Why These Outdoor Advocates Took Their Record Ridge Trail Fight to Court
You wouldn’t usually find Nils French and the other members of the Save Record Ridge Action Committee (SRRAC) in a courtroom, especially on a beautiful spring day. They’d rather be out on the more than 185 kilometres of trails that wind through the mountains around Rossland, British Columbia. But those trails were under threat. So, in early May, Nils and other SRRAC members packed into the Rossland courtroom to make the case that a proposed magnesium mine seven kilometres from town needed a provincial environmental review.
“You’ve got the Environmental Assessment Act, which lays out when an environmental assessment is required,” French explained. “We would say that this is certainly one of those situations.”
Initially, the British Columbia government agreed. On August 13, 2024, the province determined that the project, proposed by Calgary-based mining company West High Yield (WHY) Resources, would require an environmental assessment. In response, WHY Resources amended its proposal, lowering its proposed production capacity to 63,500 tonnes per year, below the 75,000-tonne threshold the province set as the automatic trigger for an environmental review. SRRAC and others questioned the change, suggesting it was simply a ploy to avoid a review and that WHY Resources could increase the threshold after the mine had avoided the environmental review.
The Mines Act permit for a “Quarry – Industrial Mineral” allows a quarry operation under strict conditions, including caps on annual extraction and stockpiling, limited operating hours, blasting restrictions, and requirements for dust control, water management, asbestos mitigation, reporting and reclamation. It does not authorize a mill, smelter, refinery, tailings dam, stream crossings, aggregate washing or disturbance beyond the approved footprint.
“WHY Resources has been very clear that this is a two-year trial … and that, should it be successful, they have full intention to expand,” Elissa Ferguson, another SRRAC member, told CBC.
The province considered this new proposal and, in August 2025, reversed its decision, letting the project proceed without an environmental assessment.
That decision is what French and SRRAC were in court to challenge. According to their website, the Record Ridge mine would be “the closest open-pit mineral mine to a community in British Columbia.” They warned of “drilling and blasting, rock crushing, and hauling ore offsite…expected to occur regularly, in the hottest and driest time of year, raising serious concerns about noise, dust, visual impact and conflicting uses of the ridge for local communities and visitors.”
One of those uses is along the Seven Summits Trail, a 30-kilometre stretch of ridgeline singletrack for hiking and biking that spans the Rossland Range. It’s both a beloved local trail and a major tourist draw, one of only four trails in Canada to earn the International Mountain Biking Association’s (IMBA) coveted “epic” designation.
“IMBA EPICS are what many mountain bikers live for and make travel plans around: immersive rides that are technically and physically challenging, beautiful to behold and worthy of celebration,” IMBA’s website explains. “EPICS are demanding, majority singletrack trail experiences in a natural setting and at least 20 miles in length.”
Squamish-based professional mountain biker Rémy Métailler put it more succinctly in a video he shot on the trail in 2025, calling it “one of the world’s best backcountry mountain bike trails.”
The open-pit mine would physically be within 200 metres of the trail. In documents filed as part of the court case, Tyler Derringer, co-owner of Revolution Cycles & Services Inc. in Rossland, detailed the risks to the trail, including trail closures and rerouting.
“This mine proposal, if approved, would forever alter the experience of every rider on the trail, if not chop it in half outright,” he explained.
And the Seven Summits is just one trail of many. French points out that Rossland was designated as a resort municipality in 2007, a special municipal status granted to high-tourism towns in British Columbia. Although the community has a history as a mining town, tourism today drives the economy.
But it’s not just trails and tourism that SRRAC and others are concerned about. Their court challenge raised issues related to public health, water quality and the environment. The Record Ridge area, they explain, is part of a rare grassland ecosystem and home to the mountain holly fern, a delicate plant that grows in magnesium-rich soils and is listed as a threatened species by the Canadian government.
A parallel court challenge was also filed by the Sinixt Confederacy, one of four local First Nations reported to oppose the project. A fifth nation, the Osoyoos Indian Band, supports it, signing a cooperation agreement with WHY Resources.
For French, it all adds up to one thing. This project needs a provincial Environmental Assessment Certificate.
“We thought that we would just point out some of these things, some of these big glaring things, and let the right people in government know, and that would solve the problems,” he said. “We’ve worked with over 30 different organizations, and at least 10 government organizations and ministries.”
But despite all that, they still ended up in court. And, unfortunately for French, SRRAC and the Sinixt Confederacy, who joined the court challenge, things didn’t go their way. BC Supreme Court Justice Gordon Weatherill ruled against them on June 10.
Although there was a technical review, Mine Development Review Committee review, Environmental Assessment Office input, agency referrals, public comments, Indigenous consultation, site visits, public information sessions and written submissions, there was no provincial Environmental Assessment Certificate.
“I am not persuaded that the [EAO’s] determination was unreasonable,” Weatherill explained.
But SRRAC isn’t backing down. After the decision was levelled, they announced plans to appeal, arguing that it could set a dangerous precedent for all kinds of development projects in the province.
“If this holds, it effectively provides a blank cheque for projects to be overbuilt while avoiding an environmental assessment,” SRRAC director Melanie Mercier told the media. “That issue extends well beyond Record Ridge.”
SRRAC worries about the precedent the decision sets, especially since the Record Ridge mine is digging up magnesium, a so-called “critical mineral.” The Canadian government created the Critical Minerals List in 2021 to highlight resources that it sees as the “building blocks for the green and digital economy.”
Both British Columbia and Canada want to see critical minerals projects prioritized, promoted and fast-tracked, especially in the wake of Donald Trump’s threats to the Canadian economy. But French points out that this magnesium won’t even stay in Canada.
“The application from the mining company talks about the ore being shipped to the port of Tacoma,” he said. “That undermines the whole critical minerals narrative.”
It also raises questions about the province’s priorities. Earlier this year, British Columbia rolled out a sweeping new Outdoor Recreation Strategy that positioned tourism, trails and outdoor recreation as one of the province’s eight key economic sectors, right alongside mining. But in Rossland, French argues, the Record Ridge mine is a direct threat to the outdoor recreation economy.
“We have a $40 million a year tourism economy right here in Rossland,” he said. “This is very much seen as a threat to that.”
There isn’t a timeline for SRRAC’s next appeal, but in the meantime, they’re doing whatever they can. Some days, that means organizing, raising money and planning. Other days, it means getting out onto the trails they’re trying to protect.
