Why do we need a national park reserve in the
South Okanagan - Similkameen?
The distinctive McIntyre Bluffs by Vaseaux Lake, a highly important region that must be included in the proposed park reserve. Photo by Steve Cannings.
by Dr. John and Mary Theberge, Wildlife Ecologists, Oliver, BC.
The South Okanagan - Similkameen is a special place with a distinctive beauty. The people that live here value the mountainsides of grass coloured up by phlox and balsamroot; park-like ponderosa forests dotted with prairie smoke and yellow bells; alpine tundra brushes. Huge rock faces and canyons ring with the cascading songs of canyon wrens and white-throated swifts.
With such ecosystem variety, no wonder the South Okanagan - Similkameen is a biodiversity hotspot in Canada. The mountain species that live here, like California bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain elk move upslope or downslope as conditions demand. The slope specialists are here, too, dividing up the mountainsides: in the lowlands, Nuttall’s cottontails and Lewis’ woodpeckers, and in the uplands, snowshoe hares and black-backed woodpeckers. Living here, too, are species from farther south that exist on the edges of their ranges: sage thrashers, white-headed woodpeckers and gray flycatchers.
Yet there is trouble in paradise. No longer present are burrowing owls, white-tailed jackrabbits, sage grouse, sharptail grouse and horned lizards. Feared as the next to go are the rarely seen – pallid bats, night snakes, sage thrashers, grasshopper sparrows.
The trouble is too much development and cattle. A tsunami of development is sweeping down the Valley from the North and dry ecosystems just cannot stand heavy grazing. For the past several thousand years no sedentary large mammals ever grazed here. With scant summer rain, the native bunchgrasses are not suitable for repeated, heavy grazing. They become weakened and lose out to exotic weeds like cheatgrass and knapweed which now cover considerable areas, snuffing out native species. If cheatgrass grew bright red, more people would recognize it. But it’s green, and few people see the problem. Livestock also trample and erode sensitive dryland soils, too, and destroy the fragile “cryptobiotic crust” of lichens and mosses that feed the soils with nitrogen.
Four Guiding Principles for a New Park Reserve
To be an ecologically viable park, the South Okanagan – Similkameen National Park Reserve must include the following basic characteristics:
Now, we have a chance for some of the remaining beauty and species richness of the South Okanagan - Similkameen to be protected at the highest level in Canada – a national park. There is considerable public support. People value what is still here and know we must take action to restore and preserve it.
Canadians value national parks. There are considerable economic and recreational benefits. But just as important, national parks offer the great comfort of knowing that in some places we have exercised the wisdom and constraint of putting nature and ecosystems first for present and future generations.
