{"id":1519,"date":"2012-07-11T12:18:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T19:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obwb.ca\/blog\/?p=1519"},"modified":"2014-08-22T14:05:51","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T21:05:51","slug":"mud-bogging-and-other-ways-we-love-the-land-too-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obwb.ca\/blog\/2012\/07\/mud-bogging-and-other-ways-we-love-the-land-too-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Mud-bogging and other ways we love the land too hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cAnd now you can\u2019t even take your rubber off the road without getting a fine or be accused of tearing up delicate marshland water sheds or creeks… some people love driving a truck thru the mud getting stuck. And having someone of the same let\u2019s call it sport pulling them out.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Kelowna mudbogging forum<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mud bogging trucks in a drinking water reservoir - photo courtesy of Greater Vernon Water<\/p><\/div>\n

When I start counting up the complex issues in watersheds, I run out of numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a province of 4,618,777 people (as of today<\/a>), our love of the great outdoors is wearing heavy on the landscape.<\/p>\n

My last post <\/a>was about people, climate change, and water use \u2013 with perhaps 30-45% population growth within the next generation.\u00a0The cummulative effect of\u00a0having more\u00a0people depends on where and how we live.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a similar story with people and pollution.<\/p>\n

In the past 40 years we\u2019ve stopped dumping raw sewage in the lake, quit using leaded gas, and now\u00a0we return our used motor oil to the filling station\u00a0instead of recycling it as a handy weed killer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Photo by Brent Magnan<\/p><\/div>\n

But old problems give way to new ones.<\/p>\n

With climate change, erosion\u00a0is more frequent \u2013 banks and beaches torn up by the force of larger freshets and extreme storms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This June was one of the wettest on record, with slips and slides and mud in the water<\/a>. Overland flooding creates a nasty stew of pet wastes, rotting debris, and trash.\u00a0When air temperatures go up in July and August, warmer streams and lakes breed more bacteria.<\/p>\n

And as the population grows, there are (of course) more people at risk from pollution.\u00a0 Most of us get water from surface lakes and streams <\/a>\u2013 high quality, but vulnerable. As drinking water becomes a bigger social priority \u2013 costs to clean it go up.\u00a0 The only way to keep rates low is to keep water sources pristine. New York City is the most famous example<\/a> \u2013 high stakes, millions of people, billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

In BC, source protection is the starting point <\/a>for healthy drinking water \u2013 in the Drinking Water Protection Act, the Water Sustainability Act<\/a>, and others \u2013 but there are conflicting factors.\u00a0 Everyone one wants clean water, yet it\u2019s hard to change our ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Summer boating: What could be finer?<\/p><\/div>\n

With a bigger population, there will also be more people on the landscape \u2013 more boats, more back-country recreation, and more paving with stormwater running off it<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Okanagan has multi-use watersheds <\/a>with no special reserve areas around lakes and drinking water reservoirs \u2013 so surrounding public lands are\u00a0shared by ranching, mining, timber harvesting, and people out having fun. This affects the water.<\/p>\n

Recreation is a huge industry here.\u00a0 I joke that one of the greatest factors determining Okanagan water quality is the Alberta oil industry.\u00a0 Imagine thousands of young men, flush with cash, looking for a clean break from a dirty job. Boys with toys \u2013 trucks, boats, bikes, ski-doos and sea-doos.<\/p>\n

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Image from zazzle.com<\/p><\/div>\n

In many ways we are eager to see it. Recreation can be friendly to water and land, as well as the economy.\u00a0 In 2009 (not a strong year), anglers spent $4.4 million in the valley <\/a>\u2013 catching trout and kokanee. They buy permits, join clubs<\/a>, help restore creeks, and keep an eye on the back-country \u2013 treading lightly on the land<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0But there is tension among back-country enthusiasts because not all sports are\u00a0water-friendly.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the spectrum, mud-bogging<\/a> must generate a tidy revenue from sales of knobby tires and jacked-up rigs. Officially illegal<\/a>,\u00a0this sport\u00a0involves tearing around shallow lakes and wetland areas \u2013 getting stuck and unstuck \u2013 testing the limits of trucks and ATVs. Until recently, Postill Lake, a local drinking water reservoir, was a favorite place for mud-bogging \u2013 no longer.\u00a0 Now there are big fines<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The kindergarden class from Cherryville gets the message. This drawing says, "Stop mudbogging".<\/p><\/div>\n

To the uninitiated (like me),\u00a0mud-bogging\u00a0is mind-boggling (see video below). If nothing else, it’s dramatic proof\u00a0that many people have no idea where their water comes from \u2013 and are just looking for fun. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In the words <\/a>of a young internet poet: \u201cI so fondly remember the days of postil like it was yesterday. I surf thru videos online and remeness of the good old days of a major event like may long weekend, and miss it so<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mud-bogging may be an extreme example (with high shock-value)\u00a0\u2013 and there are many activities besides recreation that can be a problem for source protection\u00a0\u2013 but the basic point is: like lawn watering, the collective actions of individuals <\/a>make\u00a0a real\u00a0difference, good or bad.<\/p>\n

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Lake Osoyoos<\/p><\/div>\n

As our numbers grow, we are more and more likely to love the land too hard.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s me, hiking off trail. It\u2019s your neighbour \u2013 generous with his lawnmower \u2013 who loves to race his cigarette boat <\/a>on Kalamalka Lake.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my friend Wayne \u2013 always stopping to help old ladies \u2013 who has been dirt biking in the hills for 30 years. He didn\u2019t know there were problems with off-roading and erosion, or that there was a special recreation area<\/a> for it.<\/p>\n

Canada is a large country with a small population, even clustered here along the 49th<\/sup> parallel. We are used to having unlimited freedom and access to the wild \u2013 and 94% of BC is public land.\u00a0 But the Okanagan is growing into a major metropolitan area (by BC standards) of more than 300,000 people, and actively recruiting vacationers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To protect water sources as our numbers grow and the climate changes, we\u2019ll need to really improve our communication about water supplies <\/a>and where they come from, and find different ways to manage shared areas.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here’s a You Tube video of a mud-bogging event in Kelowna, 2008.<\/p>\n

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