Action Alert: Alberta's draft parks policy misses the mark

Now's the time to put it back on course

Sierra Club Chinook Group

Your letter will make a difference for the future of protected areas and parks in Alberta.  Please take five to ten minutes to write Premier Ed Stelmach, or if you live in Alberta, please write your MLA and send a copy to Cindy Ady, Tourism, Parks & Recreation Minister (addresses at end).

In your letter, please note that it is important for Alberta to have a policy and plan for protected areas and parks.

Ask that:

  1. Alberta Tourism, Parks & Recreation Department be given a leadership role in establishing new protected areas and parks.
  2. The Plan provides for setting aside more land to protect natural areas in an undisturbed state as parks and protected areas.
  3. The Plan's vision for parks and protected areas include protection as the primary purpose.
A letter by mail works the best, but if sending an email, a return postal mailing address must be provided for you to receive a response.

Background

The Alberta Government is working on a policy and implementation plan that will set the future for the province’s protected areas and parks. It will determine whether the purpose of parks will be pro­tection and if there will be sufficient new ones to balance development and meet the demands of the growing population.  Naturalists, protected area stewards and conservation groups support the Gov­ernment’s intent to develop a policy in time for regional land-use planning.  However, they are taken aback that the draft – Alberta’s Plan for Parks — excludes Albertans’ priorities.  The draft is contrary to key findings in the Government’s recently released Survey of Albertan’s Priorities for Provincial Parks. The groups want those priorities in the policy, along with a leadership role for the parks department in establishing new protected areas and parks.

Alberta is the only place on the continent where the expanse of the Boreal, the continental backbone of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains meet, making it one of the most biologically diverse regions.  But, it is an impoverished one when it comes to having adequate designated protected areas and parks to sustain that natural environment. 

Your letter will help turn that around.  Thanks for writing one.

Addresses

Premier Ed Stelmach
Room 307, Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Ave.
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
To email: http://www.premier.alberta.ca/contact/index.cf

Alberta residents, find your MLA's name & address at http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_home

Send a copy of your letter to:

Honourable Cindy Ady
Tourism, Parks & Recreation Minister
229 Legislature Building
Edmonton, AB  T5K 2B6
[email protected]