The backlash highlights rising tensions over the use of e-bikes, which have been controversial inside and out of doors of parks
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The use of partly motorized bicycles in Banff National Park has triggered a minor controversy, with a quantity of individuals writing to Parks Canada with complaints concerning the autos, entry to info paperwork present.
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In December 2021, Parks Canada adopted new guidelines that might permit bikes with electrical motors — e-bikes — for use on some trails throughout the nationwide park. Historically, motorized locomotion has been verboten, and bicycle use, motorized or human-powered, stays relegated to sure trails inside nationwide parks.
“What could you possibly be thinking to allow this type of transport in the backcountry! It is motorized transport, plain & simple,” says an electronic mail from Devon, Alta., despatched in December 2021. “You blew it — badly!… This is not what Parks Canada allegedly stands for. I’m embarrassed for you and angry with you. Canadians rely on you to protect our parks!”
Their use is closely restricted inside Banff however guidelines round the place they can be utilized differ throughout the parks in Canada. One author took challenge with the strictness of the principles in Banff.
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“Neighbouring Jasper National Park … is properly more progressive allowing power assisted trail bicycles everywhere bicycles are allowed except frozen lakes and rivers,” says one electronic mail despatched to Parks Canada in August 2021.
The emails spotlight the rising tensions over the use of e-bikes, which have been controversial in a quantity of jurisdictions, each inside and out of doors of parks, in each Canada and the United States.
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In Whistler, the Whistler Off Road Cycling Association, which manages mountain biking trails, traditionally took a stance in opposition to e-bikes as a result of of put on and tear on trails. The bikes are actually allowed, though riders are requested to be “extra considerate” as a result of of their elevated probabilities of path harm and security of different riders.
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Parks Canada first started exploring the difficulty of e-bikes again in 2019, which ultimately led to the official coverage introduced in a bulletin final December. Parks Canada declined the National Post’s request for an interview about e-bikes in Banff National Park.
“Supporting new activities, such as pedal assist e-bikes, allows Parks Canada to meet the evolving needs and expectations of visitors, enabling more Canadians, of varying backgrounds and abilities, to discover and connect with nature,” mentioned Parks Canada in an announcement.
In nationwide parks, e-bikes have to be pedal-assisted, which means one must be pedalling to get energy, quite than accelerating or sustaining velocity with out pedalling. The bikes can solely have an influence output of 500 watts and a max velocity of 32 km/h. In an electronic mail, Parks Canada maintained Transport Canada’s designation is that such bicycles don’t rely as motorized.
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The electronic mail data present that between March 2021 and January 2022, multiple dozen individuals or organizations acquired into contact with Parks Canada. Largely, they complained concerning the presence of e-bikes, noting that riders are sometimes on non-designated trails and worrying concerning the environmental affect of such transport, urging Parks Canada to maintain e-bikes out of the park.
“Please do not allow recreational use of motorized bikes anywhere in the backcountry — to do so would make a travesty of what our National Parks stand for and further endanger vulnerable native flora and fauna you are there to protect,” says an electronic mail from Canmore.
Since e-bikes make it simpler to get the place one’s planning on going, they open up swaths of land that won’t have been as accessible to individuals in any other case. While this can be a profit to these of sure health or mobility capacities, writers famous that simpler transportation may have a conservation affect. After all, they argued, not everyone can anticipate to mountaineer their method throughout a glacier — not all areas could be accessible to everybody.
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“No matter how you slice it, e bikes are a means of motorized transportation. Allowing them on backcountry trails facilitates easy access to sensitive areas, encouraging more crowding,” reads one electronic mail.
Among the teams that raised considerations with Parks Canada was the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s southern Alberta chapter. Sarah Elmeligi, the nationwide parks program co-ordinator, mentioned the flexibility for extra individuals to journey farther extra simply may have penalties.
“We need to make sure that as these new activities are introduced to the landscape and become increasingly popular, that we’re still managing the park and planning for these activities in ways that don’t compromise wildlife and wildlife habitat and the overall ecological integrity,” Elmeligi mentioned in an interview.
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Parks Canada, and others, have additionally argued there might be elevated contact with animals as a result of, in contrast to a mud bike, which might journey at related speeds and sooner, they don’t make any noise to alert an animal — wild or domesticated — that one thing is coming. (In an electronic mail, Parks Canada recommended customers must be “bear and animal aware.”)
“An encounter between an E-biker travelling at high speeds and a group of horseback riders … could yield fatal consequences,” says one involved electronic mail to Parks employees, from October 2021. (Parks obtained one electronic mail asking for any proof or analysis backing up this assertion; it’s not clear from the data what Parks Canada provided up.)
In August 2021, one individual wrote to Parks Canada to say there are e-bikes on prohibited trails in Banff National Park “virtually every day” and that signage — and fines if crucial — must be used to discourage motorized visitors.
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“I am concerned that a failure to enforce the (e-bike) restrictions will lead to a broad expectation by members of the public for the use of motorized vehicles in the Park,” the e-mail says.
In its assertion, Parks Canada mentioned it will implement its restricted exemptions and proceed to watch and examine the impacts of e-biking in Banff.
Most of the emails had been from individuals who had been offended e-bikes had been allowed in the primary place. But, some emails have guests speaking about how a lot they loved utilizing e-bikes in designated areas when visiting Banff. Or, in one other case, complaining that they couldn’t use e-bikes on many of the paths.
“This comes as an absolute disappointment considering our huge investment in these types of assisted bicycles,” says one electronic mail. “I find it disappointing that every hobby taken up comes with a set of rules that take away all the fun and desire of visiting the National Parks.”
• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson