By Andrew de Souza

Input sought for new provincial park

Jun 9, 2011 | 6:39 AM

The province was looking for locals’ opinion on the potential creation of a new provincial park that would join Emma and Anglin Lakes into one large, protected space.

On Wednesday, representatives of the Saskatchewan Parks division of the Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport were in Prince Albert for the second of two open houses on the potential park.

The province has committed to creating more provincial parks and the new park around the lakes is part of that promise.

The new park is set is take up a total of almost 12,000 hectares including the roughly 3,500 hectares currently designated as recreation sites around the two lakes.

According to Jim Nick with the department, there are a few reasons why the area should be made into a park.

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The first is that the site has several plant and animal species in the region that are considered sensitive. That includes what is considered to be the most active nesting ground for loons in all of North America. It’s also important for blue herons.

“Currently we have just the two recreation sites under control,” he said. “The other areas are just open crown land and they’re under any pressures that come to bear for development or resource use.”

As well, Nick said the province will be better able to control, facilitate and administer recreation activities in the region.

“We want to add to the existing recreation site with about 8,000 hectares of crown land,” he said. “As it sits now there’s no specific legislation protecting the land from further development of any sort.”

Nick said the province is trying hard to get people’s input to make sure the final result is satisfactory.

“We want to have the opinion of everybody in the area, we want to be as inclusive as possible, get comment back, see where we’re going with the concept and new boundaries and adjust it as need be,” he said.

It’s not too late to give the province your opinion if you missed the two open houses. General information about the proposed park is available through the province’s website.

As well, locals and users can participate on an online survey about the proposed park.

Nick said the group will take the information gathered in the next few weeks and report back the legislature.

Once the input is factored into the overall plan there will be stakeholder meetings with First Nations, municipalities and resource lease holders.

Nick said it’s expected that the park can be declared an official provincial park as early as August.

Afterwards, it’ll take at least another year to create the management and recreation plan.

adesouza@panow.com