Bowmont is a natural area park located on the north side of the Bow river between Home Road and the 85th Street bridge. Bowmont is both an important natural area and a good place to mountain bike. Until recently, Bowmont lacked an up-to-date management plan that could address off-leash dog areas and the use of designated and undesignated (dirt) trails.

Therefore, ideally, the only dirt trails that would exist in a park would be "Designated Trails" and all undesignated trails would be rehabilitated.

In the fall of 2000, the city of Calgary formed the Bowmont Advisory Committee to provide user input into the new Bowmont Park Management Plan. CMBA along with the Elbow Valley Cycling Club was invited to participate as representatives of the cycling community.

CMBA's representatives are Michael Le Feuvre and Bob Scott

The Bowmont Advisory Committee provides input into topics such as:

• protecting sensitive areas within the park,
• future of undesignated trails in the park,
• restoration,
• beavers (lots of discussion on this!),
• dog off-leash areas,
• etc.

Of special interest to mountain bikers is the future of undesignated trails. CMBA participated on the trails sub-committee to help create the trails policy and to help select multi-use trails that would be interesting to both cyclists and non-cyclists.

The trail policy will not please everyone. Some of the more popular trails have been selected for closure to everyone for safety or for environmental reasons. Trails such as:

• Trails along the top of the escarpment bordering the river.
• Some trails high on the slope leading into the Klippert property.
• Redundant trails paralleling existing trails.
• Fall-line trails that promote erosion.

The vast majority of trails will be multi-use with the exception of:

• the Waterfall Valley steps. Waterfall Valley is the first major valley extending south to the river from the home road entrance. The heavily used trail that loops in a "U" shape into the valley will be marked as multi-use. The fall-line trail containing wooden steps every ten or so feet will be pedestrian only.
   
• A half moon area that extends from the sewer out-fall labeled B105 west until where the pathway starts to steeply rise from the river shore up on the slopes. This area will eventually be defined with a set of gates.

We realize that some members of the mountain biking community will be unhappy with some of the trail closures but we must balance access to Bowmont with the city's primary concern with protecting the environment. It is the official policy of CMBA that reasonable trail closures for safety or environmental reasons that apply to everyone are acceptable in a natural area park.

Bowmont represents an excellent opportunity for us to show that responsible mountain biking can co-exist in a natural area park. We are hoping that a good experience with mountain bikers in Bowmont will help to open up escarpment trails currently closed in Nose Hill and elsewhere in the city.

Parks and Recreation sees CMBA as an ally and has publicly expressed that CMBA has been a responsible member of the process.

We have sold the idea of multi-use on the basis of education and responsibility. We need to reach mountain bikers with the message that if we set a good example in Bowmont we may regain access to other threatened areas. We have started the process of spreading the message to bike shops in the northwest corner of the city.