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South Okanagan Photos

Osoyoos council cool to park opponent

By ROY WOOD

Osoyoos council listened politely Monday as a spokesman for the BC Wildlife Federation attempted to make the case against the proposed national park reserve in the South Okanagan.

But the council, which has unanimously endorsed the notion of such a park, didn’t engage federation resident priority program manager Jesse Zeman in much conversation.

As he did in previous presentation to Oliver council, Zeman portrayed Parks Canada as unable or unwilling to adequately protect biodiversity in Canada’s national parks.

He pointed to ski-hill expansions as an examples. In Jasper National Park, the growing ski area will adversely affect the Marmot Basin caribou herd. And in Lake Louise skiers are encroaching on wilderness areas, including grizzly bear habitat.

As for the proposed South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve, Zeman said the province is better suited to protect the land and its species.

As an advocate for hunters and anglers, the BCWF objects to the restrictions that would be placed on those activities in a national park. Non-first-nation hunting and fishing, horseback riding and motorized recreation would all be outlawed in a national park, Zeman said.

Mayor Sue McKortoff told Zeman of council’s earlier vote to endorse the national park idea. She said the town had responded by letter to the provincial environment minister’s “intentions paper” in the fall. She gently chided Zeman’s organization for not participating in the feedback process.

The intentions paper released in August by Environment Minister Mary Polak envisions a two-piece national park reserve in conjunction with a provincial conservancy.

The proposed national park reserve includes two distinct sections:

  • Area 1 is about 68 square kilometres west of Osoyoos and is triangle shaped with the Canada-U.S. border forming the southern side.
  • Area 3 includes 98 square kilometres west of Vasseau Lake from Okanagan Falls to McIntyre Bluff.

In the middle is Area 2, which is 177 square kilometres proposed as a provincial “conservancy.”

Council received Zeman’s presentation “for information.”