New investments needed to create improved access to nature
Destination BC | Mitch Winton
The Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services released the Report on the Budget 2022 Consultation earlier this week [November 15, 2021], and the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC (ORCBC) is encouraged to see recognition of the need for increased investments in outdoor recreation.
ORCBC and several of its members, including Horse Council BC, Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC, BC Snowmobile Federation, Trails BC, Shuswap Trail Alliance and International Mountain Bicycling Association of Canada, made submissions during the public consultation period in September that all highlighted the critical need to increase funding for Recreation Sites and Trails BC and provide better support for volunteer trail stewards.
The Select Standing Committee noted concerns about underfunding and understaffing of parks, recreation, and trails in its report. They acknowledged the significant increase in park and trail usage during the pandemic and how the increased use has resulted in undermaintained trails being further eroded due to staffing shortages and an operational reliance on volunteers. Among its recommendations, the committee recommended to: ”provide increased funding for parks, recreation and trails to address gaps in maintenance and staff, including dedicated funding to community-based organizations for trail maintenance and development.”
Louise Pedersen, Executive Director for the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, said: “Meaningful access to outdoor recreation opportunities is important for the physical and mental well-being of British Columbians, it helps generate awareness for the environment and climate change, it boosts local economies, it builds relationships with Indigenous communities, and it supports tourism. The more we protect and invest in outdoor recreation and facilitate quality recreational experiences for all British Columbians, the greater and longer-lasting the dividends for the province.”
Outdoor recreation has become increasingly popular during the pandemic. Trail counters in the Sea-to-Sky area measured a staggering 150 percent increase in traffic between 2019 and 2020, and anecdotally, most other regions have seen the same increase in usage of parks and trails during the last two years.
British Columbia’s outdoor recreation assets are currently facing several pressing issues, including degradation of recreation infrastructure through a lack of maintenance and overuse, lack of facilities such as outhouses, wildlife-proof garbage containers and signage, environmental and cultural impacts, and insufficient staff and budgets to plan and to maintain these valuable assets. The Outdoor Recreation Council also raises concerns about an increasing loss of road access to trailheads, recreation sites and wilderness areas due to a lack of maintenance and deactivations of forest service roads resulting from insufficient provincial funding.
The exponential increase in interest for nature-based recreation has put enormous demands on Recreation Sites and Trails BC (RSTBC), a small agency within the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, who has the overall responsibility for trails and recreation assets on public lands outside of BC’s protected areas system. With a staff of only 50 people and an $8 million annual operating budget, the agency oversees 1,372 recreation sites, 29 interpretative forests, 197 area-based trail networks and 569 trails that add up to 12,000 km in all regions of the province. Following the reorganization of the Province’s recreation program in 2006 and in response to a smaller budget and large workload, RSTBC has entered into nearly four hundred partnership agreements with recreation groups to manage trails and sites across the province.
The Select Standing Committee has previously recognized these significant shortfalls, and a recommendation was also made last year to increase funding for RSTBC.
Louise Pedersen said: “An operational budget uplift for Recreation Sites and Trails BC, similar to what the provincial government did for BC Parks in this year's budget, will provide the agency with more staffing and better operational support to deal with increasing demands and more significant complexities related to public land use, facilitate more recreation opportunities for communities across BC, and support volunteer recreation clubs who work in partnership with the agency.
Pedersen continued: “We are calling on the Province to increase the annual operational budget of Recreation Sites and Trails BC to a minimum of $20 million. This necessary investment will help put British Columbia in a much greater position to develop a world-class trail and recreation system that facilitates broad, inclusive and diverse participation in outdoor recreation, follows best practices for trail design and environmental considerations, and foster reconciliation through increased Indigenous representation in recreation planning, development and management.”
