B.C.'s Joffre Lakes Park to close for part of the year for conservation
An agreement between the B.C. government and the First Nations that manage Joffre Lakes Provincial Park will see the popular tourist spot closed for part of the year to protect its “natural and cultural values.”
The announcement comes after a disagreement over the park's public use led the Lilwat and N'Quatqua First Nations to shut down access to the park for about a month last year.
Environment Minister George Heyman said Thursday that the decision to close the park for short stretches comes after consultation with the two nations and talks with other locals about “heavy visitor use.”
“What we want to do around the province is collaborate with First Nations around management of parks where they're interested, around ensuring that we have a good sense of how much load the environment in the park can take without actually destroying the features that bring people there,” Heyman said.
In 2019, visits to the park with mountain peaks and aqua-blue lakes reached an all-time high of 193,000 visitors, an increase of more than 200 per cent since 2010.
Visitors to the park are now required to reserve free day-use passes in order to reduce visitor impact on the natural environment, and Heyman said 500 passes are allowed per day.
The park will be closed this season from April 30 to May 15, June 14 to 23 and from Sept. 3 to Oct. 6, allowing the Indigenous communities to conduct cultural celebrations and traditional fall harvesting practices.
Opposition BC United Leader Kevin Falcon said he doesn't agree with shutting down a public park “for whatever reason.”
“I would work with the First Nations and the local nations to try to understand what needs they have and make sure that we can do that in the context of ensuring that this park is still available to the public,” he said at a news conference at the legislature.
Heyman said the closures will also allow the park to “rest and recuperate,” with visitor counts reaching as high as 1,000 a day before restrictions were put in place.
Lilwat Nation Chief Dean Nelson said in a statement the park area is sacred for his community and the closures are necessary for his people's well-being.
“By implementing these closures, we are striving to reintroduce our community to an area where they have been marginalized,” he said. “The time and space created by these closures will allow our youth, elders and all Lilwat citizens to practise their inherent rights while reconnecting with the land.”
The Lilwat and N'Quatqua nations stopped public access to the park for parts of August and September last year for their harvest celebrations, saying they were asserting their title rights on the land.
Heyman said the Lilwat and N'Quatqua Nations' desire for periods of closure at Joffre Lakes “is not an unreasonable request,” and the province will deal with similar requests from other Indigenous groups on a case-by-case basis.
The province said its monitoring of the increasing impact of visitors at Joffre Lakes has found the “need for enhanced visitor-use management” to prevent the degradation of the environment due to “unsustainably high human traffic.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Defence rests without Donald Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their defence Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial.
Passenger killed, 30 injured as Singapore Airlines flight hits severe turbulence
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
Feels like mid-30s in parts of Canada, while other areas expecting snow
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Canada's inflation cools to 3-year low of 2.7%, in boost for rate cut bets
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
'Documents are fraudulent': Graceland is not for sale, Elvis Presley's granddaughter says in lawsuit
Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, is fighting plans to publicly auction his Graceland estate in Memphis after a company tried to sell the property based on claims that a loan using the king of rock ’n’ roll's former home as collateral was not repaid.
Trump campaign calls 'The Apprentice' 'blatantly false,' director offers to screen it for him
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Nestle to sell $5 pizza, sandwiches in the U.S. for Wegovy, Ozempic users
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
What is BORG drinking, and why is it a dangerous trend? An expert explains
If you've been to a party lately and haven't seen someone drinking a BORG, you're likely not partying with college students.
Independent stores and grocery alternatives see sales boost amid Loblaw boycott
As the month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned stores wears on, small independent food retailers and alternative grocery options say they're seeing a boost in traffic and sales.