May 2023 President’s Report –  Chris D’Silva

With Spring arriving we are hearing of more club activities and we have a couple of good news things to mention.

In parts of the province, and particularly in the Thompson Okanagan Region, there has been a partial lifting of the wildfire closures. What this means is that, providing riders stay on existing roads and trails, the restricted wildfire areas are open to ride. The key takeaway here, is that riders MUST stay on existing roads and trails only. Please do your best to cooperate with this ruling, because if we don’t, these areas could be closed again and possibly for an indefinite period.

I had the pleasure to ride with the Logan Lake Club this past weekend, into the restricted area that was the Tremont Creek Wildfire. This fire covered 630 square kilometers, and to see the devastation, first hand, was truly astounding! Happy to report that the trails were in reasonably good shape, and we did not encounter any major obstacles resulting from the fire.

Another piece of good news, is that we have 2 new clubs that have joined ATVBC in the past month, the first one is the North Shuswap ATV Club, they are a group of dedicated riders who are  working on their website and social media and have signed up to host the “Ride for Smiles” on Sept 9th, 2023 with the Starlight Childrens Foundation.

Our second new club is in 108 Mile, with 18 new members. The new club held its first meeting on May 09, 2023 and will be holding their next meeting on May 25. I will be attending and I am looking forward to meeting the club members. Stay tuned for more information on both of these new clubs and another club coming in the Kootenay area soon!!

There are several ATVBC clubs registered for the ORC BC Trails Day event and we look forward to hearing all about those events. This year, ORC is reporting that they have 61 different groups participating in the event. This is apparently more than they have ever had.

Lastly, don’t forget the Poker Ride coming up in Princeton. Kudos to Dave MacIntosh and his team. It sounds like it will be a great event. If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time to do so. The registration deadline is coming up quickly.

Respectfully submitted

Chris DSilva

President