Cherry Creek Bummers Flats Motor Vehicle Prohibition

The public is invited to comment on the proposed hunting regulation described below.

Status: Proposed

Region: 4

Management unit (MU): 4-20, 4-21

Regulation type: Motor Vehicle Prohibition

Species: All

Closing date: 16:30, March 22, 2024

Decision statement: Pending

Current regulation

Motor Vehicle Prohibition Regulation

Schedule 1

Motor Vehicle Closed Areas

Cherry Creek — Bummers Flats

33  Effective year round, in those portions of M.U.s 4-20 and 4-21 outlined in red on the attached Map No. 1-33/20, except that motor vehicles are permitted at all times

(a)on the roads shown highlighted in green on that map, and

(b)in all of the Canadian Pacific Railway right of way.

Maps of Motor Vehicle Prohibitions in the Kootenay Region can be found at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/sports-culture/recreation/motor-vehicle-prohibitions/region-4.

Proposed regulation

Remove 760 m of the year-round open road back to 49.719882/ -115.716509

Rationale

The proposed regulation change on the Nature Trust of BC conservation property is intended to limit impacts to vehicle travel on vegetative communities and wildlife populations, including deer, elk, ground- nesting birds, and pollinators, with little or no anticipated disruption to public access.

Sensitive ecosystems within the affected area include riparian, forest, grassland, and wetland/ wet meadow. Motorized vehicle access increases habitat fragmentation, disrupts wildlife movement patterns, and contributes to the spread of invasive plants. Additionally, limiting the proximity of vehicles to riverbanks reduces the risk of erosion and sedimentation affecting aquatic habitat.

The current regulations allow public roaded access to the Kootenay River, which was thought to be originally for hunting and fishing access, typically with small watercraft. In the past, this area also functioned as an occasional ‘party’ and stealth camping location, with evidence of firepits and trash. At least one such clearing along the river was beyond the legally open road. The proximity to a legal road opening facilitates this type of use, which is not congruent with conservation land use policy and can be damaging to both the ecosystem and disruptive to wildlife and increases risk of untended campfires.

Regional staff routinely conduct site inspections to monitor ecological condition, public use, and management needs and opportunities. Observations made in recent years include a decline in use of the segment addressed in this proposal, trespass on a short segment of closed road which extends north immediately following the proposed updated closure point, the spread of invasive plants in the vicinity of the road, the anticipated fire danger associated with vehicle travel across dry grassland in the summer months, and the establishment of the population of wild licorice on the road surface.

Review of available scientific information also informs this proposal. Together with the documentation completed by staff of the wild licorice population, the Conservation Data Centre (CDC) Status Report describes the importance of this population for the survival of the silver-spotted skipper butterfly (blue-listed). Additionally, the CDC reports observations of American badger (red-listed) at this location, which, coupled with widespread data indicating the significance of increasing development and road density to badger populations, is an important consideration in this proposed regulatory change.

Additional information