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Partnership provides $555,000 for Sea to Sky trails

Province, SLRD fund trail work as part of pilot project
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Local trail builder Chris Markle works with volunteers on Cut Yer Bars, photo by Andrew Mitchell

By Andrew Mitchell

The provincial government is taking the next step in an initiative to recognize and standardize recreational trails throughout the province by partnering with the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District on an initiative that will contribute over $500,000 to trail work in the corridor.

On Tuesday, MLA Joan McIntyre and SLRD chair Russ Oakley announced an agreement that would see the province contribute $130,000 this year, $75,000 in 2008 and $50,000 in 2009 for a total of $255,000. For their part, the SLRD will contribute $150,000 a year in 2008 and 2009.

The money will be used to buy signage, build kiosks, boardwalks and other infrastructure, and to establish new trails and preserve existing trails.

The partnership extends from a new initiative by the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts to identify unsanctioned recreation trails throughout the province, create trail standards to meet safety and environmental concerns, and partner with communities, clubs and other organizations to ensure those trails are maintained. The province will provide some funding for trail maintenance and construction, in recognition of the growing contribution of trails to tourism and the recreational economy — as well as to the general health of British Columbians.

While the initiative will help to legitimize trails throughout the province, as well as identify which user groups have the right to use them, some bike clubs are concerned that the initiative will result in the closure of some trails, will increase the cost of recreation for small communities and clubs now responsible for maintaining those trails, and also result in the awarding of tenures to backcountry companies to use trails built and maintained for public use — with no mechanism to reapply any of their tenure fees or profits to the trails themselves.

On the plus side, by making trails “legitimate” the province will protect those trails from future development and resource extraction, provide insurance once they meet provincial standards, and provide money to groups maintaining the trails.

The pilot project was created to address those issues, and refine the partnership between trail users and the provincial government.

According to McIntyre, who represented the province at Tuesday’s announcement, the Sea to Sky corridor could become an example for the rest of the province.

“There are so many land use challenges in the corridor, such as the rapid growth of communities, and 2010 is on its way,” she said.

“This (funding) is in recognition that this is an important area, and also that there’s a proliferation of trails in this area — over 800 kilometres of trails outside of parks, and only 700 of them are authorized. They’re not in the official land use plan unless they’re authorized, but there’s a growing recognition of the contribution these trails make to communities, and where it makes sense we will work to link trails and authorize the trails in a sensible and common sense way.”

Stakeholders will have a say in the approval of existing trails and new trails, according to McIntyre, and that includes resource industries like forestry that continue to contribute to the local economy. The goal is to balance the needs of industry with the growing tourism industry focused on hiking and mountain biking, and “acknowledge the efforts of people who have put a lot of hard work into land use plans, as well as the people out there building these trails,” said McIntyre. “There’s over a half a million in new funding there, and when you do the math it’s the biggest contribution we’ve made yet to trails in the corridor.”

The economic case for the trails was made recently through a study by the Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association, in a partnership with the provincial government. Mountain biking is thought to bring more than $10.3 million annually to the Sea to Sky region, increasing to more than $38 million when you include the Crankworx festival and Whistler Mountain Bike Park. As well, the survey suggests that these numbers are increasing as the region’s reputation for trails grows.

Whistler also hosts one of the largest mountain bike clubs in the world with the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association registering more than 1,000 members in five of the last six years.

As well, the SLRD is supportive of a project that would link Squamish to D’Arcy via the proposed Sea to Sky Trail — portions of which already exist or are in development.

Gord McKeever, one of the architects of the Sea to Sky Trail strategy, says he has not received word of any new funding for trail development but believes there will be an opportunity to use the new funds to expand on the existing sections of trail.

“We’ve been working with (the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts) on the Sea to Sky Trail, which also has the capacity to become part of the TransCanada Trail, as well as with the SLRD,” he said. “While we haven’t earmarked that funding specifically to the Sea to Sky Trail, the program going forward we would expect to be part of the operation funding and ongoing maintenance of the trail as well as capital replacement.

“The (Sea to Sky) trail itself is considered the centerpiece of trails in the region, the main street trail that links everything else together.”