Northumberland Forest under threat

By John Hopkins

An online petition has been established by the Ontario Federation of Trail Riders in response to a recommendation that OHV use be curtailed in a majority of the Northumberland Forest.

The situation apparently came to a head during a Dec. 17 meeting of executive members of the Northumberland Trail Riders and OFTR, Northumberland County Staff, Al MacPherson of Trent University and Fred Johnson of Ogilvie and Ogilvie and Company (OOC).

According to a release from the OFTR, OOC had produced a "Facilitators Atlas" dealing with the ecological situation in the Forest. This document recommended the limitation of OHV use.

"Mr. Johnson is on the steering committee of the Monitoring the Moraine project," said the OFTR release, "whose mandate involves influencing the decision-making process in regards to the Oak Ridges Morraine (ORM) and has been advocating the position of the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) during this process although OOC is supposed to be neutral and only facilitating the process.

"While the meeting was proposed to us as a negotiation, it was obvious from the start that the intention of the county and OOC was to remove our access to the trails that NTR has legally created. One NTR member walked out of the meeting in disgust before it was over. We probably should have joined him."

More details can be found on the OFTR website at www.oftr.ca and the online petition can be signed at http://www.petitiononline.com/OFTRNTR/petition.html.