November 5th CRD Meeting Update:

Hey All,
Lorien Arnold (Former SIMBS Prez and Sooke Cycle owner), James Brown (Also former SIMBS Prez and now IMBA Western Canada rep), Katharine Wright (current SIMBS “Acting” Prez), Dan Cammiade (GPS mapper of many trails, all round good dude) and I (Greg Bird, VIMB guy) sat down with the CRD on Monday morning for a 2.5 hour session on the Harbour View Road (Sea to Sea S2S Lands) Park Proposal.

CRD Members Attending:
Jeff Ward, Assistant General Manager CRD Parks
Gordon Tolman, Manager Park Operations
Lynn Wilson, Park Planner
Don Watmough, Park Planner (meeting Facilitator) and
Michelle Simpson (taking meeting minutes)


We had a formal, Facilitated and documented meeting on the whole situation to date, and of course there is good news...and not so good news. The good news is that many CRD Parks people in attendance seemed genuinely open to our ideas and read to work with the Mountain Biking Community. Others seem not so open to change their pre-defined opinions of us, and what we should and should not have access to in that area. This is of course only “my opinion” and “my take” on the events of the meeting, but it seems the general consensus of our group.


What Took Place:

We all sat down in a round-table format, no us on one side and them on the other… a good start. We were chatting and getting to know one another a bit beforehand, also a good start. Once we formally started the proceedings, we jumped right into the good stuff. There was a lot of back and forth between the two parties, and many good points were brought up on both sides. The CRD folks there insist that there “HAS BEEN NO DECISIONS MADE, ALL OF THIS IS STILL IN THE PLANNING PROCESS”; this is some of the good news. We (as a group) laid it out plain and simple for them, we all collectively but in our own words and own ways expressed the NEED for the mountain biking community to be allowed the same access as all other groups who will use the park. I see this to include Hikers, Off Leash Dog Walkers (fur hikers?), Horse Back Riders, Runners, and Mountain Bike Riders (wheeled hikers?) plus anyone else who may use this park.

This will include managed and sustainable access to “all” areas of the park. In other words, if hikers and dog walkers are allowed somewhere, we should have access as well…no exceptions. I also agree that there are or may be ecologically sensitive areas where no-one should be going, EVEN hikers, walkers etc. This too seemed to be the consensus of the MTB people in attendance. Most importantly, the top of Mt Manuel Quimper is a spot that we ALL (MTB’ers) identified as a “destination” that was not up for discussion. If we are not allowed managed, reasonable and equal access to this area, all bets are off! This was something that not one of us in attendance was going to back down from. One member of the CRD’s group (and one only) seemed to be of the opinion that bikes should NOT be up there (summit Mt Quimper). Why this person appears to have formulated this opinion I do not know…this is the bad news. Some of them were less enthused with the thought of “multi use” trails than others too and seemed to feel that riders and everyone else should be separated on all but double-track or fire road type trails….also not good news.

I don’t want anyone to think that I am bashing anyone or singling anyone out, because I am not. Everyone has a right to their opinion, even me. But if that opinion is based on bias, past history, pressure from outside forces or for any reason other than sound scientific and cultural research, then this is not a “fair” position to take. I am all for trying to take the optimists stance on this one and say that no, there hasn’t been an official decision made yet.

Maybe not on paper?

So, before I go any further let me add in this: The CRD is not going to try to ban mountain biking from this park, the exact opposite as a matter of fact. They (CRD) want us there! This is a good thing, and shows us that what we have done so far is working; we do have a voice, and it is being heard. They have planned from day 1 to include us in this process, and to give us access. This is great for our community, and for the region as a MTB destination. The part that is the “gotcha” is that the initial plan is to only allow bike into a small portion of the park for single track and non-roadbed style trails. The rest of the park would be open only to hikers, walkers, horses etc. To me, and again this is me Greg Bird speaking, this is totally not acceptable (this also seemed to be the consensus of the MTB’ers in attendance). Their (CRD) mandate is Conservation and protection first and foremost, but they are keenly aware that this is not pristine old-growth forest, so key areas will likely be targeted for preservation, while others will be more open to human access and recreational purposes. I am all for preservation of what needs preserving… as long as it is science that is determining where those places are.


Has this whole thing been decided? Not on paper. What this means is we ALL, and by ALL I mean every one of us is going to need to step up to the plate this time and work together as a group with the other stakeholders and the CRD to make this park what we want it to be. We need to have an all inclusive (no not free drinks and meals) park, open to everyone to enjoy equally. We need access to “EPIC” singletrack in the back country; we need access to the “destination” spots that make us want to be out in the woods and to push ourselves a little farther in the first place. There is no “us and them” there is only all of us, and we will all lose if this is not made into what it should be.

