Outdoor enthusiasts may question why they should care about what happens to the Shuswap North Okanagan Rail Trail (SNORT)?.

The simple answer is, access. Hikers, cyclists, mountain bikers, etc., all want access to trails no matter where they are. If a new trail is through land in the B.C. Agricultural Land Reserve, though, trail owners need permission from the B.C. Agricultural Land Commission, which must prioritize use of land in the ALR for farming.

Approval of the Okanagan Rail Trail through the Eldorado Ranch, for example, was on hold for six months in 2018 and 2019 while the City of Kelowna negotiated conditions satisfactory for two rail crossings.

Seven years after the 2017 purchase by the Splatsin, North Okanagan and Columbia-Shuswap regional districts, the final legal arguments are in and the future of SNORT now rests with the ALC.

It's a complex balancing act—farm interests versus public interest. Rural trails like much of the Okanagan Rail Trail, KVR Trail in the South Okanagan and International Hike and Bike Trail in Osoyoos are popular with the public. But farmers want to continue working the land and in some cases cross the trails, while thousands of hikers and bikers zoom by, ignorant of the complexity of creating it.

The new........

© Castanet