The West Bragg Creek All Season Trail Plan (WBCASTP) was formally approved by Alberta
Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) and Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation (TPR)
on September 14th, 2010. The WBCASTP was made possible as a result of a March 2009
Partnership Agreement between the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association (GBCTA) and TPR
for the West Bragg Creek Trail System.

The WBCASTP was developed with the goals of improving the visitor experience with the
development of a multi-use summer and winter trail system, while minimizing the environmental
impact of recreational use. The Plan provides for the expansion and upgrading of the West
Bragg Creek Trail System in Kananaskis Country to better meet the needs of all types of nonmotorized users while reducing impacts on the local watershed. The Plan includes 40 km of
new summer trails for hiking, biking and horse-back riding (also snow shoeing in winter), 8 km of
new snowshoe trails, 17 km of new cross country ski trails, widening of an existing ski trail for
skate skiing and other improvements. The West Bragg Creek area has seen dramatic growth in
summer and winter use in recent years. However, the existing trails were originally developed
for winter cross country ski use only.

The implementation of the Plan is being led by the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association
(GBCTA) in partnership with TPR, the Calgary Mountain Bike Alliance (CMBA), Friends of
Kananaskis Country and others. Implementation commenced in September 2010 using a
collaborative approach and will proceed as financial and volunteer resources permit. The
estimated cost to construct the 65 km of new trails in the WBCASTP is $ 600,000. The
estimated number of volunteer hours to construct the new trails is 3,000.

The Snowshoe Hare Loop, a 5.4 km snowshoe trail, was completed in November 2010 and was
extremely popular throughout the snowy winter of 2010 - 2011. Several new summer trails and
a cross country ski trail also commenced clearing in September 2010. A total of 11 km of new
trails were cleared by volunteers during the fall of 2010, before winter conditions halted
construction.

The West Bragg Creek Land Users Agreement for the WBCASTP was collaboratively
developed by the GBCTA, CMBA, Spray Lakes Sawmills, 4 Grazing Allotment Holders, TPR
and the Bragg Creek FireSmart Committee from January to April 2011. Agreements specific to
all new summer trails were also subsequently developed based on this Land Users Agreement.
Endorsement of these agreements will enable the GBCTA to obtain SRD construction approval
for all summer trails in the WBCASTP.

During 2011, all 40 km of the new summer trails in the WBCASTP are slated for completion,
provided the necessary funding and approvals are secured. The estimated cost to construct the
new summer trails is $ 300,000. The estimated number of volunteer hours to construct the new
summer trails is 2,000.

New summer trail routing design work was completed in April 2011 by Troy Delfs and Bryce
Hleucka, the Construction Managers. Troy and Bryce are also providing volunteer crew leader
training in May and June 2011 to those people who are prepared to lead volunteer work parties
to clear new summer trails. Construction activities for this year resumed in May 2011 with
volunteer trail clearing and crew leader training. Regular volunteer work parties are being
organized by Rod Saville, the Volunteer Coordinator, in cooperation with Friends of Kananaskis
Country.

TPR is responsible for leading health and safety compliance at the West Bragg Creek Trail
System and as a result is providing chain saw safety training to 6 volunteers during May 2011.
These chain saw volunteers will remove the dead fall from the new summer trails after hand
clearing of small trees and bushes is completed by volunteers for each section of trail.
Summer trail tread construction is slated to commence in early June 2011 utilizing a contract
mini hoe and personnel supplied by LT Earth Services Ltd. This tread construction will follow a
summer trail design specification agreed to by the GBCTA, TPR and CMBA. Individual new
summer trails will be temporarily closed to recreational use for safety reasons, while tread
construction is being done.

Several new bridges over creeks, cattle fencing and gates, and trail signs and maps will be
installed during 2011 as part of the trail construction. This will be accomplished in partnership
with TPR using a combination of volunteers and contract personnel.

The WBCASTP, complete with conceptual maps showing the new summer trails (Map 4, page
25) can be viewed at: http://tpr.alberta.ca/parks/consult/braggCreek/FinalWestBraggCreekTrailsPlan.pdf
Once the new summer trails are cleared, a new WBC all season trail map and summer trail
GPS tracks will be posted on the GBCTA website.

If you are interested in providing financial support to implement the Plan, please contact Eric
Lloyd of the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association at elloyd@davincibb.net, (403) 949-2696 or
Box 442, Bragg Creek AB, T0L 0K0. To be added to our volunteer list, please contact Rod
Saville at rsaville@barrick-energy.com or (403) 513-2451.

BACKGROUNDER:
• A multi-stakeholder Public Advisory Committee (PAC) consisting of trail users, conservation
groups and key stakeholders gathered input to prepare a draft All Season Trail Plan for West
Bragg Creek, Kananaskis Country (KC). The PAC consisted of Alberta Sustainable Resource
Development (land manager), Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation (land manager and trail
operator), local industrial users including forestry, petroleum and grazing stakeholders, trail user
representatives from cross country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, mountain biking, horse-back
riding, and conservation/environmental groups. Considerable public input and support for the
Plan was received during two rounds of public consultation held in the fall of 2009 and spring of
2010.