With the 2020 budget, the Alberta government announced that twenty parks are slated for either full or partial closures.
According to Alberta Parks, this will mean full park closures, where the entire site will be closed to public access.
Others will have partial closures, where either their campgrounds or specific facilities are closed to public access, with the remaining park areas open but non-serviced.
The parks that will be fully closed include Kehiwin, Running Lake, Stoney Lake, Sulphur Lake, Little Fish Lake, Crow Lake, Bleriot Ferry, Greene Valley, Twin Lakes and Sheep Creek.
Beginning fall 2020, there will be no groomed cross-country track setting in the three main areas traditionally groomed by government staff in the Kananaskis Region. The impacted areas include Peter Lougheed, Mt. Shark and Kananaskis Village area.
The visitors centre at Barrier Lake and Elbow Valley will also be closed, as will comfort camping at Dinosaur Provincial Park.
The total savings of the closures is estimated at about $5 million.
The government has also put in place other measures like shortened seasons for provincial campgrounds, and increased fees.
Under the new changes, which are to take effect this fall, park users will see a $3 increase in base camping rates at most of the remaining campgrounds, and a $1 increase for services like power, water, sewage and showers.
Alberta Parks added that the government has assessed all 473 sites in the system and identified 164 sites “proposed for partnerships.”
“These proposed changes account for less than one per cent of the Alberta Parks land base and would not impact protected areas managed for conservation,” Alberta Parks said.
Sites removed from the parks system would have their legal park designations removed, and could be “open for alternate management approaches.”
This could include the sale or transfer to another entity such as a municipality.
Some of the sites could also stay open under a public lands management model or revert back to vacant public land.
For a full list of full and partial closures, click here.
