Concern Over Sweeping Cuts to Alberta Parks
In a world of steadily rising global temperatures, increasing human population and steady loss of wildlife habitat, protected parks and recreation reserves around the globe are some of the last vestiges of wild space where people can find connection to nature and a source of physical and mental health. Wildlife depend on these spaces for their survival. Despite their inherent, immeasureable value to the planet, and their indisputable value to our societies, these protected places tend to be under continuous pressure, the Alberta parks system is just one of the most recent to be on the chopping block.
Background
In March 2020, the Government of Alberta announced the potential removal of 175 parks and day-use areas from the Alberta Parks system. This decision was made without public consultation just days after COVID-19 hit the province in full force, and has received sustained backlash from user groups and Alberta residents since its announcement.
The areas proposed to be cut represent a 37% loss of all provincial parks in the province, for a purported annual savings of $5 million in the 2020-21 budget, a tax savings of about one dollar and 15 cents per Albertan.
Maps of proposed park changes (from the Alberta government’s website)
Northern Alberta proposed parks cuts and private partnerships.
Central Alberta proposed parks cuts and private partnerships.
Southern Alberta proposed parks cuts and private partnerships.
What’s at stake
Many of the parks the UCP government intends to remove from the system will be opened for private partnerships. Many of the parks slated for closure in the Rockies and foothills are in areas that are well-known to be desirable by the coal mining and forestry industries.
Despite Canada’s clearly-defined climate change targets, and with support from the current Alberta government, coal mining is making a comeback in the province in 2020, and could very likely become a major environmental threat to the eastern slopes of the Rockies, and the water, wildlife, and wanderers who live downstream.
USE OF PARKS IS AT AN ALL TIME HIGH
One thing Canadians who live in tourism destinations can agree on since COVID-19 began, is that there has been a significant increase in use of the parks systems. Yet despite what we are witnessing, roughly 4,500 campsites are slated to be removed from Alberta’s parks system alone.
Kananaskis Country, one of Alberta’s most popular designated protected areas, has by all accounts been overrun with visitors since COVID hit. Vehicles clog the roadways and trails are filled with people looking for fresh air and some distance from the new daily normal. Yet the visitor’s centre is slated to be closed as part of this government’s plan, along with the privatization of dozens of recreation areas within K-country. What was deemed by the sitting government, in absence of public consultation, to be somehow reasonable prior to this pandemic, now is shown to be even more completely out of step with reality and the needs of Albertan’s and Canadians who recreate here and who want to see its value protected for generations to come.
Speak up
Now it’s your turn to offer input for each of the area’s proposed parks and wildlands in Alberta.
The government is not formally interested in feedback on this plan. However, a number of organizations are putting efforts into providing a place for the voice of the people to be heard.
Check out these groups for more information and to find out what you can do to make your voice heard:
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