The following comments were sent to the official site
Comments on Medway Lakes Wilderness Area
Tusket River Environmental Protection Association (TREPA)
Box 103, Tusket, NS, B0W 3M0
TREPA is Southwest Nova Scotia’s premier environmental protection organization. We have been involved in wilderness protection issues for many years and were members of the task force that developed the Tobeatic Wilderness Area management plan. Many months of work incorporating a broad spectrum of interests groups were dedicated to establishing the principle that wilderness areas should remain free of motorized traffic.
It was a decision that was well discussed and opposed by the same groups who are today pushing, once again, to have all places open to the ease of access offered by motorization. But, in the end, for good reason, it was determined that there are some habitats in the province that are of such quality that they should be accessible only by foot or unpowered boats. People can hike, camp, canoe, fish and hunt in these areas and they can access the wilderness areas from adequate access points. People are invited to use the wilderness on the wildernesses’ terms.
The point of wilderness is to be wild. It is a special landscape and a reserve. Large areas of limited access lands provide a real sanctuary for game, particularly larger mammals. Water is protected for fish, and this area, Brook Trout if the lakes and rivers are sufficiently buffered from activity. The forests, heaths and wetlands remain protected to evolve over years and remain important baseline research and study sites. The wilderness cannot be wild if motorized access is allowed.
Furthermore, the Medway Lakes Wilderness Area occupies a large proportion of the catchment area of the headwaters of two major Nova Scotia river systems. This makes their protection particularly important.
It has been our experience that a good percentage of the ATV riders have no respect for staying on access roads or designated corridors but feel free to wheel off to any accessible point they may wish to go. Our own CRK Allen Reserve has a central trail but there are ATV incursions along the well marked lake edge habitat of Plymouth Gentian that we are trying to protect. The marshes and wetlands of Yarmouth County are well marked with illegal ATV access tracks. Our government agencies do not have the staff or time to patrol and deal with the transgressions. Elimination of access roads is the only way to assure that wildlife and plant habitat is protected and people who enjoy non-motorized recreation will have lands to enjoy.
We certainly have enough motorized accessible land in Nova Scotia to satisfy the need for that form of recreation.
Therefore, TREPA encourages the closure of all roads in the Medway Lakes Wilderness Area.
If this is a non-starter, we request minimum motor access, and closure of all roads which put the integrity of watercourses at risk. Existing gates should be maintained and kept locked except in cases of emergencies, in order to assure this. If the West Branch Road must be kept open, we request closure of the other road in the centre of the Wilderness area, compensatory expansion of the Wilderness area to increase watercourse protection, and a commitment that no new logging roads be built near the Wilderness area. The process which led to the decision to keep the West Branch Road open should also be made public. ATV Associations should also be obliged to partner with government in monitoring and enforcement activities to assure protection of the area.
We realize that the interests of many stakeholdrrs have to be weighed in making decisions, but preserving the ecological integrity of this wilderness area should be pre-eminent considering its importance to the considerable chunk of southwest Nova Scotia which lies downstream.