New updates to Tumbler Ridge thanks to the Park Enhancement Fund

Blog post by: Charles Helm

Through the BC Parks’ Park Enhancement Fund, the Wolverine Nordic and Mountain Society has worked for the second consecutive year with BC Parks to provide enhancements to provincial parks in the Tumbler Ridge area. In both years $5,000 of funding was provided after a successful application process.

In 2014-15 projects included interpretive signage at Kinuseo Falls and Gwillim Lake, and a new printing of the interpretive hiking brochure for the Stone Corral Trail in Monkman Provincial Park.

For 2015-16 interpretive signage was developed for the following provincial parks: Wapiti Lake, Hole in the Wall, Sukunka Falls and Bearhole Lake. These 40” x 30” signs will welcome visitors to these parks and provide background historical information as well as highlight geological and scenic attractions. Duplicates of the signs are being installed outside the Dinosaur Discovery Gallery in Tumbler Ridge, so that visitors to Tumbler Ridge can, at a glance, learn about all the provincial parks within the Tumbler Ridge UNESCO Global Geopark.

In addition, five further signs were developed for installation in Monkman Provincial Park: a trailhead sign for the Lake Joan trail, a sign for the campground area describing the heroic efforts of the Monkman Pass pioneers, and three smaller signs celebrating the area’s geology and the history of the last 80 years.

A portion of the funding was used to develop a Driving Tour to Hole in the Wall brochure for visitors to Tumbler Ridge. Three provincial parks are features in this brochure, along with numerous other attractions en-route. An updated brochure for the increasingly popular hiking excursion to The Cascades and Monkman Lake was also developed.

WNMS also enters annually into a Volunteer Partnership Agreement with BC Parks, whereby its volunteers help maintain and improve hiking trails within the parks. In 2015 the Portage Trail was re-established by these volunteers, enabling access to the downstream viewpoint at Kinuseo Falls, one of BC’s most iconic views. In addition a picnic site was established where Imperial Creek joins the Murray River. Every year WNMS also maintains the Stone Corral Trail and Lake Joan Trail, as well as the Lakefront Trail in Gwillim Provincial Park.

Our WNMS volunteers greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute productively in this fashion to the superb system of parks within the Tumbler Ridge UNESCO Global Geopark (the second UNESCO Global Geopark in North America and the first in the west).

Kevin Wagner (BC Parks Peace Area Supervisor, Northern Region) and Dani Money (BC Parks Planning Section Head) have been wonderfully supportive throughout this process, and we hope that such PEFs and Volunteer Partnership Agreements will continue for many years to come.