ESRD – Calgary Mountain Bike Alliance

K-Country Designated as Recreational Area?

November 14, 2012January 20, 2013
by PinkRobe

We received this from Shaun Peter [of Bragg Creek and Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation] today. There is still an opportunity for you to have your say on what happens to Kananaskis. Public consultation sessions in Cochrane and Okotoks are coming up, in case you missed the Calgary date. Do you want K-Country to have a formal designation as a recreational area? This is probably the best opportunity you’ll have to get changes made to the way that Kananaskis works. Read on…

Hi all,

We attended the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan open house yesterday and found some very disturbing info. First there was a stakeholder meeting prior to the advertised meeting. The stakeholder meeting ran from 10am – 2pm and as far as I could tell, no-one representing recreation was invited. Sustain K and myself were unaware of the meeting. If you or your membership wants to attend one of the future stakeholder meetings, all of the advertised meetings at the following link will hold a stakeholder meeting from 10am-2pm prior to the advertised meeting at 4-8pm. When asked what a stakeholder is, they replied anyone who feels they hold a special interest in the plan. Please advertise this with your membership so we have a good representation of recreation. https://landuse.alberta.ca/Newsroom/Pages/PublicConsultations.aspx

The second discovery that was really disturbing was the Regional Advisory Council that put together the initial plan involved 19 participants of which 4 represented Suncor Energy, Oasis Energy, Spray Lakes Sawmills, and Clean Energy Capitalists Inc. No-one sat on the council that had local knowledge representing Recreation and Tourism other than Kevin Van Tighem of Parks Canada, who works out of Banff. Although 4 members of the public represented Oil and Logging, no members of the public were invited to represent Recreation and Tourism.

A reporter from the Calgary Herald was at the open house and several people expressed to her there concern that there was no representation for Recreation and that the maps reflect it. The entire HWY 66 corridor, did not receive any recognition in the proposed maps, as either a tourism or recreation area. There are over 500,000 annual visitors to the Elbow Valley, representing almost 20% of the total visits to Kananaskis yet it received no recognition. This appears to be the exact same process as the previous consultations where the government will have a large dog and pony show to appear like they want to have public input on future change, when really they don’t want to change anything.

Sincerely,

Shaun Peter
Bragg Creek & Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation
www.braggcreekrecreation.com

Logging on Ridgeback, Tom Snow, Special K and Race…

September 22, 2012January 20, 2013
by PinkRobe

If you’re interested in seeing the logging plan that might clearcut sections of Ridgeback, Tom Snow, Special K and Race of Spades, you just might want to check out the meeting on Tuesday evening at the Bragg Creek Community Centre.

From Bruce Barker at the Greater Bragg Creek Trail Association:

The Bragg Creek FireSmart Public Meeting is going ahead on Sept 25, 2012 from 6:30 pm to 9 pm at the Bragg Creek Community Centre. No details have been provided on the agenda, but the Minister of ESRD, Diana McQueen will be in attendance. It is critical that all trail users including those from Calgary and surrounding area show up and provide your view on the importance of trails. This is especially important in light of the reasons below:

1) At the Sept 8 and 9 community workshop, a west containment line was brought back to the table by ESRD, despite it being removed at the request of the community 2 years ago. These cutblocks include Tom Snow, Ridgeback, Race of Spades, and Special K in the south, and Tom Snow and Moose Loop ski trail in the north.

2) At that workshop, west cutblocks were mistakenly added to the GBCTA mitigation plan (Option 2 on the website below). Despite repeated requests by the GBCTA, these cutblocks have not been removed from the GBCTA plan, and are before the Minister for consideration. Again, this would be devastating to Tom Snow, Ridgeback, Race of Spades, and Special K. The GBCTA continues to try to have these cutblocks removed, but it appears they will still be on the table at the Sept 25 meeting.

3) Two of five options before the Minister do not include any trail mitigations, and would be incredibly damaging to the entire west Bragg Creek and Station Flats trails.

Information on the five options before the Minister can be found at the following website.

http://srd.alberta.ca/Wildfire/FireSmartCommunities/BraggCreekFireSmartSession/FireSmartSessionAnalysis.aspx

I have also included the Memo to the Minister that was sent to her after the workshop along with the 5 proposals for FireSmart logging in Bragg Creek. We believe that it will be extremely important to come to this meeting, listen, and comment. Please attend if it is at all possible. It will likely be your last chance to provide your input to the Minister.

Link to document: Bragg Creek Memo to Minister McQueen FINAL – September 9th 2012

Tag: <span>ESRD</span>

K-Country Designated as Recreational Area?

Logging on Ridgeback, Tom Snow, Special K and Race…