This month we discussed tourism on public lands and ongoing trail initiatives.
It was a busy Community Hall as we welcomed 26 partners in person and 3 online for this month’s meeting . Many thanks to the Nordegg Community Association for providing the use of the hall once again.
5 years of improvements
We talked about the improvements our region has seen over the last five years, including parking lots enhancements and the addition of outhouses, garbage bins and, most recently, blue signs at trailheads and camping areas. The area has also seen increased enforcement and trail maintenance, as well as improved winter access. There is still work to be done, but this is a great starting point in terms of infrastructure and we can now look at building more products and growing our destination.
Black Mountain project
Dennis and Hannah Landon from the Nordegg Off Road Cycling Association were invited to present the Black Mountain project, which involves the building of new, and the resurrection of old mountain biking trails on Black Mountain just west of Nordegg in the Snow Creek area. Around 50km of trails of a wide variety of levels are expected to be ready for use by mountain biking enthusiasts in the next three years.
Government updates
Blake Christianson, Recreation Management Specialist with Alberta Environment & Protected Areas was present to give us an update on upcoming projects. A major update is the closure of the Crescent Falls Provincial Recreation Area, which will take effect June 1 for a full year. Blake also discussed some upgrades to camping areas and trails to be completed this summer in the Bighorn Dam area. We talked about the need for better communication between government bodies and tourism stakeholders to ensure the latter can proactively adapt their plans when such closures are scheduled to be put into place.
Annette Svederus and Jason Ariano from the Nordegg Trails Society then discussed the current work being conducted by the society regarding trail building & maintenance in the Nordegg area, with lots of projects in the works.
Table discussion
We ended the meeting with table discussions on what the priorities are for each of our partners. Time ran short, so the questions will be sent via an online survey so that everyone can communicate their thoughts in detail.
Updates:
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Improving Tourism on Public Lands
