Fish Creek Trails Master Plan
Greetings fellow mountain bikers. We need your help! Alberta Parks is developing a Master Trail Plan for Fish Creek Provincial Park, and they are looking for input from park users. We love riding in Fish Creek, and we want to make sure the mountain bike community is heard.
Here is a bit of history. Alberta Parks began the process of developing the Fish creek Provincial Park Trails Master Plan last year. The CMBA was engaged to participate in the process of developing the plan last fall, so we took to the trails and submitted our comments before winter set in.
Last week, the draft plan was released for public input. We have taken our time to scour the document, and are happy to report that our comments have clearly been taken into account. It is our belief that the plan strikes a good, and necessary, balance between conservation and recreation. Yes, it does identify some redundant and or unsustainable trails for closure, but also opens the door to new trails and a natural surface trail network that caters to different abilities, is easier to navigate, minimizes the need to connect via paved and gravel pathways, and will one day incorporate flow, technical trail features, and better signage.
Both the CMBA and Alberta Parks have expressed an interest to develop a cooperating agreement that will allow us to build and maintain the Fish Creek single-track network based on the finalized Trail Master Plan. From this we hope to create a network that is greater than just a collection of random trails, and is sustainable for future generations of mountain bikers to enjoy.
Hopefully, you will consider our comments about the plan and go over it yourself. We know there may be a trail or two that you are not happy to see marked for closure. We feel that way too, but no one will know what you think if you don’t say anything. Please take some time to send Alberta Parks your comments, and also send them to us at info@cmbalink.com so we can bring them to the Province too.
Here are the links that you need to get started:
The draft plan itself:
The “Fish Creek Provincial Park trails engagement” site:
https://www.alberta.ca/fish-creek-provincial-park-trails-engagement.aspx
A really helpful map of closures and proposed new trails:
https://your.alberta.ca/fish-creek-trails/maps/fish-creek-places-map
The deadline to submit your input online is June 14, so don’t waste too much time.
Happy Trails!
The CMBA Team