Apparently, Sustainable Resources (SRD) requires approved stakeholders to consult with each other before they will give approval to any activity in an area. The Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association (GBCTA) as an approved stakeholder was required to consult extensively with other stakeholders including Spray Lakes Sawmills in order to get permission to build the new trails. I am told they went over the alignment of every trail in great detail before final approval was given. In a similar vein, Spray Lakes Sawmills is required to consult with the stakeholders, including GBCTA, before logging plans are approved. This consultation only started in November and is likely to take several months as the impact of every cut block on the trails, and ways to mitigate that impact, need to be agreed upon. If this process is followed by SRD, it seem unlikely that much logging will be done this summer.

We have been asked to circulate an open letter from Troy Delfs, one of the key trail builders with GRCTA & CMBA and also a member of Sustain Kananaskis Country. Here it is:

Hi Friends,

Extensive clearcut logging is planned to take place this summer in the West Bragg Creek region of Kananaskis Country.  This logging will have a direct and detrimental affect on 90% of the recreational trails in the region, not to mention the impact on the watershed, environment and the local community. I am sharing this information with you because it will have a huge negative impact on not only me, my family and other Bragg Creek residents but it will also have a significant impact on Calgarians and the region in general.  This note is to help spread the word and inform people of what is planned and encourage you to take action on this issue.  We must act NOW on this issue and ‘Have a Voice’.

The Logging Plans

• Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS) is seeking final approval from Alberta Sustainable Resources Development (SRD) to start extensive clearcut logging in West Bragg Creek.
• SLS is planning to clearcut 700 hectares or 1300 football fields of forest over a 9 month period starting this summer.
• Prior to logging different areas SLS is required to inform the public of their logging plans and consult with them.
• SLS is just now starting their public consultation process on this logging plan.
• How can they possibly expect to truly engage the public, address their concerns, make any necessary changes to their plans and then make their own arrangements to log in 5 short months?
• All logging plans must be delayed until a complete and facilitated public consultation process has taken place.

Impact on the Trails

• The West Bragg Creek region of Kananaskis Country has long been a popular destination for xc-skiers, hikers and mountain bikers.
• The Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association (GBCTA) has revitalized the cross-country skiing in this area over the past few years by keeping the trails groomed and maintained.
• The GBCTA has raised over $300,000 and provided thousands of volunteer hours this past year to build over 35 km of new single track trails.
• These new trails were built with the endorsement and support from Alberta Tourism Parks & Recreation.
• These new trails climb up out of the quagmire of the old logging road trails to higher and dryer ground providing a long overdue connection between West Bragg Creek & Station Flats.
• 19 of the 21 trails in this area will have clearcuts located directly adjacent to or over top of them if this plan goes ahead. See Map
• The impact of the logging on the trails will most likely result in excessive erosion and water damage to the summer trails and lack of wind and sun shelter on the winter trails.
• During the logging operations many of the trials will be closed and likely directly damaged.
• Because of the location and excessive amount of logging planned it will have a detrimental and very long lasting impact on this beloved recreational area.
• I truly believe that if the logging is to go ahead as planned it would virtually eliminate this area as a desirable recreation destination for the next 10 years at least.

Watershed & Environment

• Whatever happens in the Elbow River watershed has a direct and often significant impact on everybody downstream.
• How will this large scale clear cutting located very near the Elbow River and it’s tributaries affect the quality of water in Calgary?
• How will it affect ares prone of flooding such as Bragg Creek, Redwood Meadows and Calgary?
• This proposed round of logging is much larger than harvests in the past.  How will this affect the current wildlife and the future biodiversity?

Fire Protection

• SLS is trying to justify this logging plan under the guise of fire protection for the community of Bragg Creek.
• I agree with the fact that Bragg Creek is at a high risk for forest fires and that something must be done about it.
• One experience I have from my years with the Calgary Fire Department is that fire fighers will only use a tool if it is reliable, effective and available.
• The ‘tool’ that SLS & SRD are proposing is that a number of clearcuts loosely strung together and allowed to regrow will act as sufficient fire protection for Bragg Creek.
• Time must be taken to properly plan permanent & well placed fuel breaks.
• Let’s provide firefighters with an effective and reliable tool that they can use in the event of fires for years to come.

