Sunday, June 30, 2013

Ontario Trails Council News - Nipigon Joins Ontario Trails, Meetings in Toronto Continue, Submit a Trail Hero, and More from Ontario Trails!

Trail Heroes

Know somebody that works hard on trails? If so nominate them to be an Ontario Trails "Trail Hero!" We'd be happy to review your recommendations and acknowledge in a small way their contribution to trails in your community.

Trail Blog

Every day trails are news! Every day we blog about trails. In communities all over Ontario trails are big news, for cyclists, runners, canoe or horses, every day we capture in one spot all the trail news - local, provincial or national! Join today!

Trail Leaders!

Become a trail development leader. Join Ontario's first ever series of 14 trail education courses in the development and management of trails. Designed for both volunteers and professionals. Register today - registration is open 24/7 until the morning of each training event.

Join OTC

The Ontario Trails Council is a non-profit charitable organization, established in 1988, that promotes the development, preservation, management and use of recreational trails. With over 130 organizational members and 15 individual supporters the OTC has influence! Support trails in Ontario - Join the OTC

Learn an Activity

Our website contains information on over 2,600 trails, and a description for nearly 2,000. Learn about the places where you can bike, cross country ski, climb or any of another 15 activities. We are linked to over 130 organizations and a variety of provincial groups that can help you learn an activity or become better at one you already love!

Add Your Event

We post trail or outdoor events on trail specific facebook pages, the main OTC facebook page, and the event section of the OTC website. You can send us your event and we'll post it to these extensive networks. Each week we reach over 20,000 people, so if you want your event known, a bit better, send us the information.

Member Requests

1) Capital Budgets - link togoogle doc shared - please share your trail budget we'd like to know who is getting what around the province. Thanks!

2) OTC met Mayor Rob Ford Chief of Staff and discussed his support for the Toronto Trails Committee. Please like us on facebook.

3) OTC/Cycle Toronto pursue Ignite endorsement! Secured!

4) OTC going back to Norfolk County in May on horse trails!

5) Met with core leaders Niagara Trails Committee. Thanks to Niagara Circle Trek Trail for your support!

6) OTC welcomes new members! Thanks South Western Tourism Corporation!

7) OTC declared "partner" of Cycle Toronto - thanks

8) Algonquin College program on-line

9) Do you have a winter trail maintenance policy? Please forward to Ontario Trails execdir@ontariotrails.ca

10) Thanks to Caledon for extending use of trails to horses!

11) Please renew your OTC Membership - TODAY "New trails are still to be developed in Ontario. Existing trails need to be maintained and expanded. Trail organizations in Ontario need one common voice to advocate for them. We need a central source to promote funding opportunities and act as a communications link between trail groups." Ray Gilbert Bruce Trails Network

12) Next OTC Board Meeting May 27th, 2013. Using JoinMe internet meeting service.

13) Liability Survey Arising from our meeting with the ADM and staffs October 1, 2012
Short Form
Long Form
Please complete ASAP

14) Hamilton Conservationdiscount passes - Additional rewards :-)

15) Anybody aware of any sanctioned "free run" dog trails? Came up at Toronto Beltline Trail Meeting. Please call OTC Office with information

16) Credit Valley Conservation looking for support from Shell Fuelling Change Project

17) OTC Mobile App - for iProducts and Windows

18)
Check out the latest trail opening here.

19) Thanks to The Great Waterway for their support. Contact Graham Burke if your RTO wants to do the same!

20) Millennium Trail PEC Blog - often looking for volunteers

21) Each week 100 folks talk about us and we reach over 12,000 on facebook alone.Check us out

22) Membership section of OTC website updated - get your login and password today!

23) Director section of the OTC website updated - get your login and password today! New content added - Guideline for Interpreting Financial statements and Past Meeting Minutes.

24) CPRA Looking for Infrastructure and Parks Volunteer e-mail John Lohuis at Niagara Parks

25) Add your trail

26) Add your event

27) Prescott-Russell look for links on website forMasterplan

28) The Toronto Bruce Trailpublic bus hikes

29) Follow the Education Program on Facebook

30) Follow the Education Program Updates on Twitter

31) Post Photos to Pinterest

32) OTC on Foursquare

33) Safe Trails Manual

34) Winter Hikes with Rainbow Routes

35) OTC Education Partner

36) Snowshoe program at Wye Marsh

37) Park and Recreation Ontario.

38) OTC Youtube Channel

39) Trail P riorities Survey

40)Trail Reform Now Survey

41) Trail Projects 2012

42) Ontario Trails Maps

43) Enabling Change Program

44) Canadian Canoe Museum

45) Sustainable Trails Program

46) FinnFun

The 74th annual Finnish Canadian Grand Festival is returning to the City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada where the Grand Festival originated on the Dominion Day Weekend in 1940. We are calling this year’s festival: FINNFUN2013. FINNFUN2013 will take place from Thursday June 27th to Canada Day on Monday July 1st, 2013. We encourage families to bring their children to participate and to learn about their Finnish culture and heritage.

