Calgary Bowmont Park

BOWMONT PARK UPDATE

Prepared May 4^th, 200 1

The Bowmont Management Plan preparation is continuing. The Open Houses were completed in the first half of April and the public input has been collated and reviewed. There are a couple of plan changes and other Bowmont related activities that you might want to be aware of.

The most important items follow:

This Bowmont Management Plan update was prepared by Parks and will appear in the June Community Newsletters. It is the official update and communication following the Open Houses and the public input received.

Bowmont Management Plan in PDF

A photography contest specific to Bowmont is being launched for the summer of 2001. The contest rules is next.

Photography contest in PDF

The Calgary Mountain Bike Alliance has been working actively with local bicycle shops to educate their staff on the responsibilities of riders within Calgary’s Natural Area Parks. Following is the Responsibility Code published CMBA.

Responsibility Code in PDF

I want to clarify again the objectives and process for the Bowmont Natural Environment Park Management Plan (This is the same as appeared in previous updates).

The sessions for the Management Plan process have been designed to initiate
comprehensive and proactive management of Bowmont Natural Environment Park.
The focus group consisted of members representing neighboring community
associations, special interest groups like the mountain bicyclists, dog
walkers, field naturalists, the Bowmont Park Committee, and of course Parks
and Recreation and a facilitator.

The expectation was that each representative was to bring issues and
potential solutions to help achieve appropriate operation and rehabilitation
as per the expectations of a Natural Environment Park. The responsibility of
the group was to work through the issues and reach a reasonable consensus
that has been placed into a draft management plan. The first draft has been
reviewed by the focus group and will now be presented at the three Open
Houses mentioned earlier.

A key step in this whole process is that open houses will be held to discuss
the proposals before finalizing and presentation to a sub-committee of City
Council. Many issues and concerns for the park have been identified. Items
like environment degradation, the quality of the paved pathway, safety of
trails on steep escarpment, conflicts between users and wildlife, etc. have
all been discussed. Potential solutions have been proposed. It is important
to remember that this is not intended to provide final solutions to every
current issue nor even to attempt to address all potential new issues. The
purpose is to provide the initial tasks and priorities towards much improved
park management. Further, there is an updated public participation process
being put into place that can facilitate the ongoing and proactive input by
neighboring residents and other stakeholders.

By far the most contentious issue raised initially with the focus group
discussions and by the public is related to the off-leash areas within the
park. By way of clarification, the current dog by-law provides limited
off-leash areas in the park. One of the recommendations that will be
presented at the open houses is to significantly increase that area.
Further, the area has to be marked properly and consistently. As with all
the recommendations, a revised document will then be prepared and presented
to the City Council sub-committee before going for final approval by
Council.

From a personal point of view, this process has taken considerable effort.
In particular, there has been a significant amount of sometimes completely
incorrect information and a common misunderstanding of park objectives and
documents that City Council has approved. Effective communication of the
process objectives has also been difficult. I would encourage residents and
other stakeholders to attend one of the open houses in early April. For
Silver Springs residents this is obviously an important asset for our
community.

As you will note, my name, e-mail and phone number are below. I encourage
your calls and questions. This is a public process with the focus group
providing the initial input to the management plan. We have a very broad
range of representation and I think everyone has worked effectively to
provide input according to their responsibilities. There are compromises
expected but I think the Open Houses will reflect the best Management for
the Bowmont Natural Environment Park.

You should note there is also a web site set up by the Bowmont Natural
Environment Park within the Varsity Community web site.

http://www.calgaryarea.com/nw/varsity/bowmontpark/bowmontparkvarsity.htm

The brochure “Let’s Talk about Bowmont” published by Calgary Parks is available as follows.

Bowmont Park Brochure in PDF.

http://www.calgaryarea.com/nw/varsity/bowmontpark/bowmontparkvarsity.htm

Regards,
Les Hunter Phone 286-6173