Snowmobilers and the environment

In the public's eye snowmobilers unfortunately have had a bad reputation. Many snowmobilers however do care about the environment they ride in, and many contribute to make this world a little greener. Jointly we can change the general publics opinion by each of us doing our little share.

As Great Canadian Snowmobile Tours and with our partner hotel Glacier House Hotel & Resort , we support snowmobiling a great deal. We belong to our local snowmobile club and owner Alex Szirmai, is an active board-member of the Snowmobile Revelstoke Society. Our philosophy is that when you ride in a balanced way, we all will be riding 20 years from now, trees will still grow and caribou will hang around. Therefore we support state and provincial organizations, our local club and several ‘green’ causes. We initiated and financed the ‘Carrie the Caribou’ project, putting dollars back into caribou research and supporting local snowmobile clubs in their efforts to keep riding areas open. For the past seasons we hosted the Blair Morgan Spinal Research Fundraiser and each year we plant lots of trees to off-set our carbon footprint. We encourage you to ride smart, conserve energy (except when sledding), re-cycle cans and bottles, re-use towels and turn off the lights and heat when you’re not in your room.

Revelstoke snowmobiling has worked hard to keep riding areas open. In 2008 the Revelstoke Snowmobile Club, Revelstoke Snowmobile Society, Great Canadian Snowmobile Tours, signed a Stewardship Management Agreement  (SMA) with the Provincial Ministry of Environment to monitor and manage our snowmobile/ caribou areas. Next to closures by Agreement of critical caribou habitat, several legal wildlife closures prevent riders from entering caribou habitat. And even though snowmobilers have proven to be of very little influence on either caribou mortality, their habitat or their winter behavior, it is a step in convincing the public and policy makers that we all are doing our best to give the  caribou a chance to recover.

And this is what you can do:

• Don't chase wildlife at any time or follow tracks
• When you spot caribou, avoid getting closer and leave the area
• If caribou are close, turn off your engine and allow the animals to move away.
• Respect closed areas. When riding the Revelstoke areas, inform yourself of closures and respect those.
• Report violations of closed areas by other riders to the club or Ministry.
• Do not leave your junk in the mountains. If you can pack full beer cans in, you certainly can pack empties out.

Support caribou research: Order your Carrie the Caribou today, or pick one up at the shows or at Glacier House Resort. $ 15 plus taxes.

Call to order 1-877-837-9594 or E-mail us.

Back to Revelstoke Snowmobiling