November 2024
There’s been some things happening in the woods that need to be addressed.
Recent events on our trails have highlighted a troubling conflict between rogue trail building and sanctioned land management. This week, tensions spilled over onto Corkscrew, a busy authorized trail, when someone scattered piles of debris—including rusted nails jutting out of old wood—across the path. These dangerous actions not only put trail users at risk but also placed an unfair burden on volunteers who had no role in this conflict.
How Unsanctioned Trail Building is Hindering Our Efforts of Getting More Trails in the Network
We get it. Trail usage is up, the ‘secret’ trails aren’t secret anymore, and people are looking for an experience that may not be included in the network. Advocacy and sanctioning of trails is a slow process, and in a culture of consumption and getting whatever is wanted, so ‘fast and easy’ makes it hard for folks to have patience for things to happen. Metro Vancouver has provided significant funding over the past several years to improve and add trails within the current network and is working closely with the NSMBA on what is or isn’t possible regarding trail development in the area. Our land managers face the complex task of balancing conservation with recreational access, and it’s essential that trail users respect this responsibility. Meeting everyone’s desires and needs is challenging, and sometimes, that means land managers have to say no.
Metro Vancouver will continue to prioritize shutting down unsanctioned trails in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. However, the time, effort, and money spent decommissioning the area’s unsanctioned trails is also hindering our efforts to advance the sanctioning or addition of any new trails. The NSMBA has worked very hard over the past few years to build a meaningful and respectful relationship with Metro Vancouver staff. Still, the actions of the unsanctioned builders are minimizing the impact of the positive work we’re doing and painting the picture to the broader community that mountain bikers could care less about our impacts on the surrounding environment.
Why Unauthorized Trails Harm More than Just the Land
During the keynote session on Reconciliation in Recreation & Fostering Good Relations in the Bicycle Community at the Mountain Bike Symposium in May 2024, one of the speakers shared an impactful story about rogue building. As an Indigenous woman, she recounted how she would go mushroom picking with her mother and community out on the land every year and how meaningful that time was to learn from her mother, aunties and grandmother. She recently lost her mother, and she was looking forward to the upcoming mushroom-picking season to reconnect with the memory of her mother out on the land. However, when she arrived at their favourite picking spot, she discovered that someone had built a rogue mountain bike trail in that very spot. And there were no longer any mushrooms to pick. As a mountain biker, she acknowledged that she loves fresh new trails too, but to see such an important area devastated by someone whose only goal was to build something ‘sick and new’ was heartbreaking.
The story from the Mountain Bike Symposium is a poignant example of the deeper cultural impacts rogue trails can have. It underscores the importance of respecting the land and remembering that recreational access is a privilege, not a right.
Moving Forward Responsibly
NSMBA will continue advocating for recreational access and developing new, sanctioned trails. We’ll work closely with land managers to pursue feasible projects and are committed to educating our community on the social and environmental impact of unsanctioned trails. It’s up to us to respect the land, preserve community trust, and support the careful expansion of our trail network. Let’s work together to protect the future of responsible trail building.
Trails for All. Trails Forever
Deanne Cote
Executive Director
