Member Report
South Whiteshell Trail Association , SWTA
2019 was a fantastic and busy year for the South Whiteshell Trail Association . We hosted many events and achieved many trail building and fundraising milestones . We were also very happy to welcome a new generation of trail enthusiasts to our board and community , helping to ensure the long term sustainability of our group . Following are some of the highlights .
Events
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Trail Inventory Event � MEC Trail Building day on the Blue Highway Mountain Bike trail . �
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Partnered with local bike shop Woodcock Cycle to host another Trail Build Day
Geology Walk on the Lost Lake Trail Group hike on the Centennial Trail Produced a professional promo video for the Blue Highway MTB trail � New Years Fundraising Event at the Falcon Ridge Ski Slopes . �
Newly appointed Secretary , Tara Daniel , co-hosted a table at the spring Whiteshell Cottager ’ s
Granite Bench Legacy Program-SWTA has a bench program which has been in operation for about 12 years . It is a major fund raiser and the benches are sold for $ 5000 each . To date we have sold 30 benches . In 2019 , 3 benches were sold . We also installed an additional 3 benches from the previous year . Many people buy these benches as family memorials . They are placed in various locations along the trail .
Granite Bench
Construction of the trail portion of Penniac Bay is complete . The new section of trail has been very well received from the local community and is getting a lot of traffic . The trail has held up great so far to the natural elements , we will continue to monitor it in the years to come . We are currently in the process of designing some kiosks and plaques to put up on the trail in recognition of all the donors that made this project possible .
Maintenance activities primarily involved downed tree removal and brush cutting . We had about a dozen volunteers working on these tasks . Our trail ambassadors report problems such as washouts , downed trees and shrub encroachment to the maintenance representatives who deal with the various issues . We also refer more complex tasks to Parks Branch as appropriate . There was one construction activity undertaken by the maintenance committee in the spring which involved the construction of safety railings on an existing trail bridge near Penniac Bay . Three representatives from SWTA were involved in this job .
Many thanks to Manitoba Parks Branch for their continued support & maintenance of our trails .
Annual Report -2019 Year in Review p . 26