Park protections staying in place
December 23, 2020
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Friends,
You spoke up and the government seems to be listening.
Yesterday afternoon, the Government of Alberta announced that no sites under the February 2020 ‘Optimizing Alberta Parks’ decision will be removed from our Provincial Parks system. This is an important change in the government’s approach to more than 164 parks, provincial recreation and natural areas, which under the original announcement were to be removed from the parks system.
Thank you for your tireless efforts over the past 10 months to write letters, call your MLAs, share information, and tell your stories to help ensure that your parks remain parks.
We’re glad to be ending 2020 on this encouraging note, however, the announcement was not entirely clear on how new partnerships will meet the conservation goals for these areas. In addition to this, we hope you will help by keeping a close eye on the recently announced Alberta Crown Land Vision to ensure that the important protections offered by Alberta’s parks legislation remain in place.
Consultation on the outdoor recreation component of that vision is currently underway. Please make sure that you have your say by completing the outdoor recreation survey by January 15, 2021. For more information, an idea of what is important about the survey, and for AWA’s survey response, see Ian Urquhart’s newsletter from yesterday.
With that, we thank you once again for speaking up for Alberta’s wild spaces and wish you a wonderful, happy and healthy holiday season!
-Your Alberta Wilderness Association Team
