Last Friday’s announcement of two new parks for Alberta located in the Castle Crown area north of Waterton Park comes with mixed emotions. It is great to have another 1,040 square kilometres added to Alberta’s already extensive park system. The Castle Crown area is one of the most ecologically diverse areas of the province with mountains, foothills, grasslands, beautiful river valleys, lakes and abundant game in the region. It also hosts the Castle Mountain Ski Resort, a little-known gem for high country ski enthusiasts. The Castle is also a significant tributary to the Oldman River, which supplies much of southern Alberta’s drinking water.
Local backcountry enthusiasts have lobbied hard for years to restrict resource development and have this area designated as a park and nature preserve. The South Saskatchewan Regional Plan adopted last year by the former government only went part way to preserving this area by only restricting the high alpine areas from resource development – a weak commitment to preservation that satisfied only the resource industries.
One of the two new parks is designated as a Provincial Park and the other is a Wilderness Park. The Provincial Park is located adjacent to Highway 744 and several forestry and logging roads connecting to the Crowsnest Pass. The Wilderness Park is located south of the Castle Mountain Ski Resort and along the continental divide. There is no formal access beyond the ski resort.
With the announcement by Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, MLA for Lethbridge West, comes an immediate moratorium on logging in the Castle area and a restriction on further resource development, although the existing oil and gas operations will not be affected. She stated that increased tourism potential would balance out the lost economic opportunities although that is far from certain.
Even more devastating to the environmental protection of the Castle region than the controlled logging operations is the proliferation of random camping and the accompanying off highway vehicles (OHV’s), which leave a path of destruction in their wake. Modern motorhomes with all the conveniences can park anywhere without the need for services so what do they do? They drive as far into the bush as they can and there they stay for weeks and even months leaving their debris and a permanent scar on the landscape. Meanwhile the one organized campground in the area remains half full.
Hopefully with the park designation will come restrictions on random camping and OHV use and the creation of more organized camping facilities interspersed throughout the Provincial Park. A network of OHV trails already exists although many of the trails and bridges suffered from the 2013 floods. The Wilderness Park hopefully will be restricted to hiking trails and tent camping.
Will this become the Kananaskis of the south or will it remain as just another slum campground? It will take time and dollars to rehabilitate this area and to re-educate the current users of this new Alberta playground. Roads, trails, campgrounds, new regulations and enforcement of those regulations will be necessary. Does the government have the will to create this as a showpiece or has it accomplished its mission by putting a freeze on legitimate economic development? Time will tell!
Ken Allred is a former St. Albert Alderman and MLA
