Between 75 and 100 people, aged eight to 80, packed a room at the Sawridge Inn on March 16 for the Jasper National Park Annual Public Forum. The forum is a Parks Canada commitment, written into the Jasper National Park Management Plan, to report to Canadians on our progress in carrying out the plan. The event also provides a venue for involving the public in the park’s decision making process and identifying management priorities.
Field Unit Superintendent Alan Fehr opened the session with a presentation that highlighted the previous year’s accomplishments. These included the announcement of more than $210 million in infrastructure investments, a seven per cent increase in park attendance (with a projected 2.3 million visitors in 2015), new cultural programs to tell the story of the Indigenous peoples with ties to Jasper, an update on the bear population in the park, and a 35 per cent increase in the number of young people participating in outdoor programming at the Palisades Stewardship Education Centre.
The superintendent also took questions from those in attendance on topics ranging from cell phone service to automating park entry gates.
The highlight of the forum was when local students from the high school’s Sustainability Club used video conferencing to pose three questions of their own. They asked about cleaner campfires in the campgrounds, where Parks Canada is providing new hardware that allows wood to burn cleaner, and ice fishing, where measures are in place to give fish the winter months to rebound from busy summer seasons of angling. Their final question was about the closing of access in some places and development in others. Manager of Integrated Land Use Policy and Planning Shawn Cardiff spoke in response about balancing Park Canada’s efforts to maintain ecological integrity with connecting Canadians to their special places.
The forum also included presentations by Parks Canada team members. Resource Conservation Manager Salman Rasheed covered two important topics: species at risk and mountain pine beetle.
The first focussed on proposed actions to recover the seven federally-listed species at risk in Jasper National Park. The second presentation provided an overview of the current mountain pine beetle situation in Jasper National Park and Parks Canada’s plan to manage the beetle’s spread and protect the community.
Rasheed explained how the mountain pine beetle is a broad regional issue, for which Parks Canada works in concert with Canadian Forestry Service, and provincial and local governments. The presentation also highlighted a multi-pronged approach that would include creating fireguards west of town with strategic prescribed burning. The intent of the plan is to ensure visitor and resident safety, restore natural disturbance in forest ecosystems and create pine-free zones where beetles cannot colonize, thus slowing the eastward spread of the beetles.
Visitor Experience Manager Pam Clark closed out the evening with a thorough overview of initiatives to repair and refresh major visitor facilities and infrastructure in the park, which prioritized how important they are in preparing Jasper National Park for the next generation of visitors.
For those unable to attend the event, the 2015 Annual Report is available on the Jasper National Park website at www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/jasper/plan/rapports-reports.aspx.
Parks Canada
Special to the Fitzhugh
