The folks with the Friends of Garibaldi Park Society have been relatively quiet the last couple of years, but that is changing.
The group has hit the refresh button and now has renewed its mission to be a significant player in the future health of the provincial park.
In particular, members are concerned about the state of its over 90 kilometres of hiking trails.
“The organization is kind of in a rebuilding phase. We were started by a retired park ranger and legacy members of outdoor clubs, and they organized a few big trail work parties over the last decade. But as the executive aged, they found it more difficult to keep it going,” said the group’s president, Taryn Eyton, who is also the author of the book Backpacking in Southwestern British Columbia.
Last year, a whole new executive was elected.
There are five folks on the board and an additional six people who are committee chairs.
There are about another dozen people who attend meetings and help out regularly.
While it is renewed, the organization’s aim is the same.
“One of our main objectives that the organization was started for is trail maintenance, and that is still a huge focus of ours,” said Eyton.
Last winter they worked with a few other mountain clubs and outdoor clubs to get the Garibaldi Lake parking lot plowed for winter.
Another focus of the group is advocacy.
“Advocating for more funding for trail maintenance and backcountry facilities. Prior to the announcement of BC Parks funding last week, they had a finite budget, and we were trying to convince them to divert some of it to non-drive in camping, because that is where most of [the funding] goes.”
This money is earmarked for new campsites, expanded trails, and strengthened management of the park system.
The BC Parks capital budget will increase by an average of 57%, and the operating budget will increase by an average of 22% for each year of Budget 2021.
To date, the exact distribution of the BC Parks funding is not clear.
“BC Parks definitely realizes through our work with them, how much neglect has happened on our trails, and that is one of the reasons they are looking to partner with volunteer groups like ours to try and pick up some of that slack. It is something we are happy to do and part of why we exist, but unfortunate that our government isn’t able to maintain our infrastructure for hikers," Eyton, said.
In a statement to The Chief, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, which oversees BC Parks, said the government and the Friends of Garibaldi Park have a good relationship and are updating their partnership agreement.
The ministry spokesperson noted that since 2015, BC Parks has invested more than $1.2 million in facility and trail upgrades in Garibaldi Park.
The COVID factor
Eyton said COVID is a big concern for the group because members have been hamstrung in what they can do in the park over the last year.
“We didn’t do anything last year at all because the parks were closed,” she said, adding the group asked BC Parks for access to do work, but were denied.
Want to volunteer?
Eyton said that it is important for hikers to notice that there are many other outdoor groups with other sports — such as mountain biking and rock climbing — where those who participate are much more likely to volunteer.
“They are very community-minded, and they get together often to do trail maintenance or advocate for their sport, and hikers are a lot less likely to do that kind of volunteering,” Eyton said. “We would really like hikers to know that if you love a place and enjoy recreating there and want to protect it, it would be great if you could think about volunteering with us or with another club.”
She added that there is no need for the impostor syndrome in local hikers. If you put on hiking boots and hit a trail, you are a hiker and welcome within the society as a volunteer, she stressed.
“Hiking trails don’t just magically appear. Somebody builds them; somebody maintains them; somebody advocates for them to not be closed, to have access to them, or to have the parking lot plowed. It is important work that members of our community need to take part in.”
This year, the group’s hallmark large trail maintenance events are up in the air due to the pandemic.
Hikers who want to help have two options for ongoing participation: the new Trail Watch Program and Large Projects with BC Parks.
“One of the programs that we are most excited about is something that BC Parks has done in other parks called a Trail Watch program.... it is smaller parties of two to five people who go out and walk a trail and look and see where there is erosion of infrastructure failing and take pictures and bring them to the attention of BC Parks for prioritization by them,” she said, adding volunteers will also be able to do minor repairs like brushing or clearing culverts.
Some trails are quite long, so they will require overnight trips.
The society is also looking for experienced hikers who would like to become Trail Watch captains to lead the smaller groups.
“We are looking for somebody who could make a commitment, ideally for the summer,” she said.
Training is provided for all volunteers and captains.
“To really help them understand the basics of wilderness ethics and the best way to convey that information to others,” Eyton said.
The society also hopes to host pop–up education events at trailheads.
“To help provide some education and information for people going into the parks about environmental stewardship, best practices, safety, how long the hike is — because that is something BC Parks is completely unable to do at the moment.”
Eyton noted that everyone is a beginner hiker at one point, and so education is essential.
“Giving them the help they need to get outside safely and happily and in a way that respects the environment is important to us.”
For more significant projects, they need to have a larger team.
“With COVID, that is something that probably — well maybe — won’t happen [this year],” she said.
Stand on the BC Parks day-pass system
After last summer's pilot program, there is no word yet on if BC Parks will operate a day-use pass program this summer, but they have been surveying users and groups, like Friends of Garibaldi Park Society, about the issue.
This is where the society's advocacy is put to work.
(The survey is open until May 8, 2021.)
The society said in their feedback, which was shared with The Chief, “We strongly believe that a day-pass reservation system is not the right way to manage capacity in our provincial parks—neither from a short-term public health perspective nor from a longer-term trail maintenance one.
“The day-pass system implemented during summer 2020 was limited to a number of the most popular backcountry access points, including three in Garibaldi Provincial Park — Diamond Head, Rubble Creek and Cheakamus trailheads. The fact that it was not deemed necessary elsewhere — for example Wedgemount and Singing Pass — speaks to the knowledge that the trails that had day passes implemented are more accessible to novice hikers, and instead of attempting to provide more spaces for them to explore, BC Parks simply focused on limiting access.”
Having the passes for some trails and not others just pushed hikers to those that didn’t require it, Eyton said.
“The Watersprite Lake trail is one of the most documented examples of this in the Sea to Sky area, with the highest daily visitation more than doubling in 2020 compared to use in 2019.”
If BC Parks does implement day passes, the society has suggestions for improvements to the system used in 2020.
Instead of the 6 a.m. day pass purchase time — a time when hikers may be driving to their preferred park — the society says hikers should have the ability to book day passes up to a week in advance, with 20% of passes held back for same-day registration.
“This would give BC Parks users the ability to plan their trips with plenty of notice and not be solely reliant on the possibility of getting a pass on the same day.”
They would also like to see the day pass restricted to weekends and holidays and not the regular weekdays that are less busy.
The society would also like to see whatever day pass system is in place better advertised, as they saw many users who didn’t understand it or know about it.
Among other things, they would also like to see an end to non-referable passes and more transparency about how carrying capacity on trails is determined.
BC Parks’ response
For its part, a BC Parks spokesperson told The Chief, the organization gets how important the issue of park access is.
“We know how important it is for people to get outside and enjoy British Columbia’s spectacular outdoors,” reads the statement from the Ministry of Environment. “Visitor safety and protecting the natural values found within the park system is our priority."
Regarding the day-use pass pilot program introduced last year, BC Parks said that for the most part, it worked.
"[It] allowed us to safely manage the high number of visitors in some of our most popular parks to provide a more enjoyable, less crowded experience and reduce the environmental impacts. We are in the process of conducting a review that includes collecting public feedback to determine the program’s overall impacts and benefits.”
To learn more or volunteer, go to the Friends of Garibaldi Park website.
