Monck Provincial Park photo courtesy of James Lewis
Case Study
Monck Park – a road runs through it
Monck Park is a tiny 92 hectare park located in the Kamloops region 22 kilometers north of Merritt. The popular lakeside park, which represents the endangered ponderosa pine bunchgrass ecosystem, was given to the BC government in 1951 by a local landowner on the condition that the land be turned into a protected area.
The management plan for Monck Park states that a primary objective of the park is to "protect scenic values and to provide for recreation opportunities in a largely undisturbed natural environment." Unfortunately, this objective was overturned by the provincial government in 2005 when the construction of a road was allowed through the heart of the park to access a large housing development.
Although there were other alternate routes available to reach the housing development, the road, which destroyed portions of a well-used hiking trail and resulted in the logging of hundreds of ponderosa pine trees, was given the go-ahead. Permission was granted by the provincial government in part on the premise that the road was a “good example of the government’s new era approach” to business development in BC.(1)
