Lions Bay reopens parking and trailheads after month-long closure

Good news, hikers. On Thursday, the Village of Lions Bay decided to reopen parking and trailheads around the community.

The decision was made at a special council meeting designated to decide the status of the trailheads. Mayor Ken Berry confirmed the decision to reopen in an email to Daily Hive.

“The expert recommendations of the Lions Bay Fire Chief, LB Emergency Response Coordinator, Metro Emergency Response Representative and Provincial Gov were considered by Lions Bay Council. Which resulted in: ‘Trailheads are immediately open to hikers as of yesterday’s Special Council Meeting,'” the email read.

In the regular council meeting on September 19, posted to YouTube, the council discussed the recommendations from the fire chief.

“We sought the expert opinion of the fire chief. He gave us a response that the village of Lions Bay does not meet the critical threshold to close the access to the trails,” Berry said.

Village of Lions Bay

While the trails are mainly on land owned by the provincial government, the Village of Lions Bay has jurisdiction over parking at the trailheads.

The Village of Lions Bay restricted access to parking and trailheads on August 24, citing wildfire concerns.

“Due to unprecedented hiker pressure in our backcountry areas, we must unfortunately take this temporary measure to reduce the risk of a human-caused wildfire. Unlike other communities such as Kelowna and Yellowknife where fires started kilometres away, a fire on trails could be only hundreds of metres away from homes,” a release from the community read.

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However, this decision was met with fierce backlash from the community.

Many members of the public did not believe that the wildfire risk warranted the decision to close the trails. Instead, many took to Reddit to discuss how they thought the decision was just the latest attempt to restrict access to public lands.

Fortunately for hikers now, the trailheads have been reopened. Head over to Lions Bay to make the most of the trails before the winter weather hits.

With files from Claire Fenton and Daily Hive Staff