The Bowmont Natural Environment Park Management Plan was presented to the Standing Policy Committee of the Community and Protective Services Committee (read selected Aldermen) on October 29, 2003. The Plan that was presented was approved by the Committee and will now go before City Council for what is generally a formal approval.

CMBA have been involved over the three years that the Plan has been in the making. We support the Plan and are pleased with the outcome. As cyclists, we retained access to all of the same trails that will be open to walkers, hikers etc. We need to respect that access. The process treated mountain bicyclists as equal partners and park users, with respect to other park user groups.

The Plan is based on "designating" trails within the park for use, and in the long term, closing other trails for rehabilitation. We did not obtain as many "designated" trails as we would have liked, but all of the user groups made compromises. The point is, all user groups were and will be treated equally. We also hope that CMBA will be consulted on trail closures and that these will be managed properly.

October 2003

The Bowmont Park Management Plan is to be presented to the Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services (SPC) on Wednesday, October 29. It is a daytime meeting and open to the public. Anyone in attendance can have up to 5 minutes to voice their opinion of the Plan. This will be the second time that the Plan has been presented to the SPC - the first was June 2002 when the Plan was presented and not approved due to dog off-leash issues.

February 2003

The Bowmont Park Natural Area Management Plan was presented to the Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services (SPC) in June, 2002. Presentations by the dog walkers regarding off-leash areas convinced the Aldermen to send the plan back to Parks to resolve certain issues. As a result, Parks had some more meetings and performed some user surveys which supported previous user surveys. The first survey, from September 2002 was based on visual observations made at entrances to Bowmont Park (30% cyclists, 26% dog walkers). A second survey, based on users filling in and returning a paper form indicated about 35% cyclists, 45% dog walkers. The bottom line is about 30 - 35% cyclists and 25 - 45% dog walkers. This is in sharp contrast to the claim by dog walkers that they represent 80%+ of the parks users.

The next presentation of Bowmont Plan to the SPC is tentatively scheduled for late March or early April 2003 with no changes from the version that was presented to the SPC last June. These are daytime meetings, downtown. We as cyclists need to have a presence at this meeting, if for no other reason than to show that we care about access to these parks, and to counter any anti-cycling comments.

June 2002

The proposed Bowmont Environment Park Management Plan was presented on June 19th to the Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services (SPC). This committee consists of alderpersons Joe Ceci, Gord Lowe, Bob Hawkesworth, Craig Burrows, Madeleine King, Diane Danielson and Diane Colley-Urquhart plus Dale Hodges (as Bowmont Park is within his riding). This is one step before the Plan goes before a full City Council meeting for a vote.