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70% of Squamish Mountain Bike Trails on their way out ... I've known this for a while, a bunch of us were sworn to secrecy in a special meeting last fall. However, I'm reading about it on the public forums at NSMB now so I guess maybe you should know about it too. Here is the link to the thread on NSMB Forums Here is how it reads: From Mettlehead on NSMB You have the 2400 hectare first nations land swap. That 2400 hectares is right now vacant crown land. When it becomes fee simple First Nations land then the swath of land from Gov't Road between Don Ross Secondary to Squamish Valley to Merrill and Ring to above the SORCA shack including Eds Bypass and Made in the Shade and over to Alice Lake park - all becomes private property. And subject to what ever a private property owner may want to do with their property - log/develop/leave it alone/ban the public from it. Cat Lake area is either going to first nations/logging/garibaldi at Gquamish. Bob Fast owns 1300 hectares in Valley Cliff including the Far Side Crumpit Woods area. his gravel pit is going to keep on expanding. Fast has 50 lots off of Plateau drive that are going to be coming online shortly. That means that whole area where the brushed in roads currently are is going to have houses. There is also talk of a road going in from Cherry drive to Finch drive. The Merril and Ring property sold a couple of months ago. That's another 1200 acres. No one is sure what is going to happen with that land yet but I would be willing to bet there is going to be some sort of development going in. The only other area left close in the valley is the Diamondhead Area. There are logging plans and community forest plans being talked about. The DOS has been asking Victoria for about 1 1/2 years to come up with a "Squamish front country master plan" for this area. In 2020 when squamish's population hits the projected 30,000 people they are all going to need someplace to play. As it is right now the gov't is doing little to nothing to ensure those 30,000 people will have a place to play. Unfortunatly for us the provincial gov't has limited tools in their "tool box" to create a solution. Basically they have to take one square hectare of land in the valley and a apply the same forestry/recreation/conservation/etc. values as one square hectare of land in Kamloops, Nelson, Ft Saint John, Port Alice and Squamish. Those of us who live here know that this equation does not work however those are the rules that Victoria has to live and work by. From Barry on NSMB You'd think the "Recreation Capitol of Canada" tag would have some pull in the matter. Not to mention the $10.3mil tourism dollars study And I guess having the best mountainbike race in the country wouldn't throw up any flags either.Was there ever a hectare/acre # involved in any of the studies? As in is there a dollar to land-area ratior? Would be nice to have a number to stack up against forestry per hectare. Development is obviously worth way more I guess. From Mettlehead on NSMB barry. great points but none of it matters in a province where forestry is still king and people still own private property that they are going to develope. after way to many years of being involved there are 2 things that we can do. 1. Work within the given system and try to find middle ground every step of the way at every given issue. 2. Give up. go underground, make use of a given trail/area as long as it is feasable, not bitch when it gets developed/harvested/?????? and then move on to the next trail/area watch developing/harvesting/???? take place and then move onto the next trail/area watch developing/harvesting/???? take place and then move on to the next trail/area watch developing/harvesting/???? take place and then move onto the next trail/area watch developing/harvesting/???? take place and so it would go. Option 1 is the longer more painful and legimate way to go because unless you are at the table you will not have any voice with the powers that be when a decision comes down about a given trail/area. and unfortunatly current gov't policies are not going anywhere any time soon. Option 2 is the easy way out. You just don't bitch when something happens to a given trail/area. You just quietly move on to the next trail/area until the process repeats itself. You will also find comments from various riders and even Todd Pope, district of Squamish trails Coordinator who has a signature that reads "Get out there, while you still can".
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