August 5, 2009
Wasagaming, MB
Cheryl Penny
Superintendent,
Riding Mountain National Park
Administration Building
Wasagaming Manitoba
R0H 2H0
Dear Cheryl,
The July 5 summer meeting of the Clear Lake Cabin Association, passed the following motion:
That the President write a letter to the park with respect to maintenance, or lack thereof, on the boat cove, especially during periods of strong north or north-west winds.
Carried
During periods of strong north or north-west winds wave action on the lake causes all of the boat launches to become covered with a thick cover of coarse sand or fine gravel. The presence of this material makes it very difficult to launch and remove a boat from the lake and in fact there are instances of people who do not have a 4 wheel drive vehicle becoming stuck in this material. Some boaters have resorted to using a shovel to dig down to the concrete pads underneath all of the accumulated sand/gravel, while in other instances, people will actually use their boat motors to provide an extra “push” to get the boat and car moving through debris on the boat launches. This causes a considerable slow down in boat removal as well as a significant safety issue and we would ask that Parks Canada move to rectify the situation as soon as possible
As a short term solution, it has been noted that when the boat launches are cleaned off with the large, heavy duty front end loader, the launches are cleaned off properly, down to the concrete pads. At the very least, the launches need to be cleaned down to the concrete pads on a daily basis during summer months. The long term solution is to re-set and build up the concrete pads which have been installed at each of the launch sites. These have clearly settled over the years and are now susceptible to accumulations of sand/gravel especially with strong north or north-west winds.
Leaving the boat cove and the boat launches in their current condition presents a very poor image of Riding Mountain National Park to our many visitor and boaters. In addition, in the event of a sudden storm blowing up on the lake the launches as they are now, present a significant safety concern as they cause delays in getting boats off the lake as boaters struggle with the heavy sand/gravel accumulations on the launches.
We look forward to your response and action on this issue and thank you for your attention .
Trevor Winters
Clear Lake Cabin Association
23 – 2nd Street North
