The regional director of the Ministry of Natural Resources has given his support for district manager’s Bill Darby’s decision Feb. 21 to conditionally open Trout Road in an official letter sent out.
“As is often the case with these types of issues, there are some very strong and divergent opinions,” Charlie Lauer wrote. “The task for MNR is to find a reasonable balance of these varied interests while ensuring the sustainability of our natural resources.
“In this particular case, I believe that the District Manager in Fort Frances has been able to strike a balance among the varied interests, and as such, I support [his] decision related to Trout Road, Kinnyu Road, Silander Road, and other secondary and tertiary roads branching off the Trout Road, including the Gator and Irregular Roads,” Lauer added.
Henry Miller, president of the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club, said the decision would be discussed at a meeting Tuesday night so any official stance on the Lauer’s decision before that would be hasty.
But he did say, “So far, the response has been pretty positive.”
The club did file an appeal to the regional director last month, and Miller noted Lauer’s instructions to Darby, which also are part of his letter, put some of the club’s grievances into consideration.
“There has been some instructions [to Darby] to assure there will be enforcement in the next year and beyond,” Miller noted. “When any road opens up, you want to be sure you won’t have people going and abusing that because the regulations aren’t in place yet.”
A second issue the sportsmen’s club had with the policy was concern over illegal tourism in the area.
Lauer’s instruction on that matter is: “Share with the affected parties the results of any MNR investigation into alleged abuse of LUPs [Land Use Permits] on Entwine Lake.”
But Jeff Steinke, president of the Crossroute Forest People’s Alliance, said the instructions just aren’t enough. “We’re very displeased–very much so,” he said Tuesday.
“We’re concerned about the dates that have been implemented,” he added, referring to the fact both the Kinnyu and Silander Roads of the Trout River road system will be closed to vehicular traffic from Jan. 1-Oct. 20–a date almost two weeks after the start of deer and moose hunting season.
Darby didn’t have a comment but he did note there is a further appeal policy whereby parties with grievances can submit them to the Ministry of the Environment no later than 30 days after the final public notice for the forest management plan, which will happen in late summer or fall.
After spreading the news throughout the alliance membership, Steinke noted an appeal wouldn’t be the route they would be taking.
“No, we don’t believe this is an environmental concern here. We’re discussing a different way to deal with this,” he remarked.
Miller also noted it’s unlikely there will be any further appeals from the sportsmen’s club.
Randy and Donna Hanson, president and vice-president of the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association (NWOTA), could not be reached for comment.
In the meantime, Darby said the MNR will be busy finalizing the plan in the next few months.
“What happens from here is that have been taking public comments into consideration for a fine-tuning of the plan. And that’s quite a lot of work.
“That’s what we’ll be doing this summer,” he said.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