What is Sustain Kananaskis?

• Sustain K is a group of people like me that want our voices to be heard.
• We want to hold SLS & SRD accountable to the public and insist that they delay logging operations until a complete and facilitated public consultation process has taken place.

What Can You Do?

• Write a letter to your MLA, the Premier, the Minister of SRD - click here
• Sign the online petition - click here
• Get more information -   www.SustainK.ca
• Spread the word – Twitter, Facebook, e-mail
• Attend the Open House : Bragg Creek Community Centre Thursday, January 26, 2012 3:00 – 7:00 pm.

As you have probably gathered, this cause is extremely important to me and I ask that you get involved and ‘Have a Voice’.

Thank-you, Troy

I am having difficulty deciphering the relationship between the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association (GBCTA) and Sustain Kananaskis, a “grass roots initiative” that is drawing media attention to logging in West Bragg. When the GBCTA drafted the trails plan in early 2010 they recognized that the area was slated for logging and undertook to collaborate with Spray Lakes Sawmills and SRD to minimizing the impact on trails and trail user experience.

The GBCTA and its Plan Advisory Committee (composed of the area’s main outdoor users) has earned the mandate to negotiate with Spray Lakes Sawmills to mitigate the impact of logging. So why has Sustain Kananaskis suddenly appeared on the scene? Have they recently realized that the area is about to be logged, or is the GBCTA having little success in its negotiations with Spray Lakes Sawmills and are using Sustain Kananaskis to apply some pressure? Maybe we will get some answers at the upcoming open house.

I believe that logging will be good for the West Bragg trails in the long run. Granted logged areas look unsightly for a few years, but you only have to look at areas that were logged 20 years ago to see some of potential benefits—rejuvenated forest, excellent snow retention and more wildlife.

Let’s face it, West Bragg is not a pristine foothills area. Many of the old trails follow resource roads and cutlines. Even though the new hiking-biking trails get up on ridges, views are limited. Many of these trails were designed to skirt the edge of cut blocks to take advantage of the views that will hopefully be opened up.

I don’t agree that the logging will severely impact snow retention on the ski trails, especially after a few years when the newly-planted trees start to grow. Yes, it will open them up to the sun, but lets face it, most years skiing at West Bragg is best from December to mid-February, with occasional good skiing for a few days after a new dump of snow up to the end of March. After this the snow deteriorates very quickly. For the first few year snow retention can be enhanced by using slash from the logging to build low berms on the windward side of ski trails. In a few places snow fencing may be necessary.

While I understand that the general public wants a say in the process, we should let the  GBCTA, who represent a lot of outdoor organizations, deal with the logging issues on the trail system. It is important that they are allowed to monitor the logging, replanting and logging road restoration process to ensure that the impact on the trail system by Spray Lakes Sawmills is minimized. Sustainable Resources has not done a good job of this in the past—remember the north end of Telephone Loop?

Be sure to attend the Open House. Spray Lake Sawmills staff will be on site to answer questions and gather feedback, and maps will be on display to show where the cutblocks are located. Check out the comments on our Forum.

Introducing new ski trail maps from Gotrekkers.

• Kanananskis NE winter. Winter trails Bragg Creek Area. contours  at 10 m intervals.  scale 1:15,000. Shows Snowshoe Hare snowshoe route.
• Kananaskis SE winter. Winter trails-Sandy McNabb Area Contours  at 10 m intervals. scale 1:10,000. Shows Sandy McNabb Hill which is missing from all other maps.
• Kananaskis SW winter.  34 Winter Trails (Peter Lougheed trails). contours at 10 m intervals. scale 1: 20,000. Trail sections  color coded green, blue and black to depict difficulty. Also shows snowshoe routes. The scale is such that it enables you to sort out the trails around the campground areas.

I really like that the maps show contour lines. The only thing I found confusing was the colour blue depicting fens and meadows. Look too much like lakes which are a lighter shade of the same blue. A greeny colour would work better.

Maps are available from The Norseman X-country ski shop (4655-37 st. SW), Spirit West  (1210 11 Ave. SW) and from the U of Calgary‘s Outdoor Centre.  Otherwise, contact info@gotrekkers.com. See also Martin’s website  gotrekkers.com for a complete listing.

