FOBM Board
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FoBM raised funds and rallied volunteers - most of them students from area middle and secondary schools - to build more than four kilometres of packed-gravel recreational trails. The aim of the trails, designed for maximum accessibility, is to allow people to enjoy the park's natural wonders and superb vistas while keeping them off the fragile grassland.
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The first trail, some 2.1 km in length, leads to the ecologically delicate Ephemeral Ponds. A second slightly longer one connects the Swainson Road park entrance to the Tower Ranch Municipal Park, and has now been named the Coyote Trail. The eastern half of the Ephemeral Pond Trail and the entire Coyote Trail are restricted to people on foot or on bicycles.
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FoBM raised about $40,000 over three years from corporate donors to protect the ephemeral ponds, purchase crusher chips for the trails and to bus some 220 student volunteers to the trail-building site. Including FoBM volunteers, some 1,500 hours of work were donated to the project over two summers. Check out our project video on the Archives Page!
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Since then, RDCO has staked out a third trail for hikers and bikers only. It's called the Hoodoo Trail and has a natural, rather than crushed gravel, surface. Horseback riders are permitted on the service road from the Swainson Road park entrance, which becomes the Upper Access Trail. They are also allowed to ride on the Grassland and Ridge trails.
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