Private Parking: Strathcona Provincial Park
John Caton is a rainforest cowboy. Instead of the usual West Coast uniform of Gore-tex, fleece and Merrells, Cowboy Caton, as his friends call him, wears a white Stetson, white dress shirt, Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots.
John Caton is a rainforest cowboy. Instead of the usual West Coast uniform of Gore-tex, fleece and Merrells, Cowboy Caton, as his friends call him, wears a white Stetson, white dress shirt, Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots. The GM of Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, a high-end adventure resort about an hour’s boat ride from Tofino at the mouth of the Bedwell River, stands out in an area better known for hippies and fishing enthusiasts. But then, just about everything about him is unique.
He runs an equine-focused, safari-tent-style adventure resort that has become an “it” destination for families that can afford its $1,500-a-night per-person price tag. From the remote base, high-rolling guests (including pop singer Dave Matthews) explore the Bedwell River Valley on horseback and kayak and hike up to the edge of Strathcona Provincial Park, six kilometres away. But if Caton gets his way, and he usually does, they may soon go deep into the park as well. He’s proposing to renovate and maintain a remote trail into the park on Clayoquot Wilderness Resort’s tab.
Caton’s proposal is stoking a passionate debate, made even more intense by the desperate state of B.C.’s park system. Coinciding with years of budget cuts and the implementation of user fees, the parks are suffering a decline in use, and the government is trying to do something about it.
Cushy camping: A taste of the wild costs $1,500
a night at Clayoquot Wilderness Resort
Along comes Caton’s proposal. The lower Bedwell River Valley was logged in the 1950s, leaving behind a road that soon became part of the Bedwell River Trail, a 26-kilometre backpacking route from sub-alpine forest to ocean. Lack of maintenance over the years has turned the trek into an epic expedition of multiple river crossings and bushwhacks that humble all but the most experienced hiker. Caton says many hiking parties turn back in frustration. As if the trail wasn’t bad enough, the Ministry of Environment’s BC Parks and Protected Areas Program condemned one of the old bridges in June 2006, effectively closing it.
Caton wants to reroute the trail and build five new bridges to make it easier to climb into the pristine alpine at the head of the Bedwell Valley. It’s no small feat on the West Coast, where the topography is steep and the rainfall can be relentless. In exchange, he wants reserved camping spots two days a week for resort guests at a high-elevation campsite he will pay to build. While it may be a controversial proposal, it is worth considering, says Brian Gunn, president of the BC Wilderness Tourism Association, who notes that use of parks is falling and BC Parks’ responsibilities continue to grow while its budgets shrink. Anything that improves conditions and adds facilities at no cost to the taxpayer can only help, he adds.
More cushy camping
BC Parks won’t comment on the proposal while it is under consideration. But the program is increasingly looking at partnerships with people such as Caton as part of a provincial government strategy to increase use and recoup some of the costs of operating the park system. In 2003 parking meters were installed in the 40 most popular provincial parks, and in 2006 the provincial government requested proposals for private lodges in 12 provincial parks. Two were received, along with bags full of negative public reaction that prompted the government to delay soliciting proposals for other parks. Environmental and user groups decry the idea of commercial operations in a publicly funded park. But given the appetite in Victoria for increasing BC Parks’ budgets – decidedly low – it may be the only way to sustain the system.
Most of BC Parks’ assets were built through the 1960s and 1980s and are now worth about $700 million in replacement value. Through the ’90s, the capital costs budget, or the money available to repair, improve or build facilities, was about $4 million annually. It fell to $2.5 million in 2002 but is now back up to $10.9 million this year as infrastructure reaches the end of its life.
Compared to the capital budget, the operating budget hasn’t fared well. The late ’70s were BC Parks’ glory years. The operating budget was a plump $72.6 million, and 421 full-time-equivalent staff were on the payroll to run a park system that covered 4.6 per cent of the province. The budget came directly from the government treasury.
Over the next 30 years, BC Parks budgets and staffing fell, while protected area and infrastructure grew. Through the ’90s, budgets fell by two to six per cent each year. The 2002 provincial cutbacks trimmed even more (see table, p. 143). By 2007 the operating budget was $36.9 million and staff numbered 194; although both numbers were up slightly from the previous year, they went toward running 894 parks and protected areas covering 13.8 per cent of the province – about triple the number and area of parks in 1977. “There’s a significant difference in what you could do with those budgets,” notes Brian Bawtinheimer, acting director of management and planning at BC Parks. “The costs of everything are much higher now. And the system is much bigger.”
As the system grew in size, the resources to maintain, promote and improve it fell. During the budget cuts of 2001 to 2005, popular park features such as maps, brochures and interpretation programs died. Since 2001, 40 campgrounds have been closed or transferred to regional districts and cities because they were operating at a loss. (The rest, 340 accessible by vehicle, are operated by 27 contractors who keep profits and are reimbursed for any losses from the park’s budget.) At the same time, parking fees for day visitors at the 40 busiest parks and firewood fees at park campsites were introduced to reclaim costs. Day users paid $11.5 million to park their cars in 2006, half going to the contractor who collected the fees and half going into the provincial treasury.
Trailblazing: Taryn Langford walks a new trail in
Cape Scott Provincial Park, built and maintained
by Strategic Forest Management Inc., which has
also proposed cabins on the North Coast Trail
Declines in service, coupled with parking fees, caused people to look elsewhere for
their park time, says Gwen Barlee, policy director for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. “The last two governments thought the park system could take care of
itself,” she says. “They traded our parks for money, and now we’re seeing the effects. Trails are degraded, facilities are neglected, there are no interpretation programs, you never see a ranger. People feel scared. All these things whittled away visits.”
Park use topped out in 1998, with 26 million visits. Over the next eight years, use tumbled by seven million visits to 19 million in 2005, while the population of B.C. increased from 3.9 million in 1998 to 4.25 million in 2005. Last year use held steady, but day visits continued to decline in the Lower Mainland (BC Parks could not say by how much). It’s worth noting the decline in park use is not unique to B.C. Across North America the use of protected areas is declining.
Ask any outdoor-gear manufacturer and they will say people are doing shorter and fewer trips into backcountry areas today than they did in the past. Consequently, brands such as Arc’Teryx, Mountain Hardwear and Timberland are shifting their product focus from backpackers to urban users and daytrippers. One reason for the decline is the demographic shift taking place in B.C., Bawtinheimer says. “Parks are a Western European construction,” he says. “There are barriers to overcome with immigrants if we are going to get them to use parks. They aren’t going to join the camping crowd.” He says Asian immigrants, in particular, aren’t using parks. And he says the population is aging and not using parks in the same way they used to. As proof he points to urban parks: at the same time when provincial park use fell, Metro Vancouver (formerly the GVRD) park use increased by 30 per cent.
BC Parks admits it is partially to blame. Its own studies have found that most people don’t know where their closest provincial park is. “We haven’t had a promotional
program since 2002,” Bawtinheimer says. “We haven’t had the budget for it.”
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