Here is a new map of the trails in the Chester-Sawmill area. The trails between Chester and Sawmill, shown in purple, have been signed, and although they are marked as snowshoe trails they can still be used by skiers, though they will not be groomed. The signing was done by James Cieslak who grooms the xc-ski trails in PLPP and 4 volunteers — so a big thanks to them! Click on the map for a larger version.

Just finishing Volume 4 of the Kanananskis Country Trail Guide  and looking for a horizontal colour photo of Junction Lookout.

Also a vertical shot of Threepoint/Volcano gorge from the end of the Hogs Back on Threepoint Creek trail.  I have an oldie I can use, but am looking for a better one.

If anyone can help, please click on “ABOUT” in menu bar above, then “CONTACT US.” Thanks, Gillean.

The Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association has released two maps showing the conglomeration of trails around West Bragg including the new trails constructed over the past couple of years. The new trails, some of which are still under construction, are “multi-use” trails intended for walking, biking, snowshoeing and equestrian. These trails have been designed with biking in mind, and hikers will sometimes wonder about the way they have been routed. I’m sure that over time some hiking specific short-cuts will be trod in. Hopefully this does not lead to trail fragmentation. There are no new ski trails, though the pesky creek on Loggers is now bridged.

The “North” map shows Moose and Telephone loops and all the currently-approved trails in between. Of interest are Long Distance, a new trail from Mountain Road to the north end of Telephone, and Merlin View that takes in the ridges between Telephone and Moose Loop.

The “South” map extends south to the Elbow Valley and west to Tom Snow trail. Note the new start to Ranger Summit Loop and the possibility of completing a loop (the former Ranger Summit Loop) by using Ranger Summit, Strange Brew and finishing down the northern section of Boundary Ridge. A glaring omission on this map is Sugar Momma, a well-established mountain bike trail that parallels the northern side of Fullerton and connects with Ranger Summit Trail.With the plethora of trails in this area I can see no good reason why Kananaskis Country did not approve this trail.

Mountain Guide Doug Latimer has developed The Avalanche Site, a Canadian website providing public avalanche education. He has gathered together many of the pieces of avalanche safety information scattered around the web into a cohesive resource for anyone going into avalanche terrain. Although still a work in progress (Planning and Terrain are not done yet), there is already lots of content for you to browse.

Scattered among the text are a number of informative video clips, some with subtitles, others narrated by avalanche professionals such as John Kelly, Karl Klassen, Chris Stethem, Grant Stathem, Pascal Haegeli, and Katrina from MEC talking about equipment.

There are more videos in the “Resources” section” which is intended to provide resources for avalanche educators, though I would like to see some of them incorporated into the appropriate section of the site. For instance, the video on Conveyor Shovelling should be available in the Rescue Section.

While the site looks very professional, there are a couple of improvements needed in the sites navigation. In the Resource Menu on the left, the headings such as 1: Basics, 2: Formation, etc. are not just heading, they are clickable information pages. On first visiting the site I ignored them, clicking on the other items which appear to be second level headings. Also for those of us viewing the content on an iPad, it would be nice to have next and previous buttons at the top and bottom of each page so we don’t have to access the menu each time.

Partners and sponsors include the Canadian Avalanche Centre, Canadian Avalanche Foundation, MEC, the federal government and Shadow Light Productions.

Snowshoeing in the Canadian Rockies by Andrew Nugara. Published by Rocky Mountain Books

Wow!  This book should really up  the  ante on what is possible with snowshoes. No longer will anyone  think of snowshoeing as a flat walk through the woods. As Andrew says: “the world of snowshoeing seems to be undergoing rapid changes and shifts in focus,” largely owing to technological advances in snowshoe design. And that snowshoers can now set their sights on more lofty  objectives previously the domain of mountaineers and ski mountaineers. And that really is what 53 of the routes described in this book are about : routes up ridges and peaks you’ve never even thought of climbing in winter. i.e snowshoe mountaineering. Some of the routes cross glaciers and most require avalanche knowhow. And you had better be fit because some like Mt. Jellicoe are incredibly long

