scooter
10-26-2005, 09:58 AM
GAMP process appears ready to wind down
Cory Pytlarz
Thursday October 20, 2005
Calgary Country — It’s been a long and winding trail in attempting to finalize the Ghost-Waiparous Access Management Plan (GAMP), but the end of the lengthy process is coming soon, says one member of the plan’s draft committee.
With direction from both Rick Blackwood, the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD) manager for the southern Rockies division, and ASRD Minister David Coutts, Counc. Hugh Pepper of the Municipal District of Bighorn believes GAMP is ready to be stamped.
“The last word that I’ve gotten from both the local director (of ASRD) and from the minister is that it will be this fall,” Pepper explains. “Now fall is rapidly drawing to a close, so I’d have to conclude from that that if those statements to me are accurate that it will be soon, in mid-November, I would say, or even sooner.
“All the information I’m getting is that this thing is a go and that there is going to be an acceptance of it,” he continues, adding that the inter-municipal committee with representatives from the municipal districts of Clearwater, Pincher Creek, Ranchland and Bighorn has a meeting planned with Minister Coutts in early November. “We should know by then.”
Though some are looking forward to seeing GAMP finalized, Pepper realizes some user groups of the 1500 square kilometer area northwest of Cochrane still aren’t satisfied.
“Some of the user groups still have concerns and they’re trying to effect some kind of changes,” he says. “There are some within that group who want to make major changes. I don’t think those major changes are in the offing, but I do think that there may be some other changes to the trail system.”
As to what those changes may turn out to be, Pepper says it depends on the groups’ ability to make them work within the bigger GAMP mission.
“They’ve been told by ASRD that if they can justify the trail and show that it is going to be maintained in a safe way, respecting the principles of the GAMP, which have to do with safety for users and safety for the environment, then there is a possibility that they’ll get these new trails--additional (trails) or alterations of existing trails. There are those possibilities, but they have to do their homework.”
But local rancher and member of the Alberta Off-Highway Vehicle Association Darryl Copithorne says this homework has been done, but says that GAMP is being pushed through too quickly due to emotional reactions and hear-say of problems between Ghost-Waiparous area users that are blown out of proportion.
“Let’s use some facts, figures and science in this plan rather than he said-she said and emotional (response),” he says. “We need to be back at the table to get rid of the…unsubstantiated claims.
“The process has been very poorly done,” he says. “There’s been virtually no stakeholder input into this plan.”
Focus group meetings held by the ASRD with individual stakeholder groups of Ghost-Waiparous were not sufficient, Copithorne says.
“That is not stakeholder consultation,” he suggests. “They (need to) put the major stakeholders together in a room and sort out the differences, the commonalities, and when you have that 10 per cent of items you don’t agree on, you can hammer them out and come to a general consensus. That opportunity was never given to us.
“The feeling we’re getting is they want to try to hammer it through and then try to fix the problems with it later.”
Copithorne insists that GAMP is not addressing the real problems in the area.
“The problems out in the Ghost are not going to be addressed, to a large extent, by what they’ve even proposed,” he says. “The biggest problem is partying…the partying will go on even with the GAMP plan.
“One of the things the government seems unwilling to do is step up enforcement drastically, he says. “We just need a whole bunch more education and enforcement and that’s a drum we’ve been beating for a long time.
There is an increase in use up there with less education and less enforcement. So you’re doomed to have more trouble.”
So while the final acceptance of the plan looming on the horizon leaves some users of the area unsatisfied, authors of the plan celebrate the imminent implementation.
“There is an urgency for us to fix this (environmental damage) problem,” Pepper says. “The longer we put it off, the worse the problem gets. We really don’t have that much time to play around with the niceties of this.”
Cory Pytlarz
Thursday October 20, 2005
Calgary Country — It’s been a long and winding trail in attempting to finalize the Ghost-Waiparous Access Management Plan (GAMP), but the end of the lengthy process is coming soon, says one member of the plan’s draft committee.
With direction from both Rick Blackwood, the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD) manager for the southern Rockies division, and ASRD Minister David Coutts, Counc. Hugh Pepper of the Municipal District of Bighorn believes GAMP is ready to be stamped.
“The last word that I’ve gotten from both the local director (of ASRD) and from the minister is that it will be this fall,” Pepper explains. “Now fall is rapidly drawing to a close, so I’d have to conclude from that that if those statements to me are accurate that it will be soon, in mid-November, I would say, or even sooner.
“All the information I’m getting is that this thing is a go and that there is going to be an acceptance of it,” he continues, adding that the inter-municipal committee with representatives from the municipal districts of Clearwater, Pincher Creek, Ranchland and Bighorn has a meeting planned with Minister Coutts in early November. “We should know by then.”
Though some are looking forward to seeing GAMP finalized, Pepper realizes some user groups of the 1500 square kilometer area northwest of Cochrane still aren’t satisfied.
“Some of the user groups still have concerns and they’re trying to effect some kind of changes,” he says. “There are some within that group who want to make major changes. I don’t think those major changes are in the offing, but I do think that there may be some other changes to the trail system.”
As to what those changes may turn out to be, Pepper says it depends on the groups’ ability to make them work within the bigger GAMP mission.
“They’ve been told by ASRD that if they can justify the trail and show that it is going to be maintained in a safe way, respecting the principles of the GAMP, which have to do with safety for users and safety for the environment, then there is a possibility that they’ll get these new trails--additional (trails) or alterations of existing trails. There are those possibilities, but they have to do their homework.”
But local rancher and member of the Alberta Off-Highway Vehicle Association Darryl Copithorne says this homework has been done, but says that GAMP is being pushed through too quickly due to emotional reactions and hear-say of problems between Ghost-Waiparous area users that are blown out of proportion.
“Let’s use some facts, figures and science in this plan rather than he said-she said and emotional (response),” he says. “We need to be back at the table to get rid of the…unsubstantiated claims.
“The process has been very poorly done,” he says. “There’s been virtually no stakeholder input into this plan.”
Focus group meetings held by the ASRD with individual stakeholder groups of Ghost-Waiparous were not sufficient, Copithorne says.
“That is not stakeholder consultation,” he suggests. “They (need to) put the major stakeholders together in a room and sort out the differences, the commonalities, and when you have that 10 per cent of items you don’t agree on, you can hammer them out and come to a general consensus. That opportunity was never given to us.
“The feeling we’re getting is they want to try to hammer it through and then try to fix the problems with it later.”
Copithorne insists that GAMP is not addressing the real problems in the area.
“The problems out in the Ghost are not going to be addressed, to a large extent, by what they’ve even proposed,” he says. “The biggest problem is partying…the partying will go on even with the GAMP plan.
“One of the things the government seems unwilling to do is step up enforcement drastically, he says. “We just need a whole bunch more education and enforcement and that’s a drum we’ve been beating for a long time.
There is an increase in use up there with less education and less enforcement. So you’re doomed to have more trouble.”
So while the final acceptance of the plan looming on the horizon leaves some users of the area unsatisfied, authors of the plan celebrate the imminent implementation.
“There is an urgency for us to fix this (environmental damage) problem,” Pepper says. “The longer we put it off, the worse the problem gets. We really don’t have that much time to play around with the niceties of this.”