Parents, do you know where your teens will be spending this long weekend?
If they’re packing up their camping gear and heading into the West Country wilderness, this might me an ideal opportunity to talk to them about responsibilities — and alcohol abuse.
The sad reality is that all too often, the Victoria Day weekend turns into a slob-fest in the wilds.
It’s been a long, tough winter and the temptation is out there to cut loose and party uninhibited. In some instances, it turns into an out-of-control gathering fueled by booze.
In the past, this behaviour has led to tragic consequences in Central Alberta.
And the mess left behind by partiers, year after year in the West Country, is astonishing.
Certainly teenagers alone are not responsible. Adults, who should know better, are often just as guilty.
But almost inevitably, it’s the teens who are singled out in the aftermath of a camping trip where something has gone horribly wrong: they are, after all, underage, and, in almost all circumstances, unsupervised.
While it would be nice for authorities to impose a zero-tolerance on such festivities, the vast stretches of the West Country space available to campers and partiers means the area is virtually impossible to police.
And so teens must take on the responsibility of policing themselves.
Last year, the holiday weekend turned into a nightmare near the Prairie Creek Provincial Recreation area, about 70 km southwest of Rocky Mountain House. About 200 teens showed up for a non-stop bush bash.
And bash they did.
There were rampaging, out-of-control, drunken pigs, ripping up the fragile environment on ATVs, firing rifles in the air and setting off fireworks.
Once the dust cleared, a small landfill site emerged. Garbage, beer boxes, broken liquor bottles, abandoned tents and backpacks, beer cans, clothing, lawn chairs, food, condoms and discarded Grade 9 homework assignments were strewn about the natural area.
It was the worst Mirror resident Rick Jagt had ever seen in his 29 years of camping in that area.
“It was atrocious and it made me feel pretty sad,” said Jagt. He and his family spent about 25 hours cleaning up the mess. They carted off 26 large bags bulging with garbage to a nearby dumpster, and another 17 bulging bags of bottles and beer cans.
Once again this year, provincial authorities are imposing a temporary liquor ban on nine Alberta parks, including Sylvan Lake’s Jarvis Bay Provincial Park and Aspen Beach Provincial Park at Gull Lake.
The province has imposed such bans since 2004.
Sylvan Lake RCMP Sgt. Duncan Babchuk said the rules take immense pressure off the Mounties, while affording families the peace and quiet of a holiday weekend uninterrupted by booze-fueled bozos.
The province reports that since the liquor ban has been in place, there’s been a 90 per cent reduction in vandalism, impaired driving, assaults and drunken out-of-control campers. The ban has proven to be the safest and most effective tool in controlling hooliganism.
Babchuk said he’s heard complaints from adults who say they are not going camping if they can’t drink. That sounds like the best solution for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, however, some campers with the booze-first mindset will drift into the wilds of the West Country, where they can party without conscience, leaving in their wake small landfill sites and damaging sensitive areas like trout streams.
There can be a time and a place to party, but there is never an excuse to behave in a manner that causes horrible damage and disrupts the peace of others. The Victoria Day holiday should not be a time to wreak havoc.
But if you must let loose, please keep it down to a dull roar, take the keys away from impaired drivers and ATV users, respect the wishes of other campers, and clean up your garbage.
And parents, if your children are making plans for the weekend, it might be time to have a chat.
Rick Zemanek is an Advocate editor.