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Land added to Purcell Wilderness Conservancy
Legislation introduced March 14 is aimed at expanding B.C.’s parks and protected areas, to strengthen biodiversity conservation and provide more opportunities for people to access outdoor recreation.
The additions, proposed through legislative amendments to the Protected Areas of British Columbia (PABC) Act, add 189 hectares to six existing provincial parks and one conservancy, including 24 hectares to the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Park (west of Canal Flats).
“Our actions this week to expand and enhance B.C.’s parks and protected areas play an important part in our ongoing work to preserve ecological, recreational and cultural values,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. “That’s why we are expanding and strengthening our parks and protected areas to ensure these special places will be here for our children and grandchildren, as well as maintaining irreplaceable provincial ecosystems and biodiversity.”
BC Parks describes The Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Park as embracing “six large drainages flowing east to the Columbia River system and three flowing west to Kootenay Lake. All of these emanate from the rugged and glaciated backbone of the spectacular Purcell Mountain Range of southeastern British Columbia. This challenging, undeveloped mountain landscape encompasses five biogeoclimatic zones and the only intact ecosystem in southeastern B.C.”
The Purcell Wilderness Conservancy was established in 1974, as a result of lobbying by conservationists, outdoor clubs and individuals, beginning with lobbying in the mid 1960s by Rod and Gun Club members from Invermere.
Through an Order-in-Council the conservancy was established including 131,500 hectares of the Purcell Mountains.
The Conservancy, together with the adjacent 9,164 hectare St. Mary’s Alpine Park and 550 hectare Fry Creek Canyon Recreation Area, were preserved for their ecological and recreational values.
In the 1980s, amendments provided for application of the Park Act and Regulations and in 1995 an expanded Purcell Wilderness Conservancy became a British Columbia class A provincial park.
The newly announced land additions consist of private land acquisitions, private donations and Crown lands, and include:
* Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Park: 24 hectares to reduce the number of private land inholdings in the park that includes habitat for mule deer and grizzly bears.
* Valhalla Park (near Slocan): six hectares to reduce the number of private land inholdings (land surrounded by existing park), protecting the diverse topography, majestic peaks and unique vegetation of the Selkirk Mountains.
* Tribune Bay Park (on Hornby Island): 10 hectares, along with three hectares of adjacent marine foreshore that includes the last remaining beachfront property at Tribune Bay and an existing private campground with 135 sites.
* Muncho Lake Park (near Fort Nelson): 2.5 hectares to protect additional waterfront along the jade-coloured Muncho Lake that’s located a few minutes from the Alaska Highway.
* Edge Hills Park (near Clinton): 11 hectares to protect panoramic river canyon vistas, forested slopes, grassy benchlands and ravines along the Fraser River.
* Mount Pope Park (near Fort St. James): 4.8 hectares to expand parking in the park that’s popular with hikers and rock climbers.
* Taku River/T’aḵú Téix̱’ Conservancy (near Atlin): 127 hectares that could not be added to the conservancy when it was established in 2012 due to an active mineral tenure that has now expired.
In addition to these expansions, Cardiff Mountain Ecological Reserve will be renamed to Tŝi ʔEẑɨsh (pronounced Tsy-ezoish) Ecological Reserve to better reflect the First Nations place name for the area. BC Parks collaboratively manages the ecological reserve with Xeni Gwet’in First Nation in the Tŝilhqot’in Declared Title Area, located 70 kilometres southwest of Hanceville.
As part of these amendments, the responsibility of existing roads in two parks and one conservancy is being transferred to other ministries. This includes Kikomun Creek Park near Baynes Lake, Nancy Greene Park (near Rossland) and Yaaguun Suu Conservancy (in Haida Gwaii).
Amendments to the PABC Act are required to add new land to parks, conservancies and ecological reserves, modify or correct boundaries and improve boundary descriptions.
B.C. has 1,039 provincial parks, recreation areas, conservancies, ecological reserves and protected areas covering more than 14 million hectares, or approximately 14.4% of the land base.
The province acquires land each year through the BC Parks Land Acquisition Program to expand parks and protected areas. The cost for these acquisitions is often augmented by partnerships with conservation groups, individual donors and corporations.
The majority (630) of provincial parks in the system are Class A, which means that they are dedicated for the preservation of their natural environment and for public use and enjoyment.
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