Why recreation planning works

Image: Elk Valley Adventure and Dirt Riders Society

How the Koocanusa went from Wild West to a model of stewardship

This blog post is part of a new series from the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC focused on the many benefits – some well known, many less so – that outdoor recreation brings to people, communities and the province.

Yvonne Miller never expected to say nice things about dirt bikers. Over the last 30 years, she felt dirt bikers, ATV riders and random campers had damaged the delicate ecosystem and disturbed ranchland in the grassland and open forest of the Koocanusa area. It was feeling like the Wild West. 

Things began to change when a small group of dedicated volunteers created the East Kootenay Adventure & Dirt Riders Society (EVADRS). They signed a partnership agreement with Recreation Sites and Trails BC to manage the Dorr-Grasmere Motorized Trail Network, a single-track dirt biking area in the Rocky Mountain Trench near the Montana border of southeastern B.C.  

“A few years ago, I would have bet you anything that I would never be championing a local motorbike group,” Miller says. “I would have said you are crazy. But the EVADRS have really done an amazing job.”

In just a few years, the EVADRS have transformed an area best known for free-for-all and stakeholder conflict into a model for the power of recreation planning and user group stewardship.

“Thank God for the EVADRS,” Miller says.

The challenges in the Koocanusa have historic roots. Between the Purcell Mountains and the Rocky Mountains, the area has a unique, arid microclimate. It is an important ungulate winter range and supports endangered species. There are archeological sites from traditional use by the Ktunaxa Nation. And it is an excellent ranching country, attracting settlers like Miller’s family, who graze cattle on private and neighbouring Crown lands. 

The source of the modern challenges dates back to 1971 and the damming of the Kootenay River near Libby, Montana. It created Koocanusa Reservoir, which flooded more than 150 kilometres of river valley, half in the U.S. and half in Canada. The lake attracted visitors from Alberta, Montana and Idaho, says Miller.

“I used to think people came here because it is pristine and beautiful,” she says. “Then I realized they came because there was no enforcement.”

The remote area was out of sight and mind of Conservation Officers and RCMP, Miller says. People moved RV’s in for the summer, camped wherever they wanted and built docks on the lake. As dirt biking and ATV riding became more popular, they started following cattle and wildlife trails and cutting their own. The low snowpack made the Koocanusa an especially popular destination in the spring for dirt bikers from Alberta, Idaho and Montana. On summer long weekends, Miller estimates up to 10,000 people would invade the area. Soon it was a 57,000-hectare grid of trails, and the ecosystem was suffering. The situation annoyed stakeholders, including ranchers, foresters, hunters, biologists and local residents.

The Koocanusa Recreation Steering Committee (KRSC) was the third provincial effort aimed at addressing the conflicts. The first two hadn’t progressed past the planning table stage, says Lisa Cox, the local District Recreation Officer for Recreation Sites and Trails BC. When the KRSC was launched in 2014, with local First Nations, the regional district, provincial government and Columbia Basin Trust at the table, few expected it would do much better. At first, they couldn’t even find a motorized recreation representative to join its public advisory group. 

Still, the advisory group, made up of local citizens and other recreation users, provided their input. Open houses and community engagement events gathered public opinion and ideas. In 2017, the steering committee developed the Koocanusa Recreation Strategy, a guiding document that created non-motorized and motorized zones, as well as designated camping areas in the Dorr-Grasmere quadrant of the Koocanusa. The provincial government began installing signage and decommissioning unauthorized trails. But without enforcement conflicts continued.

A few regular Koocanusa dirt bikers realized they risked losing the trails if someone didn’t step forward to steward them, says Susan Mould, a director with the EVADRS. They formed the club in 2019 and immediately began working with Cox to take over stewardship of 65 kilometres of trails in the Dorr-Grasmere. They signed a Partnership Agreement with RSTBC in 2022, which made the club eligible for funding and able to apply for grants.

The club invested countless volunteer hours maintaining the trails, adding better signage, smoothing out whoops, cleaning up braiding and rehabilitating closed areas. “We have grass growing in places where we haven’t had it for many years,” says Cox. They also ramped up an education campaign on social media and with signage. With positive messaging on how to be a responsible rider, rather than what not to do, it has emphasized the value of sustaining the trails for future generations, Mould says. 

“Almost everybody coming down here now is a far more responsible user, most stick to the designated trails and use our maps,” she says. “We’re seeing a lot more families. We’re seeing a lot more families. A really caring community has grown and sustainability is important to them.”

They’ve worked hard to forge better relations with the local community as well. The EVADRS hired the Yaq̓ it ʔa·knuqⱡi'it (Tobacco Plains Indian Band) to work on the multiphase trail restoration project and invited local ranchers and residents to their events and work parties. The efforts helped change opinions. But even more important, says Cox, was delivering on their promise. 

“I remind all of the clubs I work with, ‘Don’t bite off more than you can chew,’” she says. “There are a lot of eyes watching what you are doing. It’s not that they want to see you fail, but you are going to shine in a better light if you accomplish what you say you are going to do.”

Cox and Mould say there is plenty of work left to do in the Dorr/Grasmere, but they’ve also accomplished a lot.  

“I can see how much progress we’ve made,” says Mould. “That makes it worth all the hard work.”

The success in the Koocanusa will hopefully lead to more regional recreational planning, says Louise Pedersen, the executive director of the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC. Non-profit, volunteer-run clubs, like the EVADRS, thrive when there’s clarity– when they know which trails can be improved and where. It’s far more effective than spending their time searching for the boundaries of what might be supported, only to be turned down years later.

“In general, the current way of making ad hoc proposals is generally very inefficient,” Pedersen says. “There’s no mechanism in place to encourage coordination within a community or across a region.”

While recreational planning is slow and costly – the Koocanusa Recreational Strategy took more than seven years and cost more than $1-million – it saves time and resources in the long run, she says.

“I believe a new approach to recreation planning at the regional scale can foster collaboration between all stakeholders and reduce the burden on everyone, including First Nations,” says Pedersen. “And most importantly, as we’ve seen in the Koocanusa, they lead to better stewardship of the land, which is a big win for everyone.”