Since its inception as the Elk Valley Ski Touring Association three decades ago, the Fernie Trails & Ski Touring Club has worked to advocate recreational land use for the public in the Fernie area.
To date, those efforts have been recognized with a Special Use Permit for the Thunder Meadows area, providing the group with tenure on the Crown lands in the region. Additionally, the FT&STC has provided countless man hours to the development of the Fernie area trail network and has lobbied local and provincial government, fairly extensively, to protect the current public access to these recreational lands.
In the early part of 2002, stakeholders including government, private business, wildlife advocacy groups, and representatives from the FT&STC joined together to begin forming what would become the Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan.
The SRMMP area covers the southeast portion of the East Kootenays and extends to the B.C./Montana border north through the Flathead and Wigwam watersheds and portions of the Elk and Bull River watersheds to the southern boundary of Height of the Rockies Provincial Park. All federal lands, private lands, and Provincial Parks excluded.
More specifically, the area covered by the plan includes all non-park provincial land along the eastern slopes of the Bull River drainage, the western slopes of the Valley south of the Height of the Rockies Provincial Park, the Sand Creek drainage, and the Canadian portion of the Wigwam River and Flathead River drainages.
The stated goals of the SRMMP were as follows:
o Identify and maintain key conservation.
o Work on recreation and access management.
o Identify old growth management areas.
o Confirm mineral, coal, oil and gas interests and opportunities.
o Refine direction from the Kootenay-Boundary land use implementation strategy.
The SRMMP was designed to provide government with a refined direction for land and resources within the area.
Current members of the FT&STC participated fully in the development of the plan with a particular contribution in the area of recreation and access management. Protection of traditional public recreation areas was a key goal during the process
The SRMMP was launched publicly in 2003, and its current committee, the Southern Rocky Mountain Advisory Committee, regularly meets to discuss and manage the plan, as it is a living document with requirements for change and adjustment on a regular basis. The FT&STC maintains an ongoing membership on this committee.
For more information on the SRMMP and to view the detailed plan: