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This article appeared in The Toronto and Ottawa Suns last Friday (Jan. 11)
Take back the countryside
The case for banning those infernal snowmobiles
Think about what a winter's day in the country was like before the invention of the snowmobile.
Clear blue skies and clean white landscapes. And silence. Blessed silence. As far as the eye could see, nothing moving on the snow-covered fields. If you got lucky, you might spot a deer or a moose or even a lone wolf on the hunt.
Now, if it moves through the snow, it is likely a snowmobile. Belching gas fumes into the atmosphere, roaring louder than a wounded water buffalo, smelling up the countryside and scaring every living thing for miles around. Even the cows in the fields cringe as they scream by.
If you see a deer today, he'll be running for his life; bewildered by the snowmobiles coming at him from all directions.
The other day I heard a big-time snowmobiler at the gas pump agree that, yes, the machines could be a nuisance. Nuisance? That's like calling a suicide bomber troublesome.
The fact is, the snowmobile is so much more than a nuisance. It is a curse. It has come between man and nature in a serious way. It is simply too intrusive to bear. It has changed things too much; altered our world too much; made too big a difference in our lives.
As far as I can see, use of snowmobiles is permitted pretty well everywhere. On rural roads and city streets, farmers' fields, frozen lakes and rivers, bush trails, roadside drainage ditches, hydro rights of way. And at any time of day or night.
I guess you might be in trouble roaring along in the collector lanes of Highway 401, but everywhere else with a few inches of snow seems to be all right.
Designated areas
I'm of the opinion that a good case could be made for banning the use of snowmobiles in most of the areas in which they are now legal. I think the Ontario government should seriously consider legislation which bans snowmobiles in all but designated areas.
Snowmobilers should not be allowed indiscriminate use of the countryside. They should not be allowed to violate the land at first dawn, roaring and ravaging their way across the virgin snow, molesting our countryside and terrifying the wild animals.
They should not be allowed access to public roads or city streets. That they are makes no sense.
Last year in Canada, almost 47,000 snowmobiles were sold. The phenomenon is growing and soon no one anywhere will be safe from them.
The average snowmobile owner is 42 years old and drives his machine 1,202 miles per year. In North America, he has, for his use, 225,000 miles of groomed and marked trails.
I think he should be limited to running his machine on those trails. More trails and racing tracks can be developed as the demand arises.
The snowmobile is the antithesis of nature. It no more belongs plowing its vulgar way through the snowy countryside than a personal watercraft belongs screaming down tiny estuaries and trout streams, scattering the local fowl and disturbing the fish.
Frankly, I can't understand the appeal of the snowmobile in the first place.
I dine sometimes at a small country restaurant, which, unfortunately, offers a large parking lot. During the winter, packs of snowmobilers - I've seen as many as 20 - descend on the parking lot at lunch hour, racing their engines, jockeying interminably for the preferred parking spots.
It is difficult for me to imagine anything more disruptive or less appealing. Once done with the macho display in the parking lot, the snowmobilers invade the dining room, snowman-like in their ridiculously padded snowsuits, taking up floor space and the extra chairs with their enormous black helmets.
It is a brash, awkward and unseemly affair, which pretty well ruins the dining experience of anyone already in the restaurant.
I think if snowmobilers were to be banned from public thoroughfares and village streets, resorts catering to them would spring up across the country, much like ski resorts, where they could indulge their intrusive pastime without disturbing non-snowmobilers; without defiling the winter landscape.
We could recapture our countryside.
---------------------------------------------------
The columnist's email is [email protected]
in case you feel inspired to write him. I sent a letter to the editor in rebuttal. But remember to be nice! Everyone is entitled to their opinion and us sledders all have a reputation to protect as a good bunch of respectful people.
Take back the countryside
The case for banning those infernal snowmobiles
Think about what a winter's day in the country was like before the invention of the snowmobile.
Clear blue skies and clean white landscapes. And silence. Blessed silence. As far as the eye could see, nothing moving on the snow-covered fields. If you got lucky, you might spot a deer or a moose or even a lone wolf on the hunt.
Now, if it moves through the snow, it is likely a snowmobile. Belching gas fumes into the atmosphere, roaring louder than a wounded water buffalo, smelling up the countryside and scaring every living thing for miles around. Even the cows in the fields cringe as they scream by.
If you see a deer today, he'll be running for his life; bewildered by the snowmobiles coming at him from all directions.
The other day I heard a big-time snowmobiler at the gas pump agree that, yes, the machines could be a nuisance. Nuisance? That's like calling a suicide bomber troublesome.
The fact is, the snowmobile is so much more than a nuisance. It is a curse. It has come between man and nature in a serious way. It is simply too intrusive to bear. It has changed things too much; altered our world too much; made too big a difference in our lives.
As far as I can see, use of snowmobiles is permitted pretty well everywhere. On rural roads and city streets, farmers' fields, frozen lakes and rivers, bush trails, roadside drainage ditches, hydro rights of way. And at any time of day or night.
I guess you might be in trouble roaring along in the collector lanes of Highway 401, but everywhere else with a few inches of snow seems to be all right.
Designated areas
I'm of the opinion that a good case could be made for banning the use of snowmobiles in most of the areas in which they are now legal. I think the Ontario government should seriously consider legislation which bans snowmobiles in all but designated areas.
Snowmobilers should not be allowed indiscriminate use of the countryside. They should not be allowed to violate the land at first dawn, roaring and ravaging their way across the virgin snow, molesting our countryside and terrifying the wild animals.
They should not be allowed access to public roads or city streets. That they are makes no sense.
Last year in Canada, almost 47,000 snowmobiles were sold. The phenomenon is growing and soon no one anywhere will be safe from them.
The average snowmobile owner is 42 years old and drives his machine 1,202 miles per year. In North America, he has, for his use, 225,000 miles of groomed and marked trails.
I think he should be limited to running his machine on those trails. More trails and racing tracks can be developed as the demand arises.
The snowmobile is the antithesis of nature. It no more belongs plowing its vulgar way through the snowy countryside than a personal watercraft belongs screaming down tiny estuaries and trout streams, scattering the local fowl and disturbing the fish.
Frankly, I can't understand the appeal of the snowmobile in the first place.
I dine sometimes at a small country restaurant, which, unfortunately, offers a large parking lot. During the winter, packs of snowmobilers - I've seen as many as 20 - descend on the parking lot at lunch hour, racing their engines, jockeying interminably for the preferred parking spots.
It is difficult for me to imagine anything more disruptive or less appealing. Once done with the macho display in the parking lot, the snowmobilers invade the dining room, snowman-like in their ridiculously padded snowsuits, taking up floor space and the extra chairs with their enormous black helmets.
It is a brash, awkward and unseemly affair, which pretty well ruins the dining experience of anyone already in the restaurant.
I think if snowmobilers were to be banned from public thoroughfares and village streets, resorts catering to them would spring up across the country, much like ski resorts, where they could indulge their intrusive pastime without disturbing non-snowmobilers; without defiling the winter landscape.
We could recapture our countryside.
---------------------------------------------------
The columnist's email is [email protected]
in case you feel inspired to write him. I sent a letter to the editor in rebuttal. But remember to be nice! Everyone is entitled to their opinion and us sledders all have a reputation to protect as a good bunch of respectful people.
