Editor:
I am a professional forester and actively practise integrated resource management in my daily work. I am also a mountain biker, trail runner and mushroom picker and use the Roberts Creek forest for my personal enjoyment. My mountain bike friends build, maintain and ride the many trails on the Sunshine Coast - an area second to none for mountain bike riding with a promising economy built around it.
When mountain biking was a fledgling sport, riders opened up old logging and shake cutter roads and built trails. Now bikes are shuttled to trailheads and provincial racing events are held on the maintained logging road system. Like it or not, our mountain bike recreational experience is directly tied to having a road system maintained by continued harvesting in the Roberts Creek forest.
The BC Park system is highly regulated, as are regional parks, albeit to a lesser degree. Park infrastructure is expensive to maintain and, as demonstrated by many other parks on the Sunshine Coast, trails and roads are often closed citing liability, high cost to operate, safety concerns and - typically with Park mandates - an overall mandate for natural ecosystems.
If Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) gets their way with its 1,500 ha park concept, most recreational activities done in the Roberts Creek forest will be banned.
When was the last time new mountain bike trails, jumps or bridges were built in a provincial park? Mountain biking, horseback riding, ATV use and gathering botanical products is generally prohibited in parks, but not in the provincial forest.
We should advocate for a more comprehensive planning process that integrates important values like recreation use with sustainable logging and responsible forest stewardship, particularly in the interface areas like the Roberts Creek forest.
If this area becomes a park, would you actually recreate there?
Warren Hansen
Langdale
