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The Engineering Department of the Squamish
Forest District is responsible for the administration of an extensive forest service road
network which includes over 200 bridges.
It is illegal to use a snowmobile on a forest
service road that is ploughed or is being used by vehicles. Operators will be
fined.
Vehicles parking on or blocking forest
service roads are not permitted. Vehicles will be towed at the owners' expense.
This is of particular importance to the FSRs in and around Whistler, such as the
Brandywine, Daisy Lake, Callaghan, Cheakamus, Soo/Sixteen Mile, Soo River and
the Rutherford Creek FSR.
Damaging and/or failure to obey a traffic
control device (sign, gate); operating a snowmobile; parking or blocking a
forest service road are all ticketable offences under the Forest Service Road
Use Regulation.
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Beginning in 2001, the Ministry of
Forests and Range underwent a core services review process. As part of that process, there are
changes to forest service road maintenance policy and to
road permit and road use permit tenure policy: Other than roads used by the BC Timber Sales
Program, the ministry will no longer maintain forest
service roads (FSRs) with Industrial Use and, with few exceptions, will no longer
maintain FSRs for motor vehicle access where there is no
industrial use.
- The Ministry of Forests and Range will
continue to maintain Public Use Forest
Service Roads until
further notice; where there is an industrial
user, maintenance may be shared.
- Where responsibility for FSR
maintenance is not transferred or funded by
another party, those roads will be maintained to
the new "Wilderness Road" standard, or will be
deactivated.
- Roads may be temporarily
closed using a barricade, where it would be
difficult to provide for a reasonable level of
user safety (due to the threat of landslides,
other mass-wasting events, or unsafe structures).
- Roads may be permanently
deactivated (including a physical barricade)
where:
- it becomes apparent
that necessary repair work on a closed
road cannot be carried out;
- the road is located at
the back end of a drainage (with little
or no current use and no potential for
expansion of access); or
- the cost of
maintenance outweighs the cost of
deactivation.
Policy
Definitions:
"Industrial Use Forest Service Roads" are roads that are owned and operated
by the ministry, but maintenance is delegated to an
active industrial user.
"Public Use FSRs" are roads which access a year-round
residential area with its own post office, or which have
either a school located within it or school bus route to
or from it. Populated reserves are included in this
definition. They do not include
roads that provide access to seasonal cabins, isolated
residences, commercial operations, parks, or recreation
sites.
"Public Use FSR
maintenance standards" include user safety
maintenance activities such as road surface maintenance
and sight line brushing as well those activities required
for protection of the environment. User safety
maintenance activities will be commensurate with the
types of vehicles and pattern of use.
"Wilderness FSRs" are roads that are not defined as
public or industrial use and where the responsibility for
maintenance is not transferred or funded by another party.
Provision of access is not a ministry priority on
wilderness roads.
"Wilderness FSR
maintenance standards" include those
activities required for protection of the environment;
activities do not include surface maintenance or sight
line brushing. As such, the only work carried out will be
for bridge repair and those maintenance projects required
to mitigate environmental problems, like mass wasting or
washouts, which may impact residential or worker safety,
improvements, or natural resources. Wilderness road
maintenance activities will include culvert and bridge
removal, waterbars, partial or full pullback of side
slopes and cross ditches. Washouts or road slumps may not
be repaired. |
