Whether it's by foot, pedals, hooves or throttle, users of the trails on Mount Elphinstone were not shy last Wednesday night to share opinions on how the trails should be used in the future.
The Sunshine Coast Trail Society (SCTS) and Roberts Creek Official Community Plan Committee (RCOCPC) held a meeting May 27 at Roberts Creek Community Hall to discuss the newly formed society and future trail use and maintenance.
The meeting, facilitated by Betty Baxter, drew in throngs of trail users, local politicians, conservationists and local property owners.
Baxter soundly predicted the content of the meeting at the very beginning.
"There are possibly 100 people here, and I'm guessing there are almost 100 opinions," she said.
The meeting followed the formation of the Sunshine Coast Trails Society. The group's founders, Dave Marquis and Caroline Depatie, stated their ultimate goal is to have an overall trail strategy for Mount Elphinstone.
But there are a few hurdles to cross between now and then. The group must be formally incorporated, elect a board, apply for funding and begin developing relationships with community members, groups and businesses including B.C. Timber Sales.
Marquis gave a presentation on the current state of trails that are maintained and what environmentally sound practices should be used to protect the forest land as much as possible.
RCOCPC chair Elaine Futterman and vice-chair Mike Allegretti stated the committee's goal was to see that, no mater what happens, community members are able to have input on the future of the trails and that all decisions must take into account the shared values of residents.
The majority of the trails on Mount Elphinstone are on Crown land under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forests and Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Arts.
Baxter stressed that no decision would be made at the meeting, rather, people would have a chance to become familiar with the SCTS and speak up on trail-related issues.
And the people did speak up, expressing a range of opinions from restricting trail use to hikers only, to multi-use with access to everyone.
Ken Dalgleish, a Crowe Road resident, was the first to approach the microphone in the forum. He asked attendees to remember the inherent spiritual value of wilderness and strive to maintain it.
"When I go up there [Mount Elphinstone], there are spiritual values and those are really hard to quantify and qualify," he said. "They are values that even B.C. Timber Sales holds important. For the spiritual values I seek in the forest, I need silence. I need space and I need nature."
He added he was concerned that multi-use trails would come at the cost of those values.
Other attendees shared concerns about motorized and non-motorized users trying to share the same trails and the safety issues that can cause. But some attendees took a different approach to multi-use trails, arguing there was room for everyone.
Gary Jackson, a mountain bike enthusiast and co-owner of Off the Edge Adventure Sports in Sechelt, praised the SCTS for taking the initiative to get started and stressed, surely, there was enough space for all users to responsibly and safely enjoy the trails, but only if the user groups could communicate with a spirit of equality.
"Everyone is invested into this community, whether it's nature lovers right up to the ATVers. I believe everyone deserves an equal stake. I don't believe hikers have the utmost say or more jurisdiction," he said. "We all need to get together evenly and equally."
Other issues raised included trail etiquette among user groups, the tourism draw of the Sunshine Coast's trails, the issue of some trails overlapping with private property and how the trails could be saved from logging.
The most common theme was excitement over the SCTS and the importance of having trail users united to protect access to the unregulated and unsanctioned trails.
The RCOCPC and SCTS are now sorting through the information they gathered at the meeting with plans to begin formulating the all-important "next steps" when it comes to their goals for the trails.
