City Hall Mtn. Bike Forum
“Council in Brief” Mountain Biking Forum
Debbie Demare, City Councilor 2005
Last night a huge overflow (200 maybe?) crowd attended the Mountain Bike forum at City Hall. The demographic definitely leaned to the 15- 30 age group and several like Sal ..wannabee of that group:-) There were also many elected officials, government officials, several doctors, at least two pharmacists, and a plethora of other professional and business people there.
There were two hours of presentations: Ministry of Forests (3 presenters), Land & Water Inc., Adrenalin Mountain Adventures (commercial recreational tenure coming), our Economic Dev. Officer, Mark Savard (passionate as always got a standing “o”), Sal DeMare (committed to youth, as always), Mark Nairn (Cattlemens), Bill Stafford (Rancher), and Keith Bennett (the Brian Carruthers in Whistler).
The bases were covered:
- The Law
- Why the structures were taken down
- How we have a Tourism/Commercial Opportunity
- How our Mountain Biking is one of the top five in BC
- How our Mountain Biking has evolved and is on the “leading edge” of riding in North America • How unbelievably involved our youth are…..
- How the ranchers want to work WITH mountain bikers to accommodate all land uses
- How legalizing trails will protect them from logging
- How using International Mountain Biking and Whistler Standards will diminish liability issues
- How Whistler does it cooperatively and so on…
The youth sat through ALL of the two hours. Listening and often, I’m sure, trying to understand the “legalize”. I bent over and asked one young fellow – Is this boring? – “Very” came the answer – but you know, that young fellow there was still there at the end trying to listen and understand the complexities.
Then these young folks got up and asked tough questions, in a manner, while direct, often way more courteous than I’ve seen adults do in similar circumstances. Folks we missed something here – our asset is not just these trails – our asset is also these young(er) people. Committed and passionate enough to endure a meeting most adults would never get through. Committed and passionate enough to listen and allow themselves to be influenced in a positive way.
They love Mountain Biking. Many have biked elsewhere – even the youngest – Whistler – at Sun Peaks – and they KNOW WHAT WE HAVE HERE!!!! Most impressed by a young pharmacist (Under 30) who stood up and told us why he chose Williams Lake to live (his wife is a biologist) – you got it – Our Mountain Biking.
In the end there was a complete exploration of all the issues involved in Mountain Biking. I would suspect that everyone there learned something and were influenced in a positive way by what other people on the “opposite side” said. It says something about communicating with each other in person instead of in the newspaper.
I suspect what will now happen is an advisory committee will form – after seeing the positive and constructive approach of these young people, I am going to strongly recommend that it include several of them as well as the obvious “stakeholders”.
That committee will need to work through the winter to come up a model for trails management that is a “Made in the Cariboo” model.
Highest recognition needs to go to Brian Carruthers – who set this up and facilitated it in an exemplary manner so that it stayed totally constructive and fair.
I’m just elated and so excited about the future of Mountain Biking in this area. A positive, positive night!!!
Debbie DeMare City Councilor