The ORV Coalition has worked for many years towards a provincial licensing, registration and management program for off-road vehicles (ORVs). The FMCBC strongly supports these efforts and is on the coalition’s consultation list. British Columbia lags the rest of Canada and the United States in ORV management. Without licensing, irresponsible dirt bikers, ATV and snowmobile drivers can damage the environment and harass other backcountry users without being identifiable and liable. The ORV Coalition submitted its final recommendations on ORV management to the BC government in 2005.
In November 2009, Minister Kevin Krueger (Tourism, Culture and the Arts) announced in a press release a management framework for ORVs that will be implemented over a two-year period. The framework will include ORV licensing and registration, environmental impact, and compliance and enforcement. The Ministry had set up a website which is no longer active which was supposed to contain information about the new framework.
The Forest Practices Board published a report, Off-road Vehicle Management in the Kamloops Forest District, in March 2010 in response to a complaint about motorcycle and other off-road vehicle use resulting in vegetation and habitat destruction across the province.
In January 2012, the FMCBC sent a letter to Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, urging prompt adoption of ORV legislation.
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