Like I said, nothing is written in stone yet, so there is still time to make this happen. Lynn Wilson from the CRD has been working with us to set up a “hike” day with the CRD members and our little group so we can go to some of the “key” places that we are talking about (Quimper summit for one). We can hopefully change some minds and maybe even show them exactly why it is we should be there, and certainly why we WANT to be there. The CRD folks that we talked to will listen and are open to our ideas, we just have to make sure that they are getting all the right information to make informed decisions.

In closing I would like to say “thanks” to Lynn Wilson of the CRD for her continued work with our community, and for keeping us in the loop. Especially now that we seem to be more on the CRD’s radar than ever.

Questions? Comments? Send me an e-mail
webmaster@vimb.com

Harbourview Road/Sooke Hills Park: The good news, and the bad... (Continued)

This has been in the works for literally years now, and most of you on the lower half of Vancouver Island already know, or have at least heard about it. Having said that, many of you probably don't know what is going on in the Sooke Hills, so here are some of the details.

A few years ago, the Capital Regional District (CDR) in conjunction with The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) worked out a deal with TimberWest to purchase 9,700 hectares of land in the Leech River watershed area of the Sooke Hills (CRD Map). This deal is a huge step for the CRD, for all of us really. According to the CRD website...

"This is one of the largest, most important land acquisitions in recent BC history. The addition of the Leech River watershed, which can be connected to the CRD’s water supply reservoirs, is a prudent strategic acquisition that secures and protects our future water source,” said Nils Jensen, Chair of the CRD Regional Water Supply Commission. “While the Sooke Reservoir is expected to meet regional water needs for at least the next 15 years, we have taken action that provides a legacy for the future."

From the CRD website, see here for their full story...

In addition to this deal securing our access to clean fresh water for the future, it will also allow for the creation of a Multi-Use park, a park that is supposedly going to allow legal, managed access to Mountain Bikers. As mentioned in the post title, there is good news and bad news. The good news, Mountain Biking will be allowed in the new park! I don't know about you, but I personally think this is great news for our community! The bad news, at this point it looks like there will be only limited access, to a small percentage of the proposed parklands. Yes, you heard me right, we will be (may be) excluded from accessing the majority of the proposed park area. Why is this? If anyone knows, please tell me so I will know too, because at this point I am still a bit stunned.

I believe that if there is going to be a multi use and multi user group park created, we cannot allow the CRD to decide who can be banned from portions of the park. Especially if this is decided purely on uninformed or biased opinions. If this is the case then we all lose, and lose big. I have seen the results of studies (see the International Mountain Biking Association IMBA website for studies and details), that have been used to argue this same point, many arguments very successfully too I might add, that Bikes cause no less or no more damage than other user groups such as hikers (when managed correctly of course). We have successfully managed multi use trails in a CRD park for the past 10 years at Hartland Mountain Bike Park, why now are things different?

This is all coming to a head, and fast. There are currently decisions being made that will affect our access to this resource. We need to be VERY active and definitive in our response to this move by the CRD. The South Island Mountain Bike Society (SIMBS) is currently working on a response to the proposed park in the Sooke Hills, a park that I am sure they will be heavily involved. IMBA Canada regional Representative James Brown has also been in talks with the CRD on this proposal, the outcome of these talks (both SIMBS and IMBA) will hopefully be made public sooner rather than later. Some of this I have personal knowledge of as I am currently on the Board of Directors for SIMBS, so I have been personally involved in some of these discussions.

By dumping all of this out in this format on my site, I hope to inform as well as "ignite the fires of activism" in the local Mountain Biking Community. Victoria, Sooke, Duncan, Nanimo, Courtney/Comox and all points in between all have very active and involved biking communities, all of which will benefit from yet another legal, safe and well managed mountain bike park on Vancouver Island. Maybe the spin off will be more access in those areas, but this will only remain to be seen. Please visit the link below to the SIMBS web petition on this subject. Also, if you haven't already see the links below to join SIMBS and IMBA to support not only local and regional Mountain Bike Advocacy groups, but international as well. Stay tuned to this website as well as SIMBS for the "next steps" on this process, and be prepared to fight for what you deserve.

Thanks for reading
Greg Bird
Owner/Webmaster for VIMB.com

Please note: Any and all opinions expressed here are my own. Any and all information in this post has either been personally gathered, or is available freely and openly on the web. If you take issue with this post, or any post on this website, please contact me here.

Join SIMBS here...

Join IMBA Canada here...

SIMBS web Petition can be found here...