{"id":8232,"date":"2025-01-29T18:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T22:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=8232"},"modified":"2025-01-29T18:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T22:24:22","slug":"region-of-queens-moving-on-road-trail-requests-from-atv-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/01\/29\/region-of-queens-moving-on-road-trail-requests-from-atv-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Region of Queens moving on road trail requests from ATV groups"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

David White, president of the Queens County ATV Association, made another appeal to regional councillors on Tuesday to create road trails in Queens County. (Region of Queens YouTube channel)<\/p><\/div>\n

ATV users in Queens County are motoring along with their plans to connect off-road trails with public roads and streets in the municipality.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Region of Queens councillors are interested in hitching a ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

David White, president of the Queens County ATV Association, was at regional council on Tuesday evening to repeat the group\u2019s request from last March for the region to help make a connected network a reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea behind them is to provide trail-to-trail connections and trail-to-access services. \u2029That’s supported by the 2022 Off-Highway Vehicle Spending Report that showed in the province of Nova Scotia in that year $464 million was spent by off-highway vehicle users. It’s time that impact was felt here in our county. It’s well past time. \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the third time off-highway vehicle groups have appealed to councillors for a road trail that would allow users to go from Lunenburg to Queens to Shelburne counties.<\/span><\/p>\n

They first presented to council in July 2023, shortly after the Nova Scotia government passed the Road Trails Act, which would allow off-highway vehicles on provincial and municipal roads, with certain conditions. Both levels of government must grant access. And in Queens, that would require a new bylaw.<\/span><\/p>\n

Queens County ATV groups say having that connected trail locally would boost tourism and help local businesses by creating a destination riding area.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You need look no further than this weekend gone by where 551 off-highway vehicle users registered and went on a run in Western Shore, and they raised over $13,000 for a volunteer group and their club and saw somewhere in the neighbourhood of 800 people participate. Sixty-one rooms were sold over two nights for a total of over 120 room nights in that community because of off-highway vehicle use.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our goal is to have a connected route across Queens County to complete the western loop of the Great Trail, part of the TransCanada Trail to be able to leave Lunenburg County and go right through to Shelburne with the bigger idea of leaving Halifax or Tantallon, travelling to Yarmouth, around to Middleton, and back to Bridgewater via New Germany.”<\/p>\n

White told councillors his group has signed agreements with 10 private landowners in Queens County, which would give ATV riders permission to use people\u2019s property to get from one trail to another.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the ATV association and the Queens Rails to Trails Association have also spent about $300,000 maintaining and improving trails around Queens County.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

White told councillors that Queens ATV Association spent $49,150 in 2024 clearing and improving trails for off-highway vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Queens Rails to Trails Association has spent almost $245,000 maintaining and improving other trails around Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

White asked councillors for letters of support to explore developing the road trail network in Queens. And he said he\u2019d like a commitment from the region to explore any funding for the groups. He also wanted the region to commit to a process that would begin consultations with ATV groups and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Scott Christian thanked White for his groups\u2019 work on trails around the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And I think it’s appropriate also to apologize for the lack of engagement or action on behalf of the Region of Queens Municipality in actioning previous requests, that the two organizations have made and attempts at engaging our municipality on these files.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At Christian\u2019s urging, councillors agreed to the letters of support and to explore funding for the groups. They also asked staff to prepare a report for their Feb. 25 meeting on connecting a trail near the region\u2019s offices to the popular multi-use Trestle Trail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian said he wants the region to continue consulting with the community about how to make the connected road trail a reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/atvtrailsupdatejan2925.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATV users in Queens County are motoring along with their plans to connect off-road trails with public roads and streets in the municipality. And Region of Queens councillors are interested in hitching a ride. David White, president of the Queens County ATV Association, was at regional council on Tuesday evening to repeat the group\u2019s request […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2849,2848,1376,2022,1375,1197,49,1348,437,24,791,226],"class_list":["post-8232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-all-terrain-vehicles","tag-atv","tag-david-white","tag-municipality","tag-off-highway-vehicles","tag-ohv","tag-queens-county","tag-queens-county-atv-association","tag-queens-rails-to-trails-association","tag-region-of-queens","tag-region-of-queens-council","tag-scott-christian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8236,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions\/8236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}