History

2008

The provincial government considers changing the boundaries of the recently created Rock Lake Provincial Park northwest of Hinton. In 2006, Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation (TPR) expanded the Rock Lake Provincial Recreation Area and re-designated it as a provincial park after problems with poaching inside the recreation area and the discharging of firearms within campgrounds. Since 2006, many locals have voiced their opinions about the expanded park, focusing primarily on the elimination of hunting from areas where it was previously allowed under wildland classification.

2007

Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture (TPRC), along with Parks Canada and B.C. Parks, considers a new nomination for UNESCO World Heritage status of Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, one that could include the Willmore along with other protected areas that are adjacent to the current UNESCO designation.

AWA supports the inclusion of Willmore Wilderness Park in any future nomination. While the Willmore Wilderness Park Act is a strong piece of legislation, there is still no management plan for the area. World Heritage designation requires that a management plan be in place and clearly outlines the values on which management must be based. By having the clear value of ecological conservation put into a management plan, we can ensure that this wilderness area remains intact well into the future.

Willmore Wilderness Foundation spokesmen oppose the designation and speak out against designation of the area under UNESCO status.

2006

August – AWA reports that six bulldozers were brought 35 to 40 km into Willmore by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) to help fight a forest fire. AWA is concerned that the bulldozer use may have caused environmental damage and may open the area to off-highway vehicle use. In letters to the ministers of SRD and Community Development, AWA requests that the fire management plan be utilized in future and that no heavy equipment be brought into Willmore.

November – The Willmore Wilderness Park Draft Fire Suppression Plan is released. This plan permits natural fire processes to occur when negative impacts are not expected. Fire contributes to the overall health of a forest, which in turn staves off severe mountain pine beetle attacks.

2005

The Government of Alberta undertakes a program of cutting, burning and baiting in northwest Willmore Wilderness Park to stem the spread of the mountain pine beetle. AWA supports the scientifically based approach to prescribed burning in order to renew areas of forest transformed by years of fire suppression in Willmore, and made this clear in our submission to the plan.

November 2004

The Town of Grande Cache, located adjacent to the northeast boundary of Willmore Wilderness Park, initiates development of their Community Protection Plan. The scope of their planning area is a 10-km radius around the town. This planning area includes a portion of the Smoky River valley within Willmore Wilderness Park. Prevailing winds from the west and extensive contiguous forests pose the risk of wildfire escaping Willmore and threatening Grande Cache.

2004

Community Development Minister Gene Zwozdesky refuses to bow to the pressure exerted by off-highway vehicle enthusiasts who lobby for a route across Willmore from Grande Cache to McBride, B.C.

1999

The mountain pine beetle is first found in Willmore Wilderness Park. Under the direction of the Alberta Forest Service, 900 infected trees are felled and burned. This action is intended to protect commercial timber interests 60 km away, outside of the park boundaries. AWA is disappointed because this action denigrates one purpose of the park (to act as an environmental benchmark against which to measure changes in the environment) for industrial interests outside the park

1995

The Willmore Wilderness Park Act is strengthened to legally preclude industrial development. Until 1995, Willmore had been protected and managed through unwritten government policy and via public pressure. The government continues to have the authority to remove land from Willmore without public review or debate.

1993

A Brule resident proposes the building of a lodge on Mumm Creek in Willmore. AWA opposes such development without the completion of an Integrated Resource Plan for this area, an Environmental Impact Assessment, and a review of the amendment process of the Eastern Slopes Policy.

1983

Grande Cache Chamber of Commerce creates a development proposal to increase access into Willmore for economic purposes. AWA vows to fight “tooth and nail” against developments that would open the Willmore to inappropriate human access and activity.

1982

The Municipal Affairs Minister suggests the creation of “Kananaskis II” involving part of Willmore Wilderness Park. The proposal is similar to the failed 1978 proposal by Bob Dowling, then Minister of Business Development and Tourism. Minister Moore suggests that such development is necessary for the physically handicapped who are unable to traverse the park by foot or horseback. AWA again opposes such inappropriate development and responds by releasing a statement regarding economic stability for Grande Cache. AWA believes that the current economic downturn in Grande Cache must not become an excuse for development in Willmore Wilderness Park. Instead, residents of Grande Cache should be encouraged to become involved in year-round outfitting and associated services.

May 1980

Alberta Energy and Natural Resources releases the Terms of Reference for the proposed Willmore-Kakwa Current Regional Plan.

AWA receives a copy of the Willmore Wilderness Park Management Plan marked “Preliminary Draft for Discussion Purposes Only.” It seems this plan disappeared into the ether and was never seen again. It was never completed and does not officially exist. There was a point where AWA asked that they be allowed to complete the plan but the government did not allow for this.

April 1980

Alberta Energy and Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Division, releases a report entitled A Wildlife Management Plan for Willmore Wilderness Park. The conclusion states: “Willmore Wilderness Park today represents the last area of true wilderness in the southern half of Alberta capable of supporting self-sustaining wildlife populations. […] Willmore is of particular importance for populations of those species which are vanishing quickly in other parts of the province, most notably caribou, mountain goat and grizzly bear. However, the steadily increasing activity in Willmore has caused concern and identified a need to design a comprehensive management plan. As recreational demand in Willmore increases it will have to be managed more carefully to prevent the over-use of Park resources and to avoid conflicts between human activities.”

