Islanders are islanders because of the extraordinary beauty of our natural environment. But we have no public parks on the Thetis - it's virtually all private property or nature conservancy reserve land, or in the case of the Meadow Valley trail, part is actually owned by TIRRA. The network of Trails on the island represents one of the most striking and unusual aspects of this wonderful community. Every step you take through the magical forests and meadows in our trail system, is because of the generosity and trust of private owners and the management of TIRRA or ThINC.
Most of these trails would not exist without the TIRRA Trails Committee, whose dedicated volunteers negotiated licenses with the various private owners involved, and who are out there regularly monitoring and maintaining the trails for safety and accessibility. The summer 2024 issue of the Quarterly (https://www.thetisisland.net/tica/Quarterly/Thetis_Island_Quarterly_Summer_2024_colour.pdf) goes into detail about the different Trails and their management.
How much poorer Thetis would be without this wonderful service that TIRRA is able to support. You can't have licenses or insurance, which provides access, without that umbrella organization to stand behind them. One more reason we need to support TIRRA, so it can support these dedicated Trails volunteers!
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you for reading,
TIRRA Executive Board