Province looking to optimize parks system

Sites to be removed from the Alberta Parks system would have their legal park designations removed and could be open for alternate management approaches. Those could include Park Partnerships, where a community can keep the park active and used for recreational and tourism opportunities.

Below is a map of the parks in southern Alberta and how they will be impacted.

Sites impacted in southern Alberta (Photo: Alberta Parks, Government of Alberta)

Parks marked under the ‘proposed site partnership’ banner are areas in which the provincial government will be seeking management partners.

Sites listed under a ‘full closure’ will be closed entirely to public access, and those that will see a ‘partial closure’ will have their campground and/or specific facilities closed, with remaining park areas open to public access but non-serviced.

Non-serviced means services like garbage collection and grounds-keeping will not occur in the remaining accessible park areas.

Another change users can expect includes shortened seasons of operation at some sites. More details on the length of seasons at specific sites can be found here or through the particular site’s webpage.

Beginning in the fall, there will also be no groomed cross-country track setting in the three main areas that are usually groomed by government staff in the Kananaskis Region.

Those three areas are Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Mt. Shark and Kananaskis Village. The province said grooming will continue to take place at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Track setting will also continue to happen in the West Bragg Creek area by the West Bragg Creek Trails Association.

The Barrier Lake Visitor Information Centre and the Elbow Valley Visitor Information Centre have been shut down. Dinosaur Provincial Park comfort camping will also close.

SERVICE FEE CHANGES

Users can also expect some changes to service fees at different sites.

There will be an increase of $3 on the base camping fee at most campgrounds in the Alberta Parks system. There will be a $1 increase for each applicable service fee related to power, sewers, water and showers where those services are available, and a $1 increase to equestrian corral fees at backcountry sites in the Kananaskis Region.

The government has also announced a $10 increase for sites that were at the low end of the fee range charged for comfort camping and group camping. For more details on those costs, visit the Group Camping and Comfort Camping sections of Alberta Parks’ website.

The province noted that the proposed changes account for less than one percent of the Alberta Parks land base and will not impact protected areas that are managed for conservation efforts.

A full list of affected parks across the province can be found here.

by Justin Goulet

Province looking to optimize parks system

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