Western Columbine by Michael Wheatley
Did you know?
BC’s Endangered Parks system
British Columbia is renowned for its natural beauty, rugged wilderness and a parks system that covers 13,090,000 hectares. BC’s parks have something for everyone. You can canoe the sparkling lakes at Bowron Lake Park, nestled in the Cariboo Mountain Range; experience the famous Adams River salmon run at Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park in the Interior; relax and watch the northern lights at Liard Hot Springs Park; back-country ski at Silver Star Park; or walk the miles of sandy beaches at wild Cape Scott on Northern Vancouver Island. From lush rainforests to remote beaches, from grassland meadows to grizzly bear sanctuaries our parks are crown jewels benefiting British Columbians throughout the province.
Although BC leads other provinces in the amount of protected areas, in many other aspects our parks system is reeling under a litany of staffing and funding cuts, encroaching privatization and decades of government disinterest.
In 1994 there were 363 ‘full-time equivalent’ (FTE) staff at BC Parks.4 Today, with a parks system that has doubled, there are approximately 200 FTE staff.5 When you look at the number of BC park rangers, the numbers are even worse. In 2007 BC had just 10 full-time permanent park rangers – one park ranger for every 1.3 million hectares. Although more part-time rangers are hired in the summer, amounting to 64 positions, we are still far behind neighbouring jurisdictions such as Alberta, which has nearly double the number of park rangers and Washington State which has 240 positions.
BC’s operational budget for parks is equally abysmal. BC’s parks contribute almost $170 million to the provincial tax base but the operational budget for our parks system is only $33 million.6
In contrast Alberta, whose provincial parks system is much smaller, has an operational budget of $46 million, and Washington State, whose state parks system is just 105,222 hectares, has a park budget double ours.7
Westcoast tree frog by Jaqueline Windh
Lack of funding and staff are degrading our parks
Privatization of parks is another major concern. Although the public has repeatedly said they don’t want to see our parks privatized or commercialized, in 2003 the BC government, with no public consultation, put parking meters into 41 popular parks. Last summer, in another surprise announcement, the provincial government tendered bids for the development of ‘private for-profit’ roofed accommodations, including hotels and resorts, within 12 provincial parks.
The public backlash against both parking meters and lodges was swift and overwhelming. Visits to parks with parking meters went down by one million annually, and by 2007, amidst revelations that the parking meters had missed their revenue targets by over 90 percent, the BC government quietly halved the parking fees.8 Private lodges and resorts in parks were equally poorly received. After facing intense media coverage and withering public criticism, only three private development proposals were submitted, none of which have yet proceeded. Further plans to expand the roofed accommodation program have been halted. Additional threats lurking on the horizon include proposals to extend park-use permits to 30 years for private companies from the typical current terms of one to five years, and the proliferation of new and proposed private hydro projects.
Right now Run-of-River Power Inc., a private corporation, is planning on building eight private power projects on tributaries to the pristine Pitt River just outside of Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver. Aside from trepidation about the environmental impact of the development, there are additional concerns because the company wants to put transmission towers through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park.9 This proposal could be permitted through the provincial government’s “Provincial Park Boundary Adjustment Guidelines.” The guidelines, approved in the summer of 2006 and anticipated to be passed into law in 2007, could allow industrial developments in parks if the government deems the projects to be in the “public interest”.
Since 1911 British Columbians have worked together to create one of the most spectacular parks system in North America. Just as it required vision, wisdom and community spirit to create our protected area system, so too will these attributes be needed to protect BC’s parks for future generations.
