Alberta Parks has a lack of social science data essential to understanding the potential impacts of recreation on park ecology and if recreation-based management objectives are being met. Understanding where people are recreating, what kinds of recreational activities they are pursuing, and where they have come from are essential components of this process. Increasing knowledge about the number of users, their type of use, and basic demographics can assist in site planning, developing robust social science research questions for future investigation, and future management planning initiatives.

We have an opportunity to help Alberta Parks learn more about trail users.

How it’ll work: The Friends volunteers will be stationed at randomly selected trailheads two days per week (one weekday and one weekend day) during the afternoon to ask trail users to complete the survey. The start time will be randomly selected between noon and 2:00pm; volunteers will be at the trailhead for four hours.

This exact sampling schedule will be created once the list of trails with a remote camera or trail counter has been finalized and the Friends has determined volunteer capacity for this project from July to September. Volunteers will approach trail users at the end of their recreational experience and invite them to participate in the survey, which will be filled out on tablets and take less than 5 minutes to complete. It’s a series of quick questions that could make a big difference for Alberta Parks.

The Survey: The survey will gather baseline demographic information about trail users in Kananaskis. Questions will be designed to complement, and not duplicate, data generated from the remote cameras and trail counters. The survey objectives are:

• To define what kinds of recreational activities trail users engage in while in Kananaskis
• To define group size and the number of vehicles belonging to each party
• To define basic demographics of the Kananaskis trail user (e.g., age, gender, city of residence).

Volunteers: We are recruiting volunteers to help with this project. Volunteers will be trained on how to conduct the surveys and gather information. A one-hour training session will be offered on June 11 at 9:30am at the Canmore Nordic Centre (allowing participant to then enjoy Trails Fest!!).

Interested in helping Alberta Parks meet their conservation and recreation goals without digging dirt? Here’s a great opportunity to get involved.

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