Snowmobile clubs in some parts of Manitoba have had a devastating last few months. With a massive windstorm in June in the western region of the province, fires in July in the southeast and an early snowstorm that wreaked havoc in October, thousands of fallen trees have wiped out hundreds of kilometres of trails.
Clubs are now struggling to clean up their trails as the snowmobiling season quickly approaches. Ken Lucko, executive director of Snoman (Snowmobilers of Manitoba), said some clubs are even bringing in specialized forestry equipment to help deal with the problem. It is estimated that costs to reclaim the trails will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"The first issue was the massive windstorm in June in the Duck Mountain Provincial Park area that pretty much knocked down all the trees in the area," Lucko said. "It was all mature-growth forest. The clubs there had a heck of a time even getting through the area, since the destruction and damage is just phenomenal."
Too much of a good thing?
Lucko said cleanup efforts have been hampered because of an early snowstorm that dropped up to two feet of snow in some areas. Since the snow was heavy and wet, it snapped off a lot of trees and scattered them across the trails. There are hundreds of kilometres of trails to be cleaned up—from Nopiming Provincial Park down to the U.S. border and through the Agassiz Provincial Forest. Some trees, 18 inches at the base, were completely uprooted.
On a positive note, Lucko said that because of the early snow, some clubs have already started to groom their trails—which is the earliest he can remember.
Lucko said Snoman has made an application to the Province for funding to help clubs that do have trails to repair, but as of the beginning of November, Snoman had not heard back from the Province. Lucko said clubs are working on their own with many dealerships and private companies, who are donating equipment and machinery.
"But they still have to put fuel in them and (incur) other costs," said Lucko. "There is a huge cost to this. Some of the money (that) clubs have put away to buy groomers or to work on their shelters is now being used to clean trails instead. It will definitely affect club operations this season."
Contributions welcomed
One of the worst-hit clubs is the South East Sno-Riders. Back in July, there was a major forest fire in southeastern Manitoba that took out about 20 kilometres of trail. The club lost all its signage, and because it's a swampy area, all the peat moss burned, leaving roots of trees exposed. Then at the beginning of October, the huge snowstorm hit, and with the weight of the snow, trees toppled over.
"As a whole, we have approximately 450 kilometres of designated trails that this snowstorm hit," said Dave Boutang, president of the club. "Trees are down and in some places it's so bad because we have no place to move them. We need to pick them up, haul them out and find a place along the trail where you can push them in. It's really bad."
The costs are adding up as well for the South East Sno-Riders.
"We don't have a dollar value yet," said Boutang. "Rent for the machines is probably in the neighbourhood of $90 to $100 an hour . . . and that's not factoring in labour and fuel. I expect we're burning $8,000 to $10,000 worth of fuel alone."
Volunteers are out in full force and have been working around the clock to move the fallen trees. Boutang said they are trying to open trails and connect them to other snowmobile clubs' trails. They have already worked hard to get a few open and have the lower areas left.
With all this destruction, many sledders are wondering what the future of the upcoming season looks like.
"I don't think we will be able to clean the entire trail system this year; it would be a godsend if we could," said Boutang. "There is just too much work to do by hand. Our volunteer base is the same all the time and we don't want to wear them out, because we need them for future. We're going to do as much as we can to connect all of our trail system to other trail systems."
If you would like to donate to the South East Sno-Riders, you can go to the club's website. Donations can also be made on the Snoman website and Snoman will pass this money on to the clubs.
