Flin Flon-area outdoors groups struggle to restore fire-damaged recreational trails

Local groups for snowmobilers, skiers and snowshoers are working hard to clear trails in and around Flin Flon, Man., but poor snow conditions and damage from last summer's fires — hundreds of downed trees, burned terrain, upturned roots and destroyed buildings and bridges — is making it difficult.

Residents of Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach who fled the flames on May 28 found hundreds of homes burned down in Denare Beach, as well as untold damage to the region's environment, when they returned home a month later.

John Trumbley, a past-president and co-founder of the Border Explorers Snowmobile Club, saw it all up close. His son, Dustin, lost his home, one of nearly 300 that were destroyed by fire. The club’s headquarters, located near Denare Beach, barely avoided the flames.

Trumbley says the group looks after more than 200 kilometres of sled trails each year. About 30 per cent of the group’s trails are on frozen lakes and waterways, but nearly all of the remainder has been affected.

“Every trail we've been on so far has massive amounts of damage,” he said.

Leslie Beck, co-chair of wâhkôhtowin Trails, which mainly focuses on snowshoeing, scenic and history walks, says the group had planned to expand into areas near Flin Flon and Denare Beach.

However, those plans are on hold because entire areas to the east, west and north of town have been damaged.

"We lost an entire area, like right from Flin Flon to Bakers Narrows. If you just take the old highway from town to Bakers, that area is all lost,” Beck said.

"We are looking at probably 30-40 years to bring back those forests that have been burnt out.," Beck said.

Skiers are also seeing changes.

The Flin Flon Ski Club operates and grooms around 28 kilometres of trails each winter, but six of those were affected by the fire, wrecking warmup shacks and destroying bridges.

Club president Dean Grove says the McRae trail, the club’s southernmost loop, was badly damaged. Those trails have largely been repaired, but not all are ready for skiers.

“We've had to take a lot of trees out that have fallen across the trail. We anticipate we're going to have a lot more that are going to fall down after because they've had the roots burned, but they're still standing,” he said.

Grove says he was surprised to see how much the area had been damaged, but he’s already seeing signs that nature is recovering.