Alberta Justice officials say they’ll be out in force this weekend on Big Lake to combat illegal snowmobiling in Lois Hole park.
Residents contacted the Gazette this week to draw attention to ongoing reports of snowmobiling in Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park.
Off-road vehicles such as snowmobiles are not allowed in the park under provincial law.
“It’s a constant problem,” says Amanda Rode, who lives on the south side of Big Lake in Edmonton and works in St. Albert.
Rode says she’s been living by the lake since 2013 and sees people on snowmobiles on it regularly each winter – as many as 12 at a time.
“I can hear snowmobiles pretty much every day,” she says, but the activity peaks on the weekends. Many riders use a vacant lot by her house as a staging area. Parts of the lake are completely covered with snowmobile tracks.
“It’s become just a nightmare.”
A former provincial and Edmonton parks officer herself, Rode says she’s made repeated complaints to Alberta Parks about snowmobiles in the park, but heard from one officer that the province had allocated “zero” patrol hours for it.
“That’s how short they are for officers.”
Ludo Bogaert, who frequents the park, says he hadn’t seen any more snowmobiles this year than in past ones, but has seen them whizzing down the Sturgeon towards the park, chasing animals and leaving noise and smelly fumes in their wake.
“There’s always a couple of knuckleheads who decide the rules can be broken,” he says, and there’s maybe one parks official in charge of the entire park.
“I honestly have never seen an enforcement guy in Lois Hole park.”
Alberta Justice conservation officer Rob Spelliscy says this was the first time this year he’d heard complaints about snowmobiles in the park.
Parks officials did a lot of patrols and education work when the park first opened to tell residents about the rules, and continued to do spot-checks in the years after, he says. They averaged five to six tickets a winter initially, but that had dropped off considerably in recent years.
“We still have a presence out there, but we’re just not seeing the traffic.”
Snowmobiles and ATVs cannot legally be used anywhere in St. Albert, said city municipal enforcement officer James Yule. Despite this, they get complaints about off-roaders in town every winter, and caught two of them riding on the river last week.
Riders can be fined $250 if caught riding an off-road vehicle in the city, Yule says. But enforcement is also based on complaints, and it can be tough to catch culprits when they can zip through the city in just five minutes.
“Sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes we don’t.”
Riders can be fined $287 and potentially have their vehicles seized if they ride in Lois Hole park, Spelliscy says.
Snowmobiles disrupt the peace of the park and crush shoreline vegetation that many species need for shelter, Spelliscy says. There are also plenty of other places in Alberta where you can ride a snowmobile legally.
Spelliscy says he will be on patrol in the park this weekend looking for snowmobilers, and plans to make more weekday and weekend patrols in days to come.
“We are stepping up our enforcement program.”
Spelliscy asks residents who see snowmobile or ATV riders in Lois Hole park to report them to 780-778-6660, along with a description of the riders and a license plate number. Residents should not attempt to confront riders.
Riders in city limits or on the Sturgeon River should be reported to the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700, Yule says.
Rode says she’s glad to hear about the additional enforcement, but says an aggressive patrol program, particularly on the weekends, is needed to keep snowmobiles out of the park.
“If people are not being charged, why would they care?”
