Left: Garibaldi Provincial Park, photo courtesy of Adam Gibbs.
Top right: Manning Provincial Park.
Bottom right: MacMillan Provincial Park.
British Columbia is internationally renowned for its amazing wilderness and diverse wildlife. From grizzly bears to killer whales, from temperate rainforests to pocket deserts, British Columbia has the most biodiversity of any province in Canada.
For 100 years British Columbians have worked to protect this natural bounty through the establishment of provincial parks. Today, after decades of hard work by individuals, conservation groups, and communities, BC has over 800 parks and protected areas ranging from tiny Memory Island Park to sprawling Tweedsmuir Park, BC’s largest protected area at 981,000 hectares.
In total, our protected areas system covers just over 13% of the land base. Parks provide people with unparalleled opportunities to camp, swim, hike, photograph, picnic, bird watch or just reconnect with nature. Parks also provide us with a wealth of ecosystem services: clean air, fresh water, climate moderation, soil retention, flood control and pollination are just some of the natural services provided for free by our protected areas system.
Left: South Chilcotin Provincial Park.
Park Facts
BC’s parks not only have an innate value in protecting nature and providing intact habitat for BC’s wildlife: they also provide a tremendous benefit for the provincial economy. According to government reports for every dollar that the BC government puts into parks almost $10 are returned to BC’s economy in visitor expenditures. In 1999, the last year the BC government publicly tracked the economic benefits of provincial parks, almost $500 million was generated by our provincial protected areas system.(1)
People love BC’s parks because they help protect what makes our province such a special place to live and visit. Wild rivers, old-growth forests, alpine meadows, mountain vistas, rolling grasslands and salmon streams are just some of the natural treasures to be found in parks across the province.
According to a household survey conducted by the BC government in 2002, over 80% of those polled said parks are important because they protect natural environments and wildlife.(2)
Our parks and protected areas also provide us with the peace of mind that our children and grandchildren will have an opportunity to experience an unspoiled natural environment: to catch a glimpse of a wild salmon in a shady stream, to hear the hoot of an owl in the distant woods, or to spot a woodpecker drumming in the early morning mist. Parks help ensure that what we value about BC, the spectacular natural beauty, amazing wildlife and high standard of living, is kept intact as an environmental legacy — for British Columbians and for the rest of the world.
In addition to the recreational opportunities and ecosystem services parks provide, they also generate millions of dollars for local economies. Eighteen million people visit BC’s parks annually, generating $170 million dollars in tax revenues — over six times the operating budget of BC Parks, the provincial agency responsible for parks and protected areas. Just over half of BC residents visit provincial parks on a yearly basis and over 90% have visited a park at some time.(3) Read more to find out how you can keep BC’s parks public and protected.
