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Trails plan long overdue

In your story a couple of weeks back about the damage ATVs are now causing on dirt bike trails ["Dirt bikers 'sick' over hacked trail," The Chief, April 24] our local MOTCA recreation officer said he's hoping a management plan and signage will cut ba

In your story a couple of weeks back about the damage ATVs are now causing on dirt bike trails ["Dirt bikers 'sick' over hacked trail," The Chief, April 24] our local MOTCA recreation officer said he's hoping a management plan and signage will cut back on offences.

When is this plan and signage going to happen? Can or will the province give us a firm date for this to happen? I doubt it - I mean we have only been waiting for three years so far, in addition to being told countless times "just a little bit longer."

I realize that things take time at a provincial level, but the trail users of the area have been waiting far too long for something to arrive.

I attended the first meeting for trails users in the province in Richmond about five years ago, and everyone in attendance was hoping to fast track the process. Perhaps five years at a provincial level is fast tracking, but in the real world, five years does not cut it.

As it stands right now the majority of the trails on Crown land in the valley have no legal status.

In a Squamish Chief story on March 6, provincial trails strategy co-ordinator John Hawkins said "We all hope that we will make significant progress this spring. We recognize and sympathize with the mountain bike and other trails communities who are frustrated that this has taken so long."

Why the hold up? When is it going to happen?

The pressures on the valley's trail system, which has been built and is maintained almost exclusively by volunteers, grows daily due in part to the increased promotion of the area for recreating by both the district and province.

Two years ago while Tourism Squamish was being created I attended a meeting and asked the question, "What about the promotion of trails that have no legal status?" I was told then "that is not our problem; we are marketing, not infrastructure."

Will someone at either a district or on the provincial level please step up to the plate take the bulls by the horns and get this process back on track? Or will we be having this conversation again next year at this time?

In the meantime, we are still waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. Is it any wonder that the trails community in Squamish is getting more and more jaded about the whole situation and process as the days tick by?

Anybody interested in starting a pool on which gets done sooner the highway through Squamish or the authorization of trails in the valley?

Cliff Miller

Squamish

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