Rob you hit the nail on the head...
Quote:
...it wouldn't be as nice of a trip if the road was open. It is prime fishing country, and it would be full of fisher people all summer, along with the trash dumps, moose camps in the fall, and a variety of other crap piles.
Opening a road for one interest group, canoe trippers, sets a precedent for policy... if one interest group is allowed their access on forest roads, then why not another? And then another, and another, and another, down the slippery slope to the situation you describe above.
I'm sure MNR managers are well aware of this and will take a conservative option towards protecting landscape if that option exists, especially during times when money for enforcement is low. The benefits of road closures are backed with scientific research showing that road access will deplete fisheries resources if access is easy.
I don't agree with "use it or lose it" in this case... land managers who are on the side of protecting wilderness will say that roading is the thing that results in lost wilderness values. If you don't care about wilderness, build roads into a landscape that previously had none, allow easy access, and the wilderness will disappear.
In the states there are efforts being made to eliminate roads from some areas in order to restore wilderness. Deroading an area takes political will, and there is enough there to make restoration possible. In Ontario, there's probably less, but the land managers' option to close roads is at least a move towards greater protection.