Gatineau Park hikers get the boot

Scores of unofficial trails in Gatineau Park could soon be officially closed.

The National Capital Commission is taking steps to limit recreation in favour of conservation.

The focus on protection comes on the heels of an Ecosystems Management Plan released last spring.

Although the NCC plans to hold a workshop with the hiking community to explain the changes to the affected trails, the group says that hikers' interests are not a priority. Michel Viens, who oversaw the development of the new conservation plan, says the commission is looking “very seriously at conservation first.”

Viens says unofficial trails might now outnumber their sanctioned counterparts, and that an increase in visitors exacerbates the problem.

“One trail in a large ecosystem is not a big deal. But there are now dozens, if not hundreds, all over the park,” he says.

The Alpine Club of Canada's Ottawa chapter holds regular hikes on mostly unofficial trails in Gatineau. David Foster, the group’s vice-president of Access and Environment, says the NCC's methods are flawed.

Foster says the effects of users are exaggerated in NCC-commissioned impact studies.

“The problem with the conservation plan is the science,” he says. “What we've got is policy based on science that doesn't exist.”

The Alpine Club and other groups made the same argument about rock climbing in the park, which also became subject to serious restrictions earlier this year.

Viens says the biggest problem is posed by groups who create and mark new trails that encourage more people to venture off the beaten track.

The NCC plans to identify and develop several of the less harmful trails, as it did with a Luskville Falls route along the Eardley Escarpment.

Foster says this defeats his club’s pursuit of back-country adventure. “The idea of developing the trails is bizarre. We’ll just go and try and find other ones,” he says.

Foster says the appeal of the unmapped part of the park is its wildness, and that it's the only accessible wilderness experience for many Ottawans.

“I live in Ottawa, and I love living here, and Gatineau Park is the wilderness that I have," he says.

Hiking guidebook author Michael Haynes says he's disappointed but not surprised about the NCC’s focus on preservation.

“Gatineau Park isn't designed as backcountry, and it’s a slippery slope of arguing who [represents] the morally superior form of recreation,” he says.

Haynes says that compared to the rest of the country, Ottawa should consider itself lucky.

“I come from Halifax, where I've seen beautiful places disappear left, right and centre,” he says. “We're so lucky here. There's literally nothing else like this anywhere in Canada.”