200511 Robert Ballantyne Re Self-Propelled Vs
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From: BIMBC - Mayor And Council To: BIMBC - Mayor And Council Group Subject: FW: Self-propelled vs. motorized use of the trails on Mount Gardner, Bowen Island Date: Monday, May 11, 2020 11:12:19 AM From: Robert Ballantyne Sent: Monday, May 11, 2020 11:11:54 AM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; BIMBC - Mayor And Council Subject: Self-propelled vs. motorized use of the trails on Mount Gardner, Bowen Island ATTENTION: Tom Blackbird, District Recreation Officer, Recreation Sites and Trails BC - Chilliwack District, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Province of British Columbia Phone: 778-704-7056 Email: [email protected] SUBJECT: Self-propelled vs. motorized use of the trails on Mount Gardner, Bowen Island DATE: 2020 May 11 On April 27th last I was among the Bowen Islanders attending the Zoom meeting of our municipal Council for your presentation and discussion about the trails on Mount Gardner. I would like to address the main issue of the meeting: self-propelled vs. motorized use of those trails. My interest in the trails arises from my hiking all of those trails frequently since 1990, and then personally spending weeks creating the detailed and accurate map of over 20 kilometers of the good hiking trails that was instrumental in developing the concept of designating the polygon on Mount Gardner — now expressed in the current Partnership Agreement. This survey of the trails was done as part of my work for the Rotary Club of Bowen Island. One of Rotary’s Avenues of Service is Community Service, and it had come to the club’s attention that it was very easy for casual hikers to become lost on the Mountain. The mountain guide, www.bivouac.com currently warns hikers and climbers, “A complicated series of trails lead to the summit from multiple directions. This has been the cause of many lost hikers.” Thus those trails were potentially dangerous, and as a destination for visitors, the mountain was gaining a reputation of providing a poor hiking experience. There are two reasons that this was important to me. First, for years I have been part of Canada’s environmental movement. I’ve served as the chair of the Canadian Nature Federation (now Nature Canada) and I am currently the president of BC Spaces for Nature. Those of us who value British Columbia’s amazing biomes and ecosystems want to share what we have discovered with others. We have learned that the most instructive way for people to appreciate this land — that is their heritage — is to help them to experience it. We don’t have to say anything — just facilitate folks being there. Quietly. These places speak powerfully for themselves. We have a generation who is growing up in an urban environment where the demands of education, business, social media, and more, drown out the message from the natural world. Bowen Island, and its Mount Garner, is one of the few places someone from urban Vancouver can experience a taste of wilderness for the price of a bus ticket and a spectacular ferry trip across Howe Sound/Atl'kitsem. Second, people do come to visit Bowen Island because of the trails on Mount Gardner. The founder of the Rotary Club of Bowen Island — the late Piers Hayes, the owner of ‘The Snug’ — the most popular coffee shop and restaurant on Bowen’s main street — was a huge supporter of our work on the trails of Mount Gardner. He frequently observed that aside from visiting friends & family, at least 60% of visitors to Bowen Island came to hike the trails. As you know, Bowen Rotary publishes a very popular trails map. Those visitors are welcomed by the many island businesses that serve the traveling public, and their trip here is very beneficial to our island economy. In the past couple of years I’ve been impressed by the diligence, and the high quality of work of the volunteers, to blaze the trails and to develop wayfinding signage. This has been a beneficial consequence of the Partnership Agreement. I am also distressed by the potential conflict among the users of those trails. It was only in recent months I was shocked to learn that while the Rotary Club and I were negotiating the first Partnership Agreement with the Province, that the Province was also approving the future development of ‘Easy Street’ for motorized access to the sub-peak of Mount Gardner without informing us of that process. I think I understand that our agreement was under Section 56, and the trail for motorized use was under Section 57 — nevertheless, I feel that that action was in poor faith. During the meeting of April 27, your discussion of the role and authority of the Province, particularly with regard to the polygon covered by the Partnership Agreement was thorough, cogent, and complete. I was pleased to hear that the wishes of the local municipality has a strong influence over the decisions you may make for the use of those trails. In this regard, I’d like to support the position of the Bowen Island Municipality and Council, and add my voice to those proposing that the use of the trails be limited to the self-propelled users, or simply, to hikers. While Mount Gardner can provide a quality mid-country wilderness experience it is, by local standards, a small mountain. Compared to the hills that form the east wall of Howe Sound/Atl'kitsem in the Britannia Range, it is only half as tall. Here is the comparison: Mt. Gardner – 727m, Mt. Strachan – 1459m, West Lion – 1654m, Mt. Harvey – 1652m, Brunswick Mt. – 1788m, Deeks Peak – 1672m, Goat Ridge – 1762m. I’m familiar with all of these and have hiked to each of the summits, most several times. My observation is that these other mountains are not just higher, those lofty peaks surmount a huge amount of wilderness space. In my opinion, the various recreational users of the Province’s forests and mountains have different needs, and sometimes those needs will be in conflict. Hikers move on trails at a walking speed, and to climb, say, Brunswick Mt., will take most of the daylight hours of a whole day. On the first day that I scrambled to the top of Goat Ridge (access Petgill Lake trail) we found we were in the company of 4 motorized trial bikers who’d made their own trail up from Britannia Beach. We took all day to reach the summit and return. The bikers were up and down in only a few hours. How long would a motorized trip to the north summit of Mt. Gardner take? It would be measured in minutes, not hours. I suspect that the motorized users are testing their skill with their machines on a rugged slope, and not truly savoring the wilderness values. However, in doing so, with their speed, noise and fumes, they are severely limiting the experience of the self-propelled users — including those on nearby trails. While Mt. Gardner can provide a quality experience for a visitor to the Island that can be a truly satisfying event that will take the better part of a day, and therefore worthy of a trip, that cannot be said for the motor-propelled users. And yet, the latter group, though small in number, significantly degrades the experience of the majority of the mountain’s users. My conclusion and recommendation is that the best use of the small size of Mt. Gardner, and its 20+km of beautiful trails is to limit access to self-propelled wilderness travelers. Thank-you for your attention to this matter. Robert J Ballantyne Copies to: Honorable Doug Donaldson, Minister, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Province of British Columbia [email protected] TennesseeTrent, Trails Manager, Recreation Sites and Trails BC [email protected] Robert van der Zalm, Regional Director (Coast) Recreation Sites and Trails BC [email protected] Bowen Island Mayor and Council [email protected].