1980

Grande Cache Chamber of Commerce and a local businessman request that motorized boating be allowed in Willmore Wilderness Park. AWA moves quickly to ensure that legislation prohibiting such activity is maintained. The provincial government announces that no development will occur in Willmore Wilderness Park.

1978 - 1979

Uncertainty in the global coal market results in economic hardship in Grande Cache. In hopes of alleviating financial strain, Bob Dowling, Edson MLA and Minister of Business Development and Tourism, commissions a report (by MTB Consultants Ltd.) on the feasibility of developing the tourism potential of the Grande Cache area. The report calls for the creation of tourist facilities including roads and a downhill ski operation within the park.

The suggested development sparks public outrage and inspires Norman Willmore’s widow to write to AWA expressing her views on the necessity of preserving the wilderness area. AWA, in concert with the Alberta Fish and Game Association (AFGA), collects 40,000 signatures for the “Save the Willmore” petition. The petition, urging a ban on future development in Willmore and seeking assurance that the park cannot be altered without full debate in the legislature, is delivered to Bud Miller, Minister of Public Lands and Wildlife. Ultimately, the development proposal is abandoned, due in large part to the forceful AWA-AFGA campaign.

1976

Motorized vehicle operation is prohibited within Willmore Wilderness Park.

The Alberta Department of Energy and Natural Resources, with the agreement of the Energy Resources Conservation Board, produces A Coal Development Policy for Alberta, which sets Willmore aside from coal exploration.

1973

AWA writes its highly successful book Willmore Wilderness Park dedicating the book to the late Honourable Norman Willmore who championed the protection of this wilderness.  Norman Willmore died in an automobile accident en route to deliver a speech at Robb, Alberta on February 3, 1965. Throughout the years AWA sells more than 10,000 copies of the 50 page book.

The book describes the Willmore as a “wilderness in trouble” and asserts that public support is imperative if the Willmore is to be protected against continued demands for inappropriate resource development. AWA acknowledges Anne Bronson, Ric Careless, Len Jeck, Grant McNabb, Tom Oliver and Dick Pharis for writing the book.

1972

A moratorium is placed on exploration that involves surface disturbance in Willmore Wilderness Park.

1969 - 1970

Grande Cache town was built to provide Jasper Park Indians (First Nations) a new location. The McIntyre-Porcupine Mine at Grande Cache and the town of Grande Cache are situated on what used to be Wilderness Provincial Park. These lands were once the overwintering range of bighorn sheep and elk form the Smoky River, Toddy, and Malcolm Creek Vicinity. The one-industry town is built at great expense to the Alberta government but meets financial difficulties when the coal market slows.

1968

The Alberta Forest Service ceases to maintain trails or administer the Willmore Wilderness Park area.

1965

The Alberta Legislature gave approval to Bill 102 to amend the Wilderness Provincial Park Act.  In doing so, the now 4,597 km² (1,775 mi²) Park near Grand Cache was renamed in memory of the late Norman Willmore, Minster of Lands and Forests. It is now known as Willmore Wilderness Park. The name of the Wilderness Provincial Park Act is changed to the Willmore Wilderness Park Act. Willmore is reduced in size a second time: Grande Mountain and Mount Stearn in the north and Rock Lake in the east of the park are removed from protection to allow for coal extraction.

1963

1959

Willmore is established under the name “Wilderness Provincial Park,” and the Wilderness Provincial Park Act is enacted to govern the new park. The size of the park is 5,565 km² (2,149 mi²). Because this area was part of the Athabasca Forest Reserve prior to its establishment as a provincial park, it remains under the jurisdiction of the Alberta Forest Service rather than the Provincial Parks Division.

1945

Guided hunting becomes popular in the Rocky Mountains. More than 20 outfitters make use of lands later to be recognized as Willmore Wilderness Park.

1930s

Widespread forest fires reduce spruce-fir climax forest in the park and result in numerous stands of lodgepole pine.

1921

Pierre Grey, a very successful business man and entrepreneur, took over 100 pack horses loaded with furs (26 of which carried only valuable marten pelts) from Willmore trappers.

1912

In the years following 1912, Fred Brewster, a well-known Alberta guide form Jasper Park; and F. Prescott Fay, an explorer and naturalist; rode the trails and valleys of the Smoky River and Sheep Creek both for personal adventure and scientific discovery. The record of remote sheep herds, primitive trails, spectacular waterfalls and a good collection of birds, and mammals for the American National Museum were a few of their rewards and accomplishments.

James Shand-Harvey is hired as district ranger to patrol the Rock Lake and Grande Cache districts. Shand-Harvey supervises this area alone until 1940 and has a series of cabins and 104 km (65 mi) of telephone line erected during his years as supervisor.

1910 - 1911

Professor J. N. Colie and Mr. A. L. Mumm, (after whom two creeks in the eastern Willmore are named,) along with two members of the Alpine Club of London, make lengthy expeditions into the Continental Divide west of the Smoky, for the purpose of pioneering, mountaineering and adventure.

1910 - 1959

The area that is later to become Willmore Wilderness Park is incorporated into the Athabasca Forest Reserve.

1800s

10,000 BC