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AteToday?
Thank a Farmer.
Better Farming
January 2017
TROUBLE
WITH
TRAILS
concerning property easements makes it
possible for third parties to seize control
of privately owned land. The organiza-
tion continues to argue this interpreta-
tion, although adjustments were made
to the section before the act was passed.
These adjustments weren’t enough,
says Black, who says the association had
wanted to see requirements for organi-
zations to provide clear explanations
when negotiating easements. “There
(were) probably up to 30 or 40 different
entities that were going to be allowed to
share that trail, if they wanted to,” Black
says. Most of the group types listed are
governments or their agencies and
non-profits.
Patrick Connor, executive director of
the Ontario Trails Council and Canadi-
an Trails Federation board member, says
the concerns about easements are based
in “a misinterpretation that the Act
would be a land grab” or that landowner
agreements permitting trails within a
certain season are “all of a sudden going
to be turned into an easement.”
The agreements can’t be changed into
something else without involvement of
the landowner, he says. “Easements are a
legal process with public consultation
that are pursued by some land owners
but totally at the landowners’ discre-
tion.”
He points to statements made in a
Neil Vincent, who farms in Huron County and is the
reeve of North Huron, says more consideration needs to
be applied when locating trails.
Vincent was among a number of people who
opposed the establishment of a section of the
Guelph to Goderich rail trail in Huron County. The
multi-county trail opened in 2015.
The problem, he says, was the trail
followed a former rail line that in at least
one case strayed very close to farms
with strict biosecurity codes in effect.
“Unfortunately, farmers cannot have a
degree of biosecurity,” he says, pointing out
that farmers must embrace established biose-
curity standards when their operations require it.
And biosecurity isn’t just about safeguarding live-
stock; some of the farmers in the area had pedigreed
seed contracts.
He’s not sure if any of the farms lost contracts once
the trail went into effect.
Better Farming
contacted two
farmers who had also been involved in the issue, but
they declined to be interviewed on record.
“None of us were anti-trail,” insists Vincent. “It’s just
some places are better for a trail than others.”
He uses the example of a trail that runs from
Listowel to Gowanstown in Perth County.
That trail is positioned away from farm
buildings at the edge of farms, he says.
The North Huron reeve says
perhaps the solution is shifting trails
to out-of-the-way roads. “They’d be
wonderful trails to take a ride on and just
tour.”
That type of solution sets off alarm bells for
Randy Walker, president of the Stoney Keppel
Riders Snowmobile Club in Grey County. “The acci-
dent rate goes up incredibly” if snowmobiles operate
on side roads or ditches, he says.
BF
Are trails along roads the solution?
In 2015, Ontario snowmobile clubs began introducing signs to
identify the location of trails in the event of an emergency. The
signs, similar to fire number signs, have proved popular with
municipalities, says Graham Snyder.