Mount Carleton snowmobile plan concerns persist

A parks advocateis still hoping she can change the provincial government's mind about the future of MountCarleton Provincial Park.

RobertaClowater, the executive director of the New Brunswick office of theCanadian Parks and Wilderness Society, saidthe provincial governmentstill seems determined to turn the province's highest peak into a hub for snowmobiling.

Last summer, theprovincial governmentannounced plans to turn its only wilderness park Mount Carleton into a major development forsnowmobilers.

It envisions building afuelingstation and opening up 343kilometresof trails, including a major trail up the side of the mountain.

• Mount Carleton snowmobile fight heads to court
• Mount Carleton snowmobile plan a 'safety upgrade': Bill Fraser

Clowatermet with tourism officials a little more than two weeks agoto get an update on the controversial proposal and says it appears nothing has changed.

Plans haven'tchanged

"Well the latest story from the department appears to be they still plan to go ahead with all of the snowmobile trail development plans they had last year," Clowater said.

"They haven't changed their plans much in any way."

Clowatersaid shecan't believe it.

"No other jurisdiction would consider tampering with something so iconic," she said.

"Mount Carleton is not only the highest peak in the New Brunswick, it's the highest peak in the Maritimes. And you know the heritage and the cultural value that people attach to that mountain."

No other jurisdiction would consider tampering with something so iconic.- Roberta Clowater, executive directorCPAWS in N.B.

Clowater saidit's difficult to conceive of any wilderness mountain park that would allow snowmobiles to travel up the sides of mountains She says most wouldn't.

"Certainly it doesn't happen in Baxter State Park [in Maine]right next to us," she said.

"And they have an iconic park that gets tens of thousands of visitors every year, so if we really want to be in the tourism game the wilderness tourism gamewe need to be thinking about what that means and how we market the park."

• Snowmobile trail plan on Mount Carleton panned by parks group
• New snowmobile fueling station, 343 km in new trails planned

Clowater saidthe province is making some overtures about protecting the environment during any development work. It's promising,among other things,to do some rare plant surveys along the sides of the trails where clearing or building is planned, just to make sure any rare plant sites won't be disturbed.

"But otherwise it feels like they're on the same trackthey were before," she said.

"They are still quite committed to allowing snowmobiles up the side of Mount Carleton."

Legal challenge

Meanwhile, the province is also facing a legal challenge to its Mount Carleton plan.

The Maliseet Grand Council and the group Friends of Mount Carleton are asking for a judicial review of the proposal.

They contend the province can't proceed with the snowmobile development without having a park management plan in place,which they say is required under legislation.

They also say the snowmobile hub shouldn't be allowed without conducting a full environmental impact assessment. Neither of those has been completed.

A judicial hearing is scheduled for late June.

Artifacts found

Meanwhile, information obtainedabout the proposalfiled under the Right to Information Actby CBC News reveal a number of undisclosed concerns about the site and its suitability for a snowmobile development,including archeological finds.

"Restrict the disturbance in both locations," is the recommendation of archeologists after discovering artifacts around both Bathurst Lake and Moose Brook in MountCarleton Park, according to one report.

The artifacts "are likely"between 1,800 and 2,300 years old, according to the report.