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Establishing Protected Areas
In Alberta, protected areas are established in one of two ways:
- Provincial parks, wildland parks, heritage rangelands, provincial
recreation areas, natural areas and ecological reserves are established
by order in council (see
A Spectrum of Sites).
- White Goat, Ghost River & Siffleur wilderness areas and
Willmore Wilderness Park were established by legislation;
their boundaries are described in "schedules" under
two pieces of legislation (in the case of Willmore, the Willmore
Wilderness Park Act and in the case of wilderness areas, the
Wilderness Areas, Ecological Reserves, Natural Areas and Heritage
Rangelands Act).
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Special Places
Sites Designated
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Special Places
Alberta's Special Places program, an initiative to complete a network
of protected areas to preserve the province's environmental diversity,
began in 1995 with the designation of 29 new