With spring around the corner, Daniel Scott kicked off the field season with a trip to Ontario to conduct a workshop for the City of Mississauga. Held during the City of Mississauga’s training week, this workshop was attended by a wide variety of City staff with positions in horticulture, landscape architecture, conservation, sports field maintenance and more. Over a two day intensive session, these folk were introduced to not only IMBA’s typical sustainable trail design information but topics ranging from trail closure to understanding user types to what comprises sustainable bike parks & dirt jumps.

DJ discussion despite crazy mud.

This is truly an amazing accomplishment for the City of Mississauga as it shows a continued commitment to furthering the sport of mountain biking within their city. IMBA was given the opportunity to inspect 3 dirt jump parks, spaced throughout, as well as a centrally located bike skills park, all of which are helping give urban mountain bikers a place to practice, locally.

The workshop concluding with a site visit where students were given an chance to take the theory that was discuss in classed, critically analyze the park and come up with various solutions / improvements which would elevate the experience for riders of all ages. Despite most of the staff having little to no mountain bike experience, they were able to provide a myriad of ideas as to how the park could be improved from all sorts of angles. Truly impressive, great work guys!

For those in Ontario, and throughout Canada, keep on eye on Mississauga as there are more great things to come with such vigilant city staff leading the charge.