A new trail group formed in Canmore will help connect all users together in an effort to maintain and grow the network of trails throughout the community.
The Canmore Trails Alliance is an offshoot of the Friends of Kananaskis Country, a volunteer run group that maintains the trail network in the provincial park.
Nancy Ouimet, program coordinator for the trail alliance group (and Friends of K-Country), said the new initiative came about in response to the community expressing a need and a desire for more public engagement and volunteer stewardship of local trails.
“It has been a work in progress for a little while,” Ouimet said. “It is a model that is really successful and well established in other mountain towns to have this kind of community trail stewardship model.”
The CTA launched officially this month with a new website (canmoretrailalliance.com) and Facebook page and is a forum for all trail users to get involved, whether they are mountain bikers, hikers, trail runners or climbers. The philosophy, according to Ouimet, is centered on collaborative partnerships, community engagement and volunteers.
So far, however, interest from user groups has been coming from mountain bikers and Canmore and Area Mountain Bike Association president Wanda Bogdane said they are at the table to see how a trail alliance in this particular area will work.
Bogdane said from a mountain bike perspective, as a user group they have the most to lose. The challenge, she said, is mountain bikers are seen as outcasts, so they want to be at the table and involved in this process.
“With the Canmore Trail Alliance being the overarching umbrella facilitating the applications into Alberta Parks, we are very willing to test out this method,” she said.
Having both the municipality and the province involved from the beginning is critical for the CTA’s success. Because many trails in the Canmore area span both jurisdictions, getting both land managers in the room together to collaborate on trail efforts is important, said Ouimet.
“The committee at this point is a partnership of Alberta Parks representatives, Town of Canmore, the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park and Friends of Kananaskis Country,” she said. “The beauty of it is that at the table are the land managers.”
Town of Canmore planner Megan Dunn echoed the importance of collaboration between the two land managers and experience Friends of Kananaskis Country brings to the new organization.
“It is being formed as an offshoot of the Friends of Kananaskis Country and it enables all types of trail users to get together and contribute to trails in the Canmore area,” she said. “We are hopefully going to immediately get people working on projects.”
Work is planned to roll out with one night a week being spent on trail work throughout summer with some weekend events as well. Trail days will be posted on the website as they are confirmed and an email list is in the works.
As for the involvement of the Canmore Nordic Centre, officials were unable to speak to the Outlook due to a “media ban” currently in place due to the wildfires in Northern Alberta.
The Canmore Trail Alliance will function to organize volunteer efforts for trail work – including maintenance, design and construction. In its first year, though, Ouimet said work would focus on maintenance activities on several specific trails in the Canmore area.
“As we get underway, the conversation will change toward how do we create an integrated trail system that really binds the two sides of the valley?” she said. “There also needs to be some consolidating of the trail system … there is a sprawl of trails out there that limits the ability to have a well signed and maintained designated trail system.”
The Friends of Kananaskis already functions well in the provincial park system and Ouimet said it was a natural fit for a group to form as an offshoot of it, “because we have a longstanding relationship with Alberta Parks around assisting them with trail maintenance and building.”
It is not just the relationship with ground work that helps, but having policies and processes in place for volunteers, including crew leaders, experienced trail builders and liability insurance coverage.
“But the intent is that it is a community initiative driven by input and involvement,” she said.
Ouimet said the structure of the CTA will help engage different trail user groups, which is important as many people in the community want to be involved in trail stewardship, maintenance and building.
Individual user groups working in isolation would not be able to fill the need for comprehensive stewardship efforts, or build an inclusive community based on respect or love of trails, she said.
“We would like collective buy-in of people understanding there is more effectiveness in us working together than everyone trying to take on their own piece of interest,” she said.
