Recreation Sites and Trails

Mountain Bike Policy

Recreational mountain biking offers significant health benefits and contributes to local economic development. The popularity of the sport is growing rapidly, particularly riding on ‘single-track’ trails in rural forest settings.

Mountain biking enthusiasts have developed a number of trails and related facilities on Crown land throughout British Columbia. Most of these have not been authorized by the Province, which is a requirement under the Forest and Range Practices Act. In many cases, local groups take it upon themselves to maintain the unauthorized trails.

There is growing interest among a significant segment of mountain biking enthusiasts to create exciting riding experiences by developing trails that incorporate natural or man-made jumps, drops, elevated bridges and other ‘technical trail features’ (TTFs). Public safety and legal liability associated with these TTFs is a significant issue facing recreational mountain bike trail development and maintenance.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts’ policy, as the agency responsible for public recreation on Crown land outside parks and settled areas, is to accommodate the demand for recreational mountain biking within British Columbia’s existing network of multiple use recreational trails, and to authorize new trails, provided: (1) the trails and facilities are properly located, safe, and do not result in significant user conflicts or environmental damage, and (2) the proponent is willing to make a long-term commitment to manage the new trails.

This policy statement complements the ministry’s adventure tourism program of providing suitable opportunities for commercial mountain bike guiding on Crown land. Local governments also play a role in meeting demand for mountain bike riding opportunities (e.g., community mountain bike skills parks), as does the private sector (e.g., summer riding on commercial ski hills).

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts (MTCA) does not have the capacity to locate, maintain and manage all the mountain bike trails that have been built on Crown land. Accordingly, the main MTCA strategy for accommodating recreational mountain bike trail building activity on Crown land is to enter into partnership agreements with mountain bike clubs and other local organizations that allow them to use, maintain and develop trails on certain Crown lands. The agreements will contain terms that enable MTCA to achieve policy objectives regarding public safety, user conflict avoidance, and environmental stewardship. Unless these policy objectives can be achieved, MTCA will not authorize trail development and maintenance on Crown land, and known unauthorized trails and facilities will be removed.

MTCA has limited resources to fully enforce compliance with this policy throughout all regions of British Columbia. The policy will be implemented in line with the ministry’s staff and budget levels, and will be piloted in several locations to enable learning by experience.