47) OTC Board 2012-13

Jack De Wit - PRESIDENT
Ontario Equestrian Federation
905-655-4666
cndhrsman@bellnet.ca

Bonnie Simpson V.P.
Ontario Trail Riders Association
705-438-5752
otcdocumentwranglet@hotmailcom
Dan Andrews - Secretary/Treasurer
TrailADE Consulting
705-927-8648
trailadecanada@gmail.com
Paul Ronan
Ontario Parks Association
647-991-9444
paulronan@rogers.com
Frieda Baldwin
Huronia Trails and Greenways
705-245-1005
frieda.baldwin@rogers.com
Wayne Daub
Ontario Federation of All Terrain Vehicle Clubs
519-500-3715
w-daub@rogers.com
Igor Hoogendoorn
International Mountain Biking Association
855-255-4094 ext.108
igor.hoogendoorn@imba.com
Tim West
Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs
705-739-7669
twest @ofsc.on.ca

Kirsten Spence
Northern Ontario Representative
807-889-0602
trailsgirl@gmail.com

Jeff Muzzi
Manager, Forestry Services, Renfrew County
613-633-9683
JMuzzi @countyofrenfrew.on.ca

Patrick Connor
Ex-officio - Executive Director
Kingston
613-396-3226
execdir@ontariotrails.ca

We currently have a vacancy on the OTC Board. If you are interested please e-mail Jack De Wit to discuss.
cndhrsman@bell.net

Ontario Trails Council appreciates Ontario Trillium Foundation Financial Support

Disclaimer
The ideas, opinions, re-posting of news, editorials and content contained in this newsletter are not necessarily the ideas or opinions of the OTC Board or staff. This news is intended for informational purposes only.

OTC Event Planning Guide
Call 877-668-7245

OTC Trail Committee Manual
Call 877-668-7245

Ontario Trails Membership

On behalf of OTC we thank you for your support. If there is a group you know that is not a member contact us and we'll send them a note on membership benefits. This past week we received a renewal from Nipigon andSEOPRA! Thank you very much for your support!

THANKS! MERCI!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Ontario Trails Council - Trail News from all over Ontario - Thanks to all for their support of Trailhead Ontario 2013!

Trailhead Ontario - Thanks to All!

June 9-12, 2013 - Peterborough

The OTC wishes to thank all participants, supporters, registrants, presenters and organizers for enabling 2013 Trailhead Ontario to be a big success! Special thanks to Wayne Daub, Conference Chair.

The Ontario Trails Council, and the Trailhead Ontario 2013 planning committee wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport in making this conference happen. We could not have a conference and sustain OTC without their assistance. For this we are grateful.

ontario ministry of tourism, culture and sport

We wish to thank Assistant Deputy Minister Phil Malcolmson for attending with Anna Ilnyckyj, Director, Policy Branch and Carol Oitment for attending from the MTCS!

We wish to thank Robert Orland from Orland Conservation for his insightful Presentations on Land Procurement and Understanding Trails. His presentations broke new ground and provided all trail users and managers present with new material to think about!

Mapping Panel -
We wish to thank BackRoads Mapbooks, Damian Bradley, Hap Wilson, Faraj Nakhleh from Trak Maps and Cathy Anderson from Advermap for presenting.

Trail Tourist Panel -
We wish to thank welcome Cyclists, Louisa Mursell, Tim West from the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs, John Robb from Ontario Geocachers Association and Bonnie Simpson from OTRA and Mike Pinkerton from Hatfield McCoy Trails for their contributions as panelists to the Trail Tourism Panel.

International Trail Panel
We wish to thank Author Loreen Niewenhuis for her talk about her experience circumnavigating, on foot - the waterfront trails of the Great Lakes! In 2009, Loreen Niewenhuis walked the perimeter of Lake Michigan and wrote the best selling book, "A 1000-MILE WALK ON THE BEACH".

In 2012, she took another long journey, covering 1000 miles of shoreline touching all five Great Lakes. The book about this latest adventure, "A 1000-MILE GREAT LAKES WALK",explores the entire Great Lakes system.

In her presentation, she took us along the shores of all five Great Lakes and many of the waterways connecting them. In words, photos, and video, she explored the geology, hydrology, and natural history of the largest system of fresh water lakes in the world. She illuminated the threats to this massive ecosystem: invasive species, pollution, destruction of wetlands, and the gradual warming of the lakes.

We thank Lisa Filter of Minnesota Parks and Trails Council and Nancy Krupiarz from Michigan Trails and Greenways Association and Fran Gotscik of Parks and Trails for their presentations and the efforts they made to inform us of how their organizations work and the challenges they face.

