Update on EOSC Portion of OFSC A Trail on the Prescott and Russell Recreational Trail
“We will be open for business”
(Ottawa, ON: December 17, 2020) – The Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail is a 72km rail-to-trail conversion which starts at St-Eugene and ends at Hammond, near Ottawa’s boundary. The Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC) has a section of the provincial ‘A’ Top Trail on this trail in the winter. The ‘A’ Top trail is the backbone of the Eastern Ontario Snowmobile Club (EOSC) trail network.
As may snowmobilers know on 23 September 2020, the United Counties of Prescott Russell voted not to renew their lease with VIA Rail for the rail trail primarily for financial reasons. This lease was to expire on 31 December 2020. Over the past several months, the OFSC, UCSR and EOSC have been working diligently to negotiate an agreement with either VIA (as the landowner) or the UCPR (who leases the land for the P-R Trail). We had reached out directly to VIA, local mayors, MPPs, and MPs to help find a solution. We had proposed an interim solution, where an agreement would be put into place for 3 months (January-March 2021) therefore allowing time for a longer-term solution to be developed.
This morning, 17 December 2020, we learned that The United Counties of Prescott Russell and VIA Rail have agreed to extend their agreement until the end of June 2021. With this agreement in pace, the UCPR has agreed to a new land-use permission for the 2021 snowmobile reason. This will allow the OFSC ‘A Top Trail’ to travel over the P-R Trail as it has normally for years and connect Carleton Region SC in the west, through EOSC to Glengarry in the east.
As previously announced back in November 2020, we had secured an agreement with the UCPR for the Larose Forest so all EOSC trails through the forest will be open once the season begins.
A large thank-you is extended to the volunteers at the EOSC for their diligent work on securing the trail for the 2021 season.
We encourage snowmobilers, with an Ontario Trail Permit, to remain on the OFSC trails. We ask snowmobilers to remember that buying a permit allows you access to over 30,000 kms of OFSC trails including those within EOSC which will be available as weather permits this season. The UCSR and its clubs are committed to delivering the best possible trail riding experiences for snowmobilers around Ottawa and across eastern Ontario.
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The Upper Canada Snowmobile Region (UCSR), District 1 of the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC), is a volunteer led, not-for-profit association that provides the voice for organized on-trail snowmobiling in Eastern Ontario. The UCSR consists of 16 snowmobile clubs with over 3000 kms of groomed snowmobile trails managed by over 1,000 dedicated volunteers generating up to $70.8 million in economic activity (18/19 season) in eastern Ontario each year. The EOSC maintains 380 km of quality trails in Prescott-Russell and has an economic impact of $12+ millions annually in the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR) alone.
For questions, please contact Darin McRae, UCSR District Manager, at darinmcrae@ucsr.ca or by phone at 613-543-0374.
