Off-road Vehicle Management in the Kamloops Forest District

In July 2009, a resident of Kamloops submitted a complaint about motorcycle and other off-road vehicle use resulting in vegetation and habitat destruction across the province. The complainant identified the Sonora Road area east of Kamloops as an example, asserting that off-road vehicle (ORV) use has caused:

• Extensive soil disturbance
• Erosion
• Potential for slope destabilization
• Disturbance of wildlife
• Damage to aesthetics
• Conflicts with hiking and wildlife viewing
• Destruction of rare dryland vegetation
• Destruction of key wildlife habitat

The complainant gave several examples of substantive and obvious alteration of the environment by ORV users. For example, in the Sonora Road area, sagebrush areas have been impacted by ORV users driving in ever-increasing circles in formerly undisturbed meadows—either flattening the sagebrush or uprooting it entirely.