More education is needed to deal with conflicts on the trail systems in the Cowichan Valley, according to a researcher.
Dr. Aggie Weighill presented her report on the economic and social impacts of the region’s trails at the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s committee of the whole meeting on July 9.
During question period after her presentation, North Cowichan director Tek Manhas said he recently had meetings with people who have concerns about the dominance of mountain bikers on the trails and the issues that creates with other trail users.
“This conflict is coming up more and more, and [North Cowichan’s] director of parks and recreation is taking those concerns right now and, hopefully, they’ll come to a resolution,” Manhas said.
Weighill, who is from Vancouver Island University’s World Leisure Centre of Excellence, said the issue came up in her research on the trails, and one of the recommendations of the research is that there needs to be greater education available for all trail users.
“That’s because one of the things that became clear with the research is that mountain bikers and hikers don’t necessarily distinguish between which trails are for them, and which ones are not,” she said.
“I would say this is more the case with hikers and walkers not understanding the actual design of mountain bike trails, and that you shouldn’t walk up a downhill trail. So I think there’s an opportunity to also help mitigate this conflict with improved signage that really speaks to trail etiquette.”
Weighil said another source of conflict that has been identified in her research on the trails is unleashed dogs.
“Both mountain bikers and hikers have raised concerns about potential injury to themselves or, in the case of the bikers, to the animal because dogs were running across trails, so there’s definitely room for community education as a way of mitigating these challenges,” she said.
North Cowichan director Mike Caljouw said he uses the trails frequently, and he has experienced very little conflict on them.
“Most of the time, if there’s conflict, it’s because I’ve taken the wrong trail so I do completely agree with you that there needs to be some kind of education we can bring forward on the trails for mountain bikers to hikers to walkers to horseback riders,” he said.
“As far as unleashed dogs go, I myself have run into a conflict up there, but 99 per cent of dog walkers are good people to encounter, but sometimes there are the odd ones.”’
After surveying more than 1,000 users of trails in the Cowichan Valley, Weighill found that more than 60 per cent of them were hikers and walkers, approximately 30 per cent were mountain bikers, while many of the rest used the trails to ride horses, run or appreciate nature.
