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Memberships |
Clubs:
22 |
Club Members:
6100 |
Families:
225 |
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The Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association was originally started in 1976, officially incorporated on February 14, 1977. It operated for 22 years in the province, promoting unity and advocacy within the four wheel drive community. Most of the members of Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association also became involved in the Alberta United Recreationists Society (AURS www.aurs.org) and as support drifted to that new multi-user stewardship organization, Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association ceased it's operations in the late '90's, with it's last corporate return in 1999.
Since then, the AURS has continued to be active in trail stewardship. Recently, however, there has been a growing gap in the OHV advocacy in this province, with motorbikes, ATV's, and snowmobiles all having dedicated and well funded advocacy groups lobbying for trail sustainability and access, while the four wheel drive community has lagged behind. AURS has attempted to advocate on behalf of four wheel drives, but this has thrown it's position as a multi-user stewardship group into question, and weakened itself in the process.
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In 2006, the Ghost Access Management Plan was about to be released, and a new Recreational Corridors Trail Committee had formed which was absent of dedicated four wheel drive advocates. It was clear that the four wheel drive community needed to come together to ensure that the rights and needs of its users were properly represented, and to relieve AURS of it's conflicting roles as a multi user trail steward and a special interest advocate for four wheel drives.
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The Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association has several goals.
Develop sustainable four wheel drive trails in the province. This includes working with Sustainable Resources Development (SRD) to propose trail maintenance projects to ensure the sustainability of a four wheel drive trail network, seeking funding for those projects from industry and user groups, and working with stewardship partners to execute those projects. Some of our ideas include challenge parks, mud bogs away from environmentally sensitive areas, and even the creation of hard-core rock crawling trails.
Advocacy for fair and reasonable access to lands and trails is a big part of the mission of this association. We understand that four wheeling is not an activity that is suitable for all areas of this province, but in designated areas, we need to ensure that there is a suitable variety of trails to attract an active and healthy recreational industry, and those trails are sustainable by their users to ensure environmentally responsible stewardship of.
The Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association supports an OHV licensing program similar to fishing and hunting licenses in this province. Every operator of an OHV should be licensed, and should have adequate knowledge and training to operate an OHV as proven by passing a test or taking a course. Federally, Transport Canada has successfully implemented a water craft operator licensing program. Firearm licensing and training requirements have dramatically reduced the number of hunting accidents across the continent. Penalties for violating fishing or hunting rules are significant enough to make people think twice about breaking the rules. Hunting and fishing license revenues in this province are redirected directly back to the lands without going through the governments general revenues. If elements of these succesful programs can be employed for OHVs, the future viability of this sport can be assured for the next generation.
Furthermore, our Southern neighbours have quite a bit of experience with OHV and four wheel drive user collaboration with the government. Tellico OHV area and RedBird SRA are examples of government directed, but user funded and maintained recreational areas. Such a collaboration with government in Alberta is a goal of the Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association.
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If you enjoy four wheeling, then you should care.
- During the Ghost-Waiprous Access Management Planing (GAMP) The four wheel drive community had inconsistent and somewhat disorganized representation until very late in the process. The plan has been released and has resulted in the closure of more trails to four wheel drives than it did to the well organized ATV, motor bike or snow machine groups.
- There's no four wheel drive advocate on the new Recreational Corridors Committee. ATV's have three representatives, and snow machines have two representatives on this committee.
- The 2006 Jeep Jamboree was cancelled because Sustainable Resources Development did not approve the use of public trails for this corporate sponsored event.
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Please refer to the most recent AB4WD Update here.
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- Four wheel drive clubs need to apply for membership and assign delegates to the Board of Directors of Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association. Your club Delegates vote for you on the Board of Directors of the Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association. The number of your delegates is dependant on the members in your club:
1-10 members – 1 Delegate
11-30 members – 2 Delegates
31 + members – 3 Delegates.
- Families in four wheel drive clubs need to apply for membership. If you're a member of a four wheel drive club, make sure your club assigns delegates, and each family in your club completes a membership application. We need to know exactly how many four wheel drive families are active in the province, so we can clearly articulate to the government exactly who we represent.
- If you're not a member of a four wheel drive club, then sign up your family for membership. The Board of Directors will assign a number of Member at Large Delegates based on the number of non-club member families. These Delegates will act on your behalf on the Board of Directors. We need as many people as possible to sign up, so don't worry if you're not part of a club. This association represents all four wheelers, regardless of what they wheel, or who they choose to associate with.
- Get involved. The success of this association will depend on the quality and effort of its members. If you're an intelligent, well spoken and presentable individual, then maybe consider running for one of our executive positions. If you only have a few hours per month, then put your name forward to volunteer to lead a project. If your not part of a club, then volunteer to be a Member at Large Delegate. Or stay tuned for public calls to action, which will come from time to time. It may be a request to write a letter to your MLA, work on a trail maintenance project, or attend a meeting to help us formulate a new policy.
- Support the AURS, or your local trail stewardship organization. While Alberta Four Wheel Drive Association does intend to advocate and seek funding for sustainable trails, it does not specifically have any goals to conduct trail projects, and is relying on the cooperation of trail stewardship groups such as AURS to plan, coordinate, and execute those projects.
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