1995	SUMMER	Towards Goal 3 Landowner contact project Douglas fir forest flora Easter on Jedediah Island Lew Creek ER research Sea otters and kelp beds Some of BC’s new parks incorporate ecological reserves
1995	SPRING (March) not available	Special insert: Threats to Hornby Island's Thousand Oaks

SUMMER 1995

Some of BC’s new parks incorporate ecological reserves

In July, the BC Government made good on its promise to create new parks by designating “in law” 106 protected areas as Class A provincial parks. Almost all the areas the NDP government has committed to protecting since 1992 were specified in the 1995 Park Amendment Act, Parks already established by orders-in-council were included. The described areas may only be changed by amending the legislation.

Notable omissions are the Kitlope (subject of negotiations with the Haisla people), the East Purcell, Churn Creek and Homathko areas, for which access issues are still under study.

A number of ecological reserves are now provincial parks:

· Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) the world-famous Ecological Reserve #111; the park has been enlarged to 6,609 ha. by the inclusion of the lower Tsitika Valley as far as Catherine Creek

· Cleland Island, Ecological Reserve #2, part of the new 5,970-ha. Vargas Island Park

· the former Beresford, Sartine and Anne Vallee (Triangle Island ) reserves (#11, 12, and 13), now part of Scott Islands Provincial Park (area 6,215 ha.)

· the 50-hectare reserve #105 at the mouth of the Megin River has been absorbed into the Megin-Talbot addition to Strathcona Provincial Park.

The new 10,829-ha. Tahsish-Kwois Provincial Park appears not to include the 70-ha [Tahsish River] ecological reserve that protects the estuary of the river.

And, the 2,614-ha. Ilgachuz Range Ecological Reserve [#64] north of Anahim Lake, has been enclosed by the new 109,063-ha. Itcha Ilgachuz Provincial Park but retains its separate identity.

Bill Munn, a planner with BC Parks in Victoria, explains that the Ecological Reserve Act does not stipulate how boundaries are to be established. To protect areas contiguous with ecological reserves the legislators chose to employ the powers of the Park Act.

The intention, Munn says, is not to downzone the ecological reserves. Early action is indicated to have the areas designated as nature conservancies by orders-in-council. Under section 6 of the existing Ecological Reserve Act, nature conservancies can be designated ecological reserves. This result would strengthen the protective power of the Crown.

The 1995 Park Amendment Act also confers superior powers of enforcement. BC Parks has the authority to lay charges for offenses and provide for fines of up to $1 million and/or imprisonment. The Ecological Reserve Act, slated for an overhaul in the spring session of the legislature but bypassed, remains toothless and unenforceable.

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