BCWF
Parks & Wilderness Committee

Letter to the Editor of Victoria Times-Colonist from: Ed Mankelow, Chair Parks and Wilderness Committee~~~~~ B.C. Wildlife Federation Re: Park Management needs clear Vision” Piece March 24th.

My concern with this piece is not what it says, but those things that it doesn’t say. While Derek recognizes that there are a number of lodges in the parks, what he does not say is that these lodges were there in almost every case before the park was created. In other words they were in-holdings existing when the park was created around them.

He is incorrect when he identifies Spatsizi Plateau Provincial Park as having lodges. Spatsizi has two guide outfitter camps and one ex-guide outfitter camp “Coldfish” that was purchased by Nature Trust with public funds when the park was created. These few cabins are certainly not commercial. These facilities predated the park.

Manning Park Lodge in Manning Park lies on highway 3 through where it runs through the park and was built and operated by BC Parks until sold to a private operator. It could be said that the expansion of facilities there could serve as an example of what happens when we allow commercial interests into our wilderness parks.

Later in the piece when Derek talks about “The conflict between two visions” he states that “For some there is also an honest desire to move with the times to provide services that will enhance our parks.” In 1997 to 1999 I served on one of the public processes that Derek mentions: “The BC Parks Legacy Project”. Nine panellists covered this province in what has been recognized as the biggest, most intensive public input process that has been held in British Columbia. We held 154 open houses and workshops in every corner of this province. The question we asked the public was “how they wanted to bring our park system into the 21st century? The final report that we submitted to government gave the public’s clear response. “Protected areas are maintained in perpetuity as public lands. As an inalienable public good, these areas must not be sold, commercialized or privatized”

In all of our meetings the message came through loud and clear. Commercialization was the public’s greatest concern. This concern must now be recognized in the fact that Bill 84, the Bill that would allow lodges in parks was brought into the house by this government with no public input even though we as stakeholders were in constant discussion with the minister on park and commercial recreation issues. It also contained a section to delete part of a park that was established by public LRMP process. This deletion was to accommodate the oil and gas industry.

The reason some of us are fighting to keep commercialization out of our parks is that the wilderness outside of parks is being overwhelmed by Commercial Backcountry Recreation tenures issued by Land & Water B.C. Our parks are the last places where we can hope to hold and pass on true B.C. wilderness to future generations. This is not the present government’s policy. As Park stakeholder groups we have offered to meet with government to work together to find areas outside the boundaries of parks or on a road that currently runs through a park where lodges might be established. We believe that they should be placed in gateway communities to our parks with appropriate activities into the park. This will allow the local community to benefit economically from the operation. We would expect the activity to be non- mechanized and a portion of the fee charged the client to be directed to the park district involved.

While we have offered to work with government, the question is, will the government listen. It has already in place plans to establish lodges in parks. If it wins the upcoming election I have no doubt that it will go ahead with these plans immediately. We must also remember that we are dealing with a govern-ment that through Land & Water B.C. could be about to issue Commercial Backcountry Recreation tenure to a company that will be heli-skiing on red-listed Mountain Caribou habitat. Far more endangered incidentally than those caribou in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.