What If We Lose This?
March 19, 2026 I By Katie Cox, Executive Director
Dear Trail Lovers,
This letter is a difficult one to write and I imagine for you it will be hard to read.
If you know me personally, and I hope you do (if not let’s meet!), you would know that my cup runneth over with positivity. I more often than not have a smile on my face, and a bounce in my step. This was not the case at the most recent Dover City Council meeting.
While spending your evenings at a City Council meeting may be far down on your list of what is important to you, we know that using the trails and Sled Hill is. We know that you love and care for this special place, as if it was your very own forest. You keep it clean, are responsible land stewards and trail users, and you respect the neighbors (both landowners and wildlife). Yet, at our last council meeting where we were applying for a Special Use Permit for the sled hill, the public who did show up told a different story.
Last night you, our lovers of the Syringa Trail Community were labeled as a group that drives recklessly, throws trash out your window, creates nuisance issues due to loud laughter and screams that come off the sled hill and the trails, you disobey rules and bike, hike or ski trails with headlamps on after hours, you camp in the parking lot, you don’t respect wildlife and you create havoc by coming in droves to spend time in the woods. I know you, and I know this description of you is so far from the truth.
These statements were made by several participants, until city councilors were influenced by their fears, from potential future rampant drug and alcohol use in the parking lots to people abusing trails and decimating nature. Fortunately, a sane voice interrupted that downward spiral.
Not once have we had a complaint about Pine Street Woods come from the City of Dover or a neighbor. In the six years since Pine Street Woods opened it has been a place full of community. I can’t count the number of people I have met on the trails excited to make conversation, nor can I count on one hand the trash I have had to pick up – because YOU don’t let even a wayward tissue linger there for more than a few hours. The sounds of the children may be the number one thing the neighbor dislikes but those noises make me (and I suspect you) know that we are doing something right. I have found all of you protective, respectful and grateful for what we have created as a community. I know all this in my heart and it is what I tried to represent in my presentation, but these words fall flat when there is no one standing up behind me to put a face to our trail community.
Most of you likely thought, “Ah KLT will just be fine – everyone loves them – they don’t need me.” Please know that nothing you value or believe in is safe when it comes to a city, county, state or national public process. If you don’t show up and stand up, you could lose what you love. The vote was 3-2 last night. We just barely were given our Special Use Permit to operate the Sled Hill. Dreams were stripped out of the permit and stipulations were added.
I tell you this story because, if ever there is anything on a city, county, state or national agenda that you believe in and it would change your life to lose, your voice is needed in the room.
We are fighting hard to create special places in nature that welcome everyone. The next time we stand up and speak to what we value as a community, we hope you will show up and stand up next to us.
In service,
Katie
P.S. In a truly timely moment, this historical news was published in the Bonner County Daily Bee on March 19, 2026 - the day of the meeting described above:
