The quest is over to preserve Rossland’s backcountry playground.
After many years of effort by the community, spearheaded by the Friends of the Rossland Range Society, the high country between Red Mountain and the summit of Mt. Crowe has been designated as a recreation site by the Recreation Sites and Trails Branch of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
This new designation means that government officially recognizes the importance of the area for public recreation, and will plan and manage it accordingly.
It also gives the Friends of the Rossland Range, as the Ministry’s non-profit partner, the ability to raise funds and carry out projects to make the Recreation Site viable.
Designation of the site had been strongly propelled by intensive and increasing public recreational use of the area, said Society member Les Carter.
“Over the past decades, the Rossland Range has changed from a locally-known and somewhat remote-feeling place to a favoured destination for people from far and wide, so the terms of the Recreation Site contain some limits and rules to protect the values that attract people to it,” he said in a release.
The Friends of the Rossland Range will be facilitating public workshops in the near future to inform the community about the Recreation Site designation, to receive the community’s input in order to refine the terms of the designation and begin writing a management plan, and to recruit as many enthusiastic people as possible to work on making the Recreation Site a reality.
The first public workshop is being planned for the last week in October, on a date when the district recreation officer responsible for the designation will be able to attend.
“The Friends of the Rossland Range Society considers the creation of this recreation site to be a major step forward, and one that is very much needed in order to respond to the ways in which the Rossland Range and its community are evolving,” said Carter.
The district recreation officer’s letter creating the recreation site, the terms and conditions of the designation, and a map of the area, can be viewed at the Friends of the Rossland Range website, www.rosslandrange.org.