Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario INTRODUCTION
Canadians take pride in their National and Provincial parks and other protected areas, assuming that they will safeguard our natural heritage for generations to come, as well as provide opportunities for low-intensity recreation such as canoeing, hiking, camping and viewing of wildlife.
Unfortunately, however, parks and their ecosystems across Canada face many challenges. Only a small percentage of lands are classified as protected, especially in the most populated southern portion of the country. Protected areas that do exist are often far too small to ensure the long term survival of the ecosystems and species within them. Park ecosystems are threatened by rapid climate change. They are being degraded by inappropriate industrial activities outside their boundaries. Park boundaries are not secure, and there is a growing number of cases in which they are being redrawn to facilitate industrial or commercial development. Often park management plans are not based on ecological principles. As a result, industrial and commercial development, as well as inappropriate recreational activities, are being permitted within park boundaries. Finally, protected areas are poorly interconnected, resulting in isolated wildlife populations. Bison reintroduced to Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan
EXAMPLES FROM ACROSS CANADA
Atlantic Ocean, Bay of Fundy and Gulf of St. Lawrence
Little attempt has yet been made to establish a network of Marine protected areas in Atlantic coastal waters and farther offshore, which face threats from overfishing and offshore oil drilling and supertanker traffic.
Newfoundland and Labrador:
Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has faced an endless series of threats over the years. Most recently, a proposal for hydraulic fracking along its border has been put on hold while the issue of fracking in the province is studied. Nova Scotia:
The newly established Sable Island National Park Reserve is not fully protected from oil and gas development, which could have a devastating impact on the island’s fragile ecosystem. The ecological integrity and natural beauty of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park coast at Green Cove, a proposed geoheritage site, is threatened by plans to construct a massive war monument and related infrastructure. UPDATE, FEBRUARY 2016: PARKS CANADA REJECTS PROPOSAL FOR MASSIVE MONUMENT IN CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK On February 5, 2016, following public pressure to protect National Parks from inappropriate development, Parks Canada rejected the proposal to construct a massive monument at Green Cove in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. It has also stated that the project will not be permitted elsewhere on Parks Canada land. See Friends of Green Cove website.
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island:
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island lack viable provincial park systems because so little land has been protected. National parks in the two provinces are also very small and their ecosystems are often compromised by inappropriate activities inside and outside park boundaries.
Quebec:
The Lac-Saint-Pierre UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park and many other important sites along the lower St. Lawrence River are threatened now that tankers have begun to use the waterway to transport tar sands oil to foreign markets. There are plans to construct a major oil terminal on the proposed Energy East pipeline directly across the river from the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park and in critical habitat of beluga whales which ate a threatened species.
Ontario:
Many Ontario parks are threatened by hydro developments as documented by the Ontario Rivers Alliance. The boundaries of Little Abitibi Provincial Waterway Park have recently been redrawn to permit the construction of a hydroelectric facility. There is a proposal for hydro development within Pukaskwa National Park. Proposals have been made for hydro development of the Namakan River adjacent to the boundary of Quetico Provincial Wilderness Park and the Wanapitei River at the French River Provincial Park boundary.
Much of Algonquin Park, the flagship of the Ontario parks system, is actually an industrial logging zone, with thousands of kilometres of logging roads.
Manitoba:
A logging road was recently approved across Grass River Provincial Park in northern Manitoba, despite a ban on “timber cutting” in Manitoba Provincial parks. To make matters worse, a copper mine was recently opened within Grass River Park. Saskatchewan:
Most grassland ecosystems in Saskatchewan (as well as Manitoba and Alberta) are unprotected and considered to be among the most threatened ecosystems in Canada.
Alberta:
The ecological integrity of Jasper National Park faces multiple threats. A major commercial development, the Glacier Skywalk, was recently constructed along the Icefield Parkway, despite strong opposition from environmentalists. Currently there is another proposal to construct tent accommodations at Maligne Lake, despite the proposal being at odds with Parks Canada policy. Jasper is also threatened by a proposal to expand the Marmot downhill ski area into pristine caribou, wolverine and grizzly habitat in the Whistlers Creek Valley.
British Columbia:
B.C. coastal and ocean marine protected areas are tiny and threatened by existing and/or proposed oil supertanker traffic. BC permits portions of Provincial Parks to be deleted when a private or public proponent wishes to carry out a development or activity that is not allowed by authorization under the provincial protected area legislation. An application was put forward in 2014 to remove portions of four British Columbia Provincial parks and protected areas, in order to accommodate work on the Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
Northwest Territories:
The newly established Nááts’ihch’oh National Park Reserve in the upper South Nahanni River watershed excludes critical headwaters, as well as large areas of caribou and grizzly habitat. The boundaries were drawn in order to facilitate future mining extraction.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
There are a number of important steps that are required if Canada’s parks and other protected areas are to play a significant and long-term role in preserving functioning ecosystems and wildlife populations.
(1) The number and size of parks and protected areas must be greatly increased. This is particularly important in Canada’s coastal waters and oceans where the protected areas network is in its infancy. It is also critical in southern Canada where parks are usually very small and disconnected, and where there is intense pressures from a large and growing human population, a dense road network, industry, agriculture, and a never-ending stream of inappropriate development proposals in or adjacent to parks. (2) Landscape scale linkages between protected areas must be maintained permit the movement of wildlife. (3) Governments at both the national and provincial level must adopt (or in many cases reinstate) legislation and policies that permanently safeguard protected areas. (4) Parks must be managed appropriately based on ecological principles (a set of guiding principles for park management is provided below). Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGEMENT PLANNING OF PARKS AND PROTECTED AREAS
The following guiding principles are designed to assist in the evaluation of Management Plans for parks and other types of protected areas. They have been developed as a result of several decades of reviewing such documents. They are of a general nature and their application must also take into account local circumstances (such as existing population centres, existing infrastructure, etc.), First Nations legal and treaty rights, and the impact of climate change.
“An ecosystem has integrity when it is deemed characteristic for its natural region, including the composition and abundance of native species and biological communities, rates of change and supporting processes.” (Panel on the Ecological Integrity of Canada’s National Parks, 2000).
Activities and development that should be excluded from parks: Activities and development that are not compatible with protected status and should be prohibited in parks include but are not limited to logging; logging roads; mining within or under parks; aggregate extraction; utility structures and corridors; communication towers; energy pipelines, access roads; dumps; hydro dams; other water control structures; water withdrawal; over flights; golf courses; ski hills; other commercial developments; mechanized travel (except in specific instances such as public roadways, park access roads and campgrounds); rock climbing; hunting; trapping; bear management; baitfish; baitfish trapping; private buildings; hotels; lodges; other commercial tourism facilities; activities not related to park values. Gatineau Park, Quebec |