Local Support - we wish to thank Kawarthas Northumberland and Peterborough Kawarthas Tourism and the Canadian Canoe Museum for their support and planning for this event. We thank all the trail ambassadors the RTO folks found for our session events. Special thanks to Christine Painter, Vanessa Twiddy and Karen Theriault for their unfailing support of our event!

Trails Education - Select a Program!

We have updated the program and our 14 module program is here for the using. If you have staff to train, trails to manage or want a session in your area on a particular topic let us know. We'll coordinate a session or series on your behalf.

	DESCRIPTION
COURSE TITLE	DESCRIPTION
Volunteer Management	View PDF
Business Planning and Budgetting	View PDF
Regulation and Legislation	View PDF
Ecosystem and Natural Heritage	View PDF
Wilderness First Aid	View PDF
Food and Nutrition	View PDF
Marketing and Promotion	View PDF
Health and Safety	View PDF
Technology for Trails - Level 1	View PDF
Trail Design (2 days)	View PDF
Trail Risk Management	View PDF
Trail Committee Development	Manual
Trail Steward- On Line Learning	Program
Trail Planning - On Line	Program

Trails Insurance Program AvailableOnce again, members of the trails community find themselves seeking alternative trails insurance. The volatility and unpredictability of your insurance plan keeping you hopping? Wondering what you are getting, curious if your agent or the underwriter understands trails?
If you want:

cost stability
product assurance
insurance perseverance
a broker that understands trails

At OTC our mission is "trail preservation." See the note from Intercity Insurance, Mike King, below.

Further to our recent discussions, I wanted to let you know that we have investigated various markets to get a sense of the appetite that insurers have for coverage associated with trails. Our findings suggest that coverage is available - but from a very limited number of carriers and that the cost of insurance in this class is not heading down anytime soon. The reality is that there have been losses associated with trails in general and that the frequency and severity of claims is on the rise.

On the positive side of the issue, we have had several specific discussions of late with our current carriers at Lloyd's of London and we are (collectively) very interested in ramping up our work with OTC to connect with your associates who manage trails. We and the insurers we represent are firm in our commitment to work collaboratively with the OTC trail community to develop a comprehensive risk management strategy that makes sense - and insurance is just one part of that strategy.

As for what trail insurance products we have "in the box” right now:

a) Commercial General Liability coverage —premium costs start at $1,000.00 for $2,000,000 coverage.

b) Directors and Officers liability coverage — premium costs start at $200.00 for $I,000,000 coverage. We find that even the smallest community group is seeing the importance of acquiring D and O coverage.

c) Accidental Death and Dismemberment coverage - premiums start at $250. 00 to cover the Officers, Directors, employees, members. The limit of coverage is $100,000.

In the near future OTC will be bundling these products as a part of membership services and products.

Performance Measures - Trail Counts!

Low maintenance - Using weatherproof decals our methods allow users to quickly and easily provide you with information you need to assess, improve, direct, re-direct, or provide information to the user - while on the trail. Our proprietary method has been developed by over 140 trail users and with the input of The City of Thunder Bay and Norfolk County Trail Managers.

Packages - OTC Member? - Take $25.00 off each package!

Blue - 4-10 trails: $300.00 plus HST and registration fees
- Maximum 20 sheets of decals
Green - 10-20 trails: $500.00 plus HST and registration fees
- Maximum 40 sheets of decals
Gold - 20 or more trails: Starting at $1,000 plus HST and registration fees
- TBD

Go to Trail Counts! to purchase. Thanks

Ontario Trails - Your Data Wanted

Since 2007 the Ontario Trails Council has collected trails data, and turned that data into our award winning website, as mandated by the desires of the trails community reflected in the Ontario Trails Strategy. Nearly 1,000,000 people a year turn to this information in order to find you and your trails.
The characteristics we are looking for are:

1. Measurements

Trailhead Longitude
Trailhead Latitude
Completion Time (hours)
Elevation Change (m)
Trailhead Elevation (m)
Maximum Elevation (m)
Cross Slope Average (%)
Cross Slope Maximum (%)
Minimum Trail Width (m)
Average Trail Width (m)
Maximum Grade (%)
Average Grade (%)
Trail Surface
Trail Classification (Trail Group/Local Classification/Difficulty/ Rating eg: OFSC Trail Classes)

4.    Prohibited Trail Uses
5.    Trail Hazards (Poison Ivy, Steep Slopes)
6.    Trail Fees (Day Pass, Donation, Parking etc.)
7.    Seasons/Dates of Operation
8.    Trail Amenities (Visitor Centre, Beach, Boat Launch etc.)
9.    Trail Enforcement
10.  Trail Permits
11.  Trail Speed Limit
12.  Trail Signage
13.  Trail Environmental Concerns
14.  Trail Permitted Use (Dogs on Leash)

Date of Collection
Data Collector
Trail sensitivity (high /low)

So let us know if you are willing to support us by sharing data you already have. execdir@ontariotrails.ca Thanks