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My organization, the Alberta Hiking Association (AHA), supports the designation of the Bighorn Backcountry as a complex of protected areas to protect and enhance all recreational uses, including hiking, in this amazing area. The Bighorn represents the very best location in Alberta for a new provincial wildland park given its very high recreation values, growing use and lack of investments in basic recreational infrastructure to support this use.

Our members use the hiking trails of the Bighorn extensively including Coliseum Mountain, the closest mountain hike to Edmonton and hundreds of kilometres of other rustic trails. The Bighorn is also highly valued for many other recreation uses including hunting, fishing, outfitting, camping, horse and OHV use.

The Bighorn Backcountry has the potential to be a world-class recreation area. The “Bighorn Wildland Recreation Area” was designated by the government of Alberta in 1986, but the corresponding legislation to protect it never materialized. We consider it a historic error and oversight that it is not legally designated and resourced as such.

AHA believes the appropriate designation for the majority of the region is as a wildland park with smaller provincial park nodes at trailheads and access points. Eighty per cent of the trails in the Bighorn are currently zoned as non-motorized but there is limited enforcement and management. We support the existing balance of designated motorized and non-motorized trails and recreational uses identified under the Bighorn Backcountry management plan and understand that this is fully consistent with a proper park designation.