A group of concerned citizens is sounding the alarm over the proposed clear-cutting of areas that would affect popular hiking and biking trails some 30 minutes from Calgary.
The proposed logging released earlier in the week by West Fraser Cochrane will impact a slew of trails around the West Bragg Trail Network and the east side of the Moose Mountain Trail Network.
Those are Fullerton Loop, Snakes and Ladders, Bobcat, Sugar Pony, Strange Brew, Snowy Owl, Ranger Summit, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Mama, Pneuma, Race of Spades, 7-27, Elbow Valley, and Sulphur Springs.
The above map lists most of the trails on the south side of the West Bragg Trail Network and the east side of the Moose Mountain Trail Network.
A social media post from Bragg Creek and Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation says it will take over 70 years for regrowth, and that it won’t be a FireSmart harvest.
“Despite this, they now plan to destroy the attractiveness of the most popular recreation area outside Alberta Parks,” the post on X reads.
A group has been launched to bring awareness to the area and to those who use the trails.
Watch: Historic forest management policies felt in 2023
Jeff Woodgate, a spokesperson for Guardians of Recreational Opportunities in the Wilderness (GROW), says the group isn’t against the practice of sustainably harvesting lumber in Alberta but is concerned with the lack of awareness around the proposed changes for those areas.
“This particular specific locale has changed its focus, its usership, and its value to our society,” he told CityNews. “There are a series of trails that have been there since the turn of the century.
“However, in the last … 15-13 years, there has been a huge uptick in the specific activities of the trails. Society’s building trails for general purpose.”
He says the trails have evolved to be purpose-built, and have massive usership, adding people are using and enjoying those spaces in their natural state.
“The biggest upset is the fact that it’s utilized by so many people for so much more, that it should be specifically protected,” Woodgate said.
Mounting concerns for the disappearance of trails
Concerns about disappearing trails have been around since 2015 when Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS), which was acquired by West Fraser Timber Company on Nov. 17, 2023, signed a forest management agreement.
SLS then received rights through its subsidiary Crowsnest Forest Products Ltd to log into the area after adopting a forest management plan (FMP), a 200-year sustainable harvest plan signed with the province in 2021.
The government expects around $32 million in increased payments to the province through timber dues and other payments over the 20-year term of the agreement, notching around $225 million for Alberta’s GDP.
A current management plan is in place until 2026 and covers around 3,500 square kilometres in southwestern Alberta. A local activist group in 2023 said there was clear-cutting in the area in 2012 and that there should be a regrowth period of 20 years per logging standards.
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Woodgate says there are two years until the operations are set to get started, and says “the most important role that everybody can have is to become aware and spread awareness.”
A petition from GROW has nearly 14,000 of 15,000 signatures needed as of Saturday.
“However, that number is a drop in the bucket in terms of the usership out there .. every weekend, see full parking lots and parking lots that the government has expanded, paved, and made safe and available based on the usership,” Woodgate said.
“They fully recognize and acknowledge how busy it is and utilized by these recreationists.”
The province said Kananaskis Country saw around 5.4 million visitors in 2020, which exceeded the average of four million visitors per year.
Planning and consultation on the logging
SLS, now West Timber Cochrane, has been in consultation as part of its operational plan, which is expected to conclude in 2026.
There have been two meetings with Bragg Creek Trails and a recent March meeting with Moose Mountain Bike Trail Society.
An open house in Cochrane is set for May 8 from 3-8 p.m. to hear about any concerns.
The areas are contained in Jumpingpound Creek and include Sibbald, West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain. The total hectares being clear-cut — including McLean Creek south of the area — would be nearly 900 hectares.
Several areas are also slated for logging, which include Cadet Camp Road and Whispering Pines Bible Camp Road in Atkinson Creek, and Gas Plant in Grease Creek, with the former involving 428 hectares and the latter over 900 hectares.
Burnt Timber Creek operations are slated for 2025-26 and include 887 hectares.
With the proposed logging, Woodgate says there is some mixed messaging from the province on environmental sustainability and funding recreational areas after agreeing to the FMP.
He highlights the Kananaskis parking pass and the fees the province has collected, which was around $11 million in 2022-23.
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“It’s no secret that those costs are meant to provide upkeep and infrastructure, the parking lots … and additional policing, in the form of conservation officers and people ticketing folks that do not have badges. And so those funds, regardless of what they’re being used for, some of the funds are going to trail societies,” Woodgate said.
“But that just shows that there is a level of importance being set on recreation in that area.
“The fact that there is a fee that they fully recognize, that’s important that they are keen to draw people, that they know people are out there. I mean, they know the numbers of people that are out there based on the fees that are being collected.”
CityNews has reached out to the office of the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas of Alberta for comment.
With files from Nadia Moharib