Riding Mountain struggling to keep ski trails open

Riding Mountain National Park is struggling to keep its ski trails open after funding cuts from the federal government.

Volunteer groups are working to keep the trails groomed but have only been able to keep 40 kilometres of trails open. The entire park has 240 km of trails.

Friends of Riding Mountain National Park, a non-profit organization that raises money and awareness for the area, said visits to the park are down about 50 per cent.

"They're saying that they're heading south for the winter, and they'll check on things next winter," said George Hartlen, the organization's executive director.

He attributes the dip in visitors to the lack of trails available in the park compared to previous years.

"This year we have great snow across the whole province and other provinces as well, and once they find different areas to go it's hard to get them back," said Hartlen.

Hartlensaid businesses in nearby communities are also being affected by the park's lower visitor numbers.

Hartlen hopes the federal government has some other plan to maintain National Parks in the winter.

"This has a huge impact on our resorts and our hardware stores and our grocery stores as well as our local schools when people leave the area and go elsewhere," said Hartlen.

He said he hopes the federal government will step in to address the impact the funding cuts are having on the area.