Property owners and recreational vehicle users have the Lac Ste. Anne council caught in a clash over the installation of snowmobile trails in the area.

The issue stems from a pool of money gathered last fall including provincial stimulus money, tens of thousands of County dollars, and substantial donations from a regional ATV club and the Alberta Beach Snowmobile Club.

“We had an embarrassment of riches. We got a substantial chunk of money from the provincial government several months before we expected it, and had a deadline for spending it,” Lac Ste. Anne County reeve Derril Butler said.  “As a result the preparation wasn’t good and public relations wasn’t nearly as good as it should’ve been.”

He said part of the focus was to use land for trail building.

“We were interested in building recreational trails. It’s part of our philosphy that we want to use the natural resources that we have for recreation, rather than building expensive tri-leisure centres,” Butler said.  “There are many people interested in these trails, and there are a lot of problems because there are not a lot of set trails to go on.”

According to Butler, some snowmobilers were reported to have been cutting fences, vandalizing property, causing environmental damage, and scaring livestock in the area while making their own recreational trails, and county felt the best way to deal with the situation was to legitimize a trail system.

“Its our belief that one of the only ways to deal with it is to have some set trails that are supervised in some way,” Butler said.

In 2005, council formed the Lac Ste. Anne Off-highway Vehicle Committee, composed of council members, summer village representatives, farmers, a subdivision representative, RCMP, business people, County administration, representatives of the ATV community, and members of the Alberta Beach Snowmobile Club.

According to Alberta Beach Snowmobile Club spokesman Marvin Eckert, the club worked with the committee to develop educational literature, increase enforcement on trails, and develop a plan for trail development in the county.

“We encourage country living and to be active, but when people become active there is no proper place for them to avoid doing the trespassing,” Eckert said.  “The idea of building trails is to curb problems and issues that arise from not having trails.”

Eckert said the committee hired a consultant to draw up trail designs for the region, and it because obvious there was strong interest in the community for a diverse trail system.

“This didn’t just happen overnight, we had a variety of people on this committee representing different parts of the community,” Eckert said.

“Once we started doing the development of the trail system, we looked at all aspects of trails, walking, hiking, snowmobiles, multi-use trails.”

At that point, Eckert said they formed the Ste Anne Recreational Trail Use Committee (SARTUC) to diversify the proposed trail system.

“Then in the fall, this National Trail Coalition money became available to help stimulate the Canadian Economy,” Eckert said, adding the money added momentum to the project.

“The decision was based on the fact this money was coming into Alberta. We could either utilize it or have it go to another county.”

The stimulus money was aimed to promote the proposed multi-use trail project and provide business for local construction companies and subcontractors.

Butler said the deadline for spending the money was April 1, 2010, and so the county moved quickly to capitalize on the funding windfall.

“We worked in conjunction with the snowmobile club in Alberta Beach because they are well organized and had a lot of enthusiasm to help build and supervise the trails,” Butler said.

“Once we got into it we discovered that we’d made a mistake, there was a lot more resistance to it than we expected, and we were reluctant to abandon the project because we had money and had made preliminary plans.”

Butler said council hadn’t anticipated the opposition to the trails because the pro-trail members of the community had been outspoken while the anti-trail community had been somewhat reserved.

“We scared the hell out of the public, I guess, especially the farming community,” Butler said.

“All the ranchers to the west of the Pembina don’t want the trails. They see it as urbanites coming up to crash their rural lifestyle,” Butler said.

“We discovered quickly there was no point in trying to go west of the Pembina River – people and the councillors didn’t want it.”

Butler said this put council in a dilemma because they couldn’t gauge whether to continue with the installation of the trails, or quash the project in its entirety.

“We’ve put a stop to any trail building with the exception of a few sections,” said Butler.

“We’ve disbanded SARTUC, and whatever happens in the future will have to happen through a citizen’s committee.”

But the end of trail building comes simultaneous to the deadline for spending the trail building funds, and Butler would not confirm how much of the money was spent, other than to confirm that most of it had been used.  The money was earmarked for multi-use trails, but Butler said many of the trails are solely snowmobile-oriented.

“The money was for multi-use trails, and over the long run that would have happened, but the initial thrust of course was snowmobile trails, and a lot of them go in places you wouldn’t be able to have trails in the summer,” Butler said.

“We figured if we pushed the (snowmobile) trails first, they would be the long distance trails, and within the area of those trails there would be other areas we could add multi-use trails.”

“I think if the process had been better and slower it might have diffused the backlash somewhat,” Butler said.  “We’re encouraging people in the area to organize and make sure whatever happens in the future is representative, but as things stand now, nothing else is planned.”

But that’s small consolation to Charlotte Smith, who owns a farm north of Darwell.

“The council seemed unaware of what was happening, because they didn’t respond to people’s concerns,” Smith said.  “There was no public or stakeholder consultation with farmers.”

Smith said the trails run along resident’s farm yards, and present a big intrusion into the farming community.

“People aren’t against snowmobiles or quads, many farmers use this equipment, but its the way they are using them that is causing the problem,” Smith said.

Another property owner said residents enjoy the quiet country lifestyle.

“There are a lot of people who find that the peace and quiet that they moved out of the city for has been violated by this,” said Eleanore Zotzman, who owns property one mile south of Sangudo said that many trails will lead past her property. “We will have trails coming past our place, and we didn’t ask for them and don’t want them.”

Smith summarized the situation succinctly .

“This issue is turning the county into a paper shredder,” Smith said.