving while the frost was coming out. I had to completely rebuild and gravel the road.

Definition of an OHV trail: the first OHV goes through a thicket, a second OHV follows, then a third and now they call it an OHV “trail”.

This site was growing 6- to 8-foot trees when OHVs put a trail through in the 1980s. Not content with destroying 4 to 6 feet of good forest-growing land, they are in the process of destroying 16 feet of excellent growing land as well as the new crop of trees.

OHVs and snowmobiles, by driving when frost is in the roads, cause rocks to rise and create a driving hazard. I regularly remove them at my own expense.