So while  this book on the one hand is a trend-setter and great  for the adventurous wanting to go higher and steeper, on the other hand  it’s not quite so useful for the plodders who are quite content to continue plodding through the woods to lakes and viewpoints without running the risk of avalanche danger. The number of easy routes (which Andrew calls beginner routes) is 16  and  includes many  Kananaskis Country favorites like Rummel, Chester and Rawson lakes. The easy classification is a broad one ranging from Hogarth Lakes to the north ridge of Mount Buller, which, though free of avalanche danger, is a strenuous bushwhack. The number of true beginner routes is actually quite low and many official snowshoe trails that novices might flock to have been omitted, including those at West Bragg, which means that a segment of the snowshoeing public are going to  have to look elsewhere for that information. (Check out snowshoe trails on this site.) Andrew readily admits all this and agrees that this first edition is biased towards the hard stuff! But he plans to even things out in the next edition by including the whole raft of easy to moderate trips listed in appendix D—which he has yet to snowshoe. Regarding the easy routes, kudos to Andrew for adding on more difficult extensions. A good example of this is Warspite Lake. Depending on your level of expertise, you can stay put (easy), or continue up into the cirque (moderate) from where you can climb Warspite Ridge (difficult).

To sum up, this is an attractive looking book with excellent writing and colour photos, some with the routes marked on, and good topo maps at the back of book with routes marked on in red. There is a section at the beginning on equipment, technique, etiquette  and avalanche hazard and an appendix on snowshoeing on the Wapta and Columbia Icefields. Routes are described by highway starting in Waterton National Park and range up through the Rockies to the north edge of Banff National Park.

Kananaskis Country management is proposing a Kananaskis Pathways and Trails Classification System to supplement the Alberta Corridor and Trails Classification System. Gone will be the words designated (official) and undesignated (unofficial), and in their stead trails will be categorized into 6 classes  ranging from paved trails in category A through to scrambles at category F.

The system  is still being worked out, and sorting out the trails into the various categories will take some time. But in the meantime, feel free to comment on the idea.

I’m told that this new system will result in many unofficial trails making the list. Which trails do you think should be included, bearing in mind they should be popular trails? Instantly, the trails up Prairie Mountain and Ha Ling spring to mind.

Click on image for readable version

• Smith-Dorrien Trail system. The parking lot will be plowed this winter and coloured markers of the same colour will go back on some trails, like Blue loop and some of orange, and yellow. There is not enough money in the kitty this year to clear deadfall from trails, so because of the liability issue  they are not at the moment being tooted as ski trails. Instead they are being promoted as snowshoe trails. (You can still ski the trails this winter but at your own risk.) Can skiers and snowshoers co-exist on these trails is the question no-one knows the answer to. At least snowshoers can help pack the trails! Would like to hear from both groups as the winter progresses.
• Fortress Ski Area.  This winter organized cat skiing will be going ahead. People will be driven up in vans from the bottom of the road. Unfortunately, the road will remain closed to public vehicles.
• Kananaskis Country plans to adopt the new icon-rich avalanche report format developed by the Canadian Avalanche Centre and Parks Canada.
• The Sandy McNabb ski trails will be streamlined i.e some loops and connectors will not be groomed or trackset. A new brochure will show the changes.
• Logging will commence at West Bragg Creek next summer and continue through to about  the following January. Before then a haul road will be pushed through from Homestead Road at the Junpingpound end, but should not impact the ski trails north of West Bragg  parking lot too much apart from crossing them. Some sections of ski trails south of the  parking lot may have to be temporarily re-routed.  Work will start first on the Boundary Ridge area, which is the ridge east of Sundog east leg  and Iron Springs trail, and on the north and west slopes of Snagmore Hill. Some of the new bike/hike trails will be affected, such as the Snagmore Hill trail, but will be put back as was a couple of weeks after logging. One thing’s for sure: The scenery’s going to look a little different for the next little while.Know that the logged strips will act as fire breaks put in to protect the hamlet of Bragg Creek. So I am puzzled as to why the ground will be scarified and replanted with seedlings. Long before the trees reach maturity and can once again be logged, they will present a fire hazard surely.

Feel free to comment on anything you read here.