Designing Trails for People and Wildlife
Webinar Summary
The ORCBC’s November 4th webinar unpacked Trail Development Guidelines to Minimize Disturbance to and Conflict with Large Carnivores.
The guidebook provides comprehensive, research-backed recommendations for designing, planning, and maintaining non-motorized recreational trails where species such as bears, cougars, and wolves are present.
Speakers: Magi Scallion and Kim Titchener wrote the guidebook for the ORCBC.
Magi Scallion, division manager, Trails and Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure division manager with McElhanney. 403 -621-1449, mscallion@mcelhanney.com
Kim Titchener, founder Bear Safety & More; expert in reducing human-wildlife encounters. 403-493-0375, kim@bearsafety.com
Key Learnings
If we value having large carnivores, humans have to be the ones to compromise.
Hikers, hunters, and campers are the most likely people to have a negative wildlife encounter.
As trails get busier, the chances of an encounter increase, along with the negative impacts on wildlife.
Sudden encounters are the most dangerous—think high-speed activities, blind corners, and short sightlines—and substantially increase the risks for both trail users and animals.
Actionable Takeaways
The 15 guidelines in the guidebook address three stages of trail management: Planning, Design, and Operation.
Planning
Thinking ahead about where to place trails to have minimal impact on wildlife
Avoid, or minimize, trail development in high value habitats and wildlife travel corridors.
Review and integrate existing land-use and landscape-level conservation plans.
Use expert input and mapping tools to identify high-value wildlife habitats and corridors.
Provincial GIS HabitatWizard
Connect with local conservation & wildlife groups
Plan for the evolution of use of recreation assets, especially with regard to carrying capacity.
Consider seasonal and time of day closures to reduce interactions.
Design
On-the-ground trail layout decisions that connect with larger-scale planning.
Don’t use game trails
Avoid or remove berry patches.
Reduce trail speeds with tighter corners and technical trail features.
Improve sightlines for wildlife and humans by managing vegetation and with trail alignments.
Not just for new trails: can be done to existing trails.
Schedule trail-building for periods of low wildlife sensitivity (e.g. avoid spring denning seasons, berry season, salmon spawning, etc.).
Operations
Tools and techniques to maintain and operate trails to reduce conflicts and interactions.
Know that trails are a path of least resistance and wildlife will use them too.
Manage trail corridors to reduce carnivore habitat: remove berries, open sightlines, plant beneficial species
Signage is an important tool, but it needs to be transparent, timely and specific.
Can’t just say “closed”- need to include the “why”
Here’s a link to a study on better signage design.
Education campaigns should use a carrot and stick: reward good behaviour, not just punish bad.
Links:
Special webinar offers:
Trail consultation discount:
McElhanney is offering a discount to webinar registrants.
$2000 for 10km of trail assessment and a 1-page report on how the trail/trails comply with wildlife best practices.
Contact Magi Scallion for more details. 403-621-1449, mscallion@mcelhanney.com
Bear Safety Course:
Kim offers self-paced courses at www.bearsafetycourses.com
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Questions, comments, or webinar topics you would like to see? Email us at info@orcbc.ca
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