Squamish’s Destination Steward team is back on the trails and in the parks this summer, continuing a program now in its sixth year of helping locals and visitors explore the area responsibly.
Run by Tourism Squamish, stewards in the 2025 season connected with over 4,000 visitors and residents, hauled away 560 pounds of garbage, and worked to spread the word about responsible recreation at busy parks and trailheads around town.
“During the peak summer season, the program plays an important role in fostering a culture of responsible recreation and stewardship across the community,” said Nikki Johnston, Communications and Stakeholder Relations Manager at Tourism Squamish.
Steward’s work includes everything from sharing local trail knowledge and backcountry safety tips to passing along WildSafe wildlife guidance and pointing people toward local shops and experiences. Johnston noted the team plays a key role each summer in building a community-wide culture of care for the area’s parks and trails.
Residents and visitors can spot the team this season in their bright yellow shirts, out on the trails Thursday through Monday until early September.
One of the program’s signature initiatives, the Red Bag Program, asks hikers and campers to pack out their own waste and pitch in by grabbing any litter they spot along the way. Bags filled with trash can be dropped off at the Squamish Visitor Centre, where they’re traded for a token good for a coffee, beer, or ice cream at a participating local business. Last year alone, 310 filled Red Bags came back through the program.
The team has already been busy in 2026. In just the first two weeks of this season, stewards collected more than 130 pounds of garbage, ranging from cigarette butts and food wrappers to bags of overflow trash dumped beside full bins. They’ve also lent a hand with several community projects, including trail work alongside SORCA, volunteering at a local fundraising race, helping with cleanup during BMX Nationals, and joining invasive species removal efforts with the Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council and the Squamish River Watershed Society.
New this year, the Destination Stewards will team up with BC Parks’ Discover Parks Ambassadors at Alice Lake and Porteau Cove Provincial Parks, extending their cleanup and visitor outreach work to those popular park spaces.
Beyond the day-to-day cleanup and outreach, the stewards also gather field observations that get compiled into an end-of-season report. That data helps inform decisions on recreation infrastructure and visitor management, giving local governments and land managers a clearer picture as they plan for the future.
