The province is launching a pair of strategies for long-term sustainability in Alberta's parks system.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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The provincial government announced Wednesday two new strategies developed for both recreation and conservation of provincial park land.
The new Plan for Parks will focus on 305 parks managed under the Provincial Parks Art and help set a clear, long-term vision to help ensure the parks system remains strong and sustainable.
This includes 78 provincial parks, 193 provincial recreation areas and 34 wildland provincial parks.
The province reports 86 per cent of more than 6,700 respondents who took part in its public engagement on the draft of the Plan for Parks showed strong support for the strategy for long-term sustainability in parks.
The Plan for Parks has four main goals – making parks accessible and welcoming, conserving and sharing Alberta’s natural and cultural legacy, providing a diversity of nature-based experiences and effectively managing parks for long-term sustainability.
The new Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy will co-ordinate efforts to expand outdoor recreation responsibly and meet conservation goals.
Three goals the Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy will focus on include enabling diverse outdoor recreational opportunities, sustaining environment and ecological function and empowering and enabling stewardship partnerships.
The province says together these strategies will build on ongoing work to balance uses on Crown lands and support sustainable growth of recreation opportunities for visitors.
“We know how much Alberta’s outdoor spaces mean to families, outdoor enthusiasts and communities across our province,” said Todd Loewen, minister of forestry and parks. “Both Alberta’s new Plan for Parks, and the Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy reflect those values. With these new plans, we can better reflect both current and future activities on Crown lands and ensure that recreation and camping continue to grow in a way that supports Albertans and their needs while conserving our wild spaces.”
The province has budgeted $236 million to improve and expand recreation in provincial parks and Crown lands.
This includes adding more campsites and improving access to activities like kayaking and canoeing, while ensuring natural areas and landscapes are protected.
The province says the current value of provincial parks to the economy ranges close to $1 billion in gross domestic production, as well as $400 million in labour income and employing approximately 9,000 Albertans.
