CALGARY — Provincial officials caught up with a group of rowdy campers during the weekend who were suspected of damaging wetlands and fish habitat in an area of central Alberta.
A group of off-road vehicle and all terrain vehicle enthusiasts were seen tearing up the bush in Clearwater County, about 230 kilometres northwest of Calgary.
Thousands of people hauling recreational vehicles and off-road vehicles descend on the thickly-forested area each May long weekend and officers are kept hopping trying to “educate” them about the potential damage they can do to the environment there.
Sometimes it takes weeks to clean up all the garbage they leave behind.
But during the weekend, provincial government officials received reports they were doing more than littering the popular recreation area.
Kathy Kiel, a spokeswoman with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said Monday they discovered about a dozen people driving their off-road vehicles through wetlands and muskeg.
“Our officers met with the group and educated them about the impact their actions have, or may have had on the landscape,” she said.
Most of the thousands of outdoor enthusiasts were well behaved, Kiel said.
But the weekend wasn’t without incident.
An 18-year-old man from Red Deer was airlifted to hospital in Edmonton after he was injured in a single-vehicle collision Saturday night.
Friends said Brandon Ross was seen driving away from his campsite around 11:30 p.m. Saturday in an older Ford Bronco which was later found at the bottom of an embankment.
Ross had been thrown from the vehicle, suffering serious injuries.
At another popular spot west of Calgary, campers were much quieter this year. The McLean Creek Provincial Recreation Area has also had its problems with rowdy and destructive campers in recent years.
Cold weather kept the number of campers quite low, said RCMP Const. Tom Christie.
“I was back into the areas where the camping goes on and there was 50 per cent less campers back there,” he said. “It was almost a non-event this year.”
The province slapped an alcohol ban on some provincial campgrounds and recreation areas this year and Christie suspects people thought that extended to McLean Creek as well, which may have contributed to the lower numbers.
“I know just talking to the members, the number of charges laid is down very significantly,” he said.