With the Alberta government offering a public call for input regarding its work to update the Plan for Parks, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) does have some thoughts.
“This is a great development, especially after the Defend Alberta Parks campaign. We really know that Albertans care deeply. Our concern with it is… there's a significant emphasis on increasing recreation, types of recreation, camping and increased access, etc.,” said Tara Russell, program director with CPAWS Northern Alberta.
There are 78 provincial parks, 193 provincial recreation areas and 34 wildland provincial parks that the Plan for Parks will be concerned with. The original Plan for Parks was launched in 2009 as a 10-year plan.
Back then, the total area of parks under the Provincial Parks Act was approximately 2 million hectares. It has nearly doubled in the last 15 years, expanding to more than 3.8 million hectares as it is currently.
Alberta’s total parks and protected areas system now protects more than 4.5 million hectares of representative and special landscapes.
In mid-June, the Ministry of Forestry and Parks announced that a public survey would be available until Aug. 18. It’s the first of a two-phase process to gather feedback for a draft Plan for Parks followed by a review and further input gathering.
The new plan is meant to help support visitors’ interests while upholding the natural and cultural heritage of Alberta’s parks.
“While this is excellent – we definitely support people getting out into nature – we're concerned that there's no consideration with the creation of new parks,” Russell said.
“There are a couple questions that indicate there's consideration of large commercial development, and I think that that is incompatible with the value of Alberta's public parks system.”
The announcement of the survey came with a report that Alberta’s provincial parks see millions of visitors every year. As this number rises over time, it will become a top priority of the new plan to create more recreation opportunities, including more campsites and improving access to activities like kayaking and canoeing, the announcement said.
Following the government’s call for public input, CPAWS released its own statement.
“CPAWS Northern and Southern Alberta are very concerned that both the framing of the survey, and the questions themselves, appear to prioritize economic development, motorized recreation, unsustainable levels of tourism, and the potential for resource extraction and other profit-driven activities, at the expense of the conservation and ecological integrity of our provincial parks,” stated CPAWS Southern Alberta’s executive director Katie Morrison in the organization’s public statement.
Russell noted Alberta’s population boom that is coupled with a growing public interest in getting out into nature.
“There's absolutely no emphasis in this for the creation of more spaces for that to occur.”
The public statement notes CPAWS’ great concern how the “guiding principles” in the Plan for Parks do not mention the conservation of nature. This is both out of line with the intent of the Parks Act and also sets a “dangerous tone amidst a dual biodiversity-climate crisis,” the statement reads.
“What we do not want to see – and what we are concerned this survey portends – is the further weakening of protections for Alberta’s Provincial Parks system,” it continues.
Russell said that the ministry’s talk about sustainability as a guiding principle is good, but it amounts to little more than lip service. Forestry and Parks needs to walk the walk, she said.
“Sustainability isn't enough. We need to be actively trying to protect nature, and that can occur through the creation of new parks. This just doesn't appear to be a value for this new Plan for Parks.”
This survey is a good opportunity for Albertans to weigh in on the future of provincial parks. As a way of helping people to take the survey, CPAWS planned to release a guide highlighting some of its concerns while showing how it would answer the government’s questions. It should be posted on its website and social media pages this week.
That guide will demonstrate how the organization hopes that taking the long view of providing recreation while protecting nature will be the best solution.
“Not using this as an opportunity to increase the number of parks in the park system is short-sighted. It is not going to keep up with the demands of Albertans and for visitors as well. In the surveys that we have done for people on parks, we find that people overwhelmingly love and support new protected areas in Alberta, and that they are trying to access those areas explicitly to spend time in nature.”
People can complete the online survey through Alberta.ca/PlanforParks. There is also a Plan for Parks Engagement Guide that has the survey questions in it as well. Handwritten responses to those questions can be returned to any Alberta Parks Visitor Centre (during regular business hours) or by mail to: Parks Division 9th Floor, Oxbridge Place, 9820 – 106 Street Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2J6 Attention: Plan for Parks.