You need to go to the top to get anything done.
I have contacted the Minister of SRD (Dianne McQueen) in the past about these same types of issues. Of course I got the standard lip service in return, but numbers speak to to politicians as they know each is a vote so I urge others to add their voices. The problem with simply trying to go somewhere else to fish is that we are running out of "else's" to go to. Alberta is quickly becoming one big motocross track with absolutely no limits or law enforcement imposed on these people. Not all of them disrepect the environment, but a large number of them do as it witnessed by the trash left around their campsites and the ripped-up countryside. I talked to a CO who told me it is not illegal for them to cross any stream as long as they go directly across. That law is obviously far too lax and virtually unenforceable, which means it's open season.
Here's what I urged the Minister to do:
(1) Designate certain areas (preferably those areas they have already ruined) as ATV/Motocross bike areas and let them have at them. The rest of the province would be off-limits to the motocross crowd.
(2) Put officers on ATVs to patrol the off-limit areas and give them the mandate to clean this up by firm enforcement of the law. Without officers on ATVs it is virtually impossible to catch these guys. Other provinces have patrols of officers in the woods every single day and they hand out tickets and confiscate property (NB for example).
I was on the Livingstone lately and was shocked to see that it was overrun with bikes too. They were crossing streams, ripping up the countryside and then washing their bikes in the river afterwards. At night there were fireworks (powerful fireworks that could easily set a fire) and shotguns going off all over the place. The next day while walking through some of these ATV/motocross camps to get to the river I saw the spent tubes of fireworks, shotgun shells and garbage all over the place. We picked up a half gargage bag of cans, bottles, and general garbage over the weekend and didn't make a dent in it.
And before someone remarks that not all ATV guys fit the above profile... you are correct. However, there is a disproportiately large number of people in that crowd that do.
Without some laws with teeth and enforcement behind them, we will just see Alberta continue to be ripped up.
Adams