Trails and Access
The FMCBC works to ensure British Columbia’s hiking and climbing access trails are recognized, protected and maintained. The FMCBC’s Trails committee, as well as its Recreation and Conservation Committees, play an integral role in supporting trails across the province. Our committees work on trail access, trail building and maintenance, work as advocates for new trail projects, and network with BC Parks and Recreation Sites and Trails BC and other regional government organizations.
Our trails committee works to coordinate province-wide discussions and initiatives. We have just introduced the BC Trail Tracker for hiking trails to help collect trail condition reports and provide information on who is managing and maintaining trails. We are working to build regional trail teams that will coordinate what work needs to be done in each region of the province and help train trail champions to do the actual work on the trails.
Access to trails is a never ending issue due to logging road closures, road damage from flooding and numerous other problems. We are working with the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC to try to solve some provincial issues. Currently the Forest and Range Practices Act does not provide for any protection of recreational access. We are working to propose changes that will improve this situation.
Over the past 10-20 years and especially since the COVID pandemic started in 2020, there has been a large increase in trail use but government budgets have not been able to keep up with the increased need for trail maintenance. We have introduced the BC Trail Tracker to:
- provide a way to inventory hiking trails
- inventory who is responsible for maintenance
- determine what trail maintenance is needed.
Some of our clubs take the lead on “their” trails but many more trails in BC don’t have a trail champion. Since we hikers and climbers constructed most of the trails in BC, we need to step up to ensure they are safe for users and not eroding and causing environmental damage. Having a good inventory of the issues is the first step in determining how large the problem is and then we need to get volunteers to help fix the issues. Some of the issues are too large for volunteers and that is why we partner with government. Please try out the BC Trail Tracker and help us to protect our hiking trails.
If you are interested in joining our Trails Team please fill out this contact form.
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