With September upon us, the folks at BCT are trying to finish up the summer work before the white season starts. If you live in Bragg Creek you know that this could happen any day now.
It has been a very productive trail maintenance season for us with significant upgrades to some of your favourite trails. Special attention was paid to bringing Snowy Owl and Snowshoe Hare trails up to a more sustainable trail standard for year round use. Kudos to our dedicated team of volunteers and staff who welcomed and are mentoring the new volunteers who have joined the team this year. This was also the first year that BCT had summer students on staff to help out. Jakob and Brock were a welcome addition to the crew and we look forward to continuing this government co- funded program into the future.
With so many new faces at BCT, we know that we are doing something right. It’s not all about “getting in the dirt” trail building but it certainly takes a village to build trails. There is so much going on behind the scenes that it’s easy to find an activity that matches everyone’s interest or passion. We host regular “Meet and Greets” with the next one on September 21st from 5 to 7 at the Powderhorn Saloon.
We would love to meet you and tell you what’s going on. You can also contact us via our website – Braggcreektrails.org.
BCT’s position on logging in West Bragg Creek
The recent uproar over logging impacts of popular recreational trails in WBC has shown how much these trails mean to Albertans. It’s been 10 years since we were at the table with Spray Lakes Sawmills (SLS) trying to mitigate the impacts of such a significant disturbance on the trails. The next round of logging is scheduled to occur within the next 2 years in the Fullerton/Ranger Ridge area as well as westwards towards the Moose Mountain trails.
To clarify, this area is zoned as a multi-use land use zone within Kananaskis Country which is intended to accommodate recreation as well as industrial activities such as timber harvesting, oil and gas, and cattle grazing. The government facilitated forum of the West Bragg Creek Land Users Group is designed for all stakeholders to be able to address ea ch other’s concerns in a constructive and collaborative manner which is what we are doing now.
You can rest assured that BCT and the other trails organizations impacted by this logging plan will be strong advocates for trail protection while working through impacts and mitigations of proposed cut block layouts and access roads as they are presented to us. BCT’s past history with this process has resulted in some lessons learned when it comes to retaining tree buffers but it has also helped us to realize ways to use the disturbance to our advantage in improving the trail system. Afterall, the original trail system built in WBC was based on using old logging roads and cutlines and some of our newer ski trails resulted from the last logging campaign.
Besides having trail protection as our primary focus, BCT is tuned into concerns for environmental protection which includes watershed, wildlife habitat and fire protection. These are even more pressing topics given what’s happening with the climate. Forestry practices will need to adapt along with the rest of us.
WBC Trail Plan Update
For those of you who contributed to the public consultation of the West Bragg Creek Trail Plan and are wondering if we listened to you, we did! It’s been a lengthy and intense process but we needed to get this right. This will be our guiding document for the next 10 year or however long it takes to complete it. There aren’t a lot of new trails but the ones we finally landed on are considered vital pieces of the big trail puzzle out here in WBC. Along with the new build trails we’ve added ideas for improved signage and maps that should help use manage some of the user conflicts that have been challenging us. With any luck this plan will get official approval this fall. The next few years will be exciting as we turn all this great collaboration into reality.
See you on the trails!
Con Schiebel (BCT President)
