Better Farming - January 2017

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28 Dig Deeper: Better Farming January 2017
TROUBLEWITHTRAILS
“The minute there is any form of remuneration paid for
the actual use of the property, our insurance policy is null
and void,” Walker explains.
Walker adds that the agreement he uses was developed
by the provincial organization, not his local club or district.
Snyder sees the outpouring of concern as an opportu-
nity to create better relationships between those who
build and maintain trails and landowners. “In the past
there were some clubs that weren’t communicating with
their landowners on a yearly basis,” he says. “This is a
wakeup call. The clubs are going to be going out and
communicating every year with these people. And the
biggest thing is, if you find out there’s something that
went wrong that year, you can act on it.
Where (as) if you wait four or five years, (it’s) pretty
hard to do something four or five years down the road.”
Walker too says he’s hopeful the organization’s new
agreement will help. But he knows more is needed. He’d
like to see, for example, the federation remove its interac-
tive trail maps from its website once the snowmobile
season is over to make it more difficult for people to find
the trails in off-season periods.
He expects the going will remain tough and refers to
the province’s recent proposal to change land-use growth
plans and their accompanying legislation for areas such as
the Greenbelt and the Niagara Escarpment. The public
comment period for the revisions ended in October.
“Everybody’s sort of sitting and wondering just which
way the next piece of legislation is going to swing,” he
Graham Snyder and his son, Jesse Snyder, head off on their four wheeler to erect trail markers
on the family’s farm.