Authorizing Recreational Mountain Bike Trails on Provincial Crown Land

Kurt laid a pretty interesting document on me today; check out Authorizing Recreational Mountain Bike Trails on Provincial Crown Land - Policy Statement / Working Draft - Oct.16th, 2006.

Since Oct 16th is my birthday, I get a good vibe outta' this one :-)

In a nutshell, this particular document lays out the government's willingness to work with trail maintenance / builder groups in a big way. I've read (a lot) of stuff around the topic, but have not seen anything this direct to date; a 20 page read, but more than worth it!

http://www.bikepenticton.com/draftpolicy.doc - 3.4 Megabytes, Microsoft Word Formatted Document.

If you don't own a copy of Microsoft Word, then grab the free 'Viewer' application here; http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/HA010449811033.aspx. This Microsoft site also hosts free file viewers for nearly all other Microsoft Office file formats.

Andrew D.
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There is quite an extensive discussion of this draft policy on the North Shore forums: http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=87182 - started in 2006 and appears to have been recently resurrected.

It also includes some opinions & feedback on insurance for trail building activities.

Thank you for the reference Lucy. I added my 2.75 cents worth - it'll be interesting to see what kind of replies I get... :-)

Andrew D.

A quick update from "Da' Gov" on Authorizing Recreational Mountain Bike Trails on Prov. Crown Land - "Operational Policy Updated May 2013"

The Link: http://www.sitesandtrailsbc.ca/documents/mountain-bike-policy.pdf

In a nutshell; the powers that be in the Ministry of Forests are not 'the bad guys' who are out to spoil everyone's fun.  All they are trying to do is keep some kinda' handle on the who, what, where and when of trail / structure (TTF) construction on Crown Land.

Basically, the problem is the human race and their general predilection to do f#c#ed up stuff, much of it completely illogical and without regard to the thoughts / well-being of others.

Witness Human History.  Witness Rednecks.  Witness Religion - enough said.

One of the threads that run through the document is that land managers want to work with organized groups of individuals who are dedicated to maintaining and checking up on whatever trails / structures they create... which comes around to joining an organized group... which leads to a much easier road to travel when applying for land use / access / construction.

In the South Okanagan, this means the Penticton & Area Cycling Association and / or / the South Okanagan Trail Alliance.

Andrew