(Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

New draft management plan presented for Waterton, survey open

May 14, 2021 | 11:29 AM

WATERTON LAKES, AB – Plans are coming together for the future of Waterton Lakes National Park.

Parks Canada has released its Draft Management Plan, providing an overview of the vision and primary goals for they want to approach the national park over the next decade.

Salman Rasheed, Field Unit Superintendent for Waterton, says nature will be at the forefront.

“Our future-forward vision for this place is that it’s an intact wilderness that inspires a sense of wonder, that we continue working with our Indigenous partners and that Indigenous stewardship plays a strong role in the management of these parks, that we’re an inclusive place, and that people develop personal connections to the park.”

This document was compiled after completing the first round of public engagement.

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Between April 10 and July 3, 2019, 443 people completed online surveys and 150 attended in-person engagement events. Many respondents were from Southern Alberta.

Rasheed says much of the feedback they received centered on a couple of pivotal themes.

“We wanted Waterton to remain a fairly quaint, wild place. Some of our other parks are getting tremendously busy and Waterton’s always had this reputation of being fairly unique and kind of quiet, tucked away in the southwest corner of Alberta, so Canadians often mentioned that they liked that quaintness and wilderness feeling to remain.”

“We had people concerned about things like our ecological integrity and whether, you know, we were maintaining ecological integrity. There were comments about development, there were comments about increasing and enhancing tourism and business opportunities.”

The draft management plan has six key strategies. They are:

1. Conserving natural and cultural heritage for future generations
2. True-to-place experiences
3. Strengthening Indigenous relations
4. Connecting with Canadians
5. Managing development
6. Regional connectivity and landscapes

Phase 2 of public engagement is now open. A survey is currently available, which you can access here, while other virtual consultation events will be held at a later date.

Consultations will close on July 7.

From there, Parks Canada will formulate a final management plan, which is expected to be presented to Parliament in either late 2021 or early 2022.

The full draft management plan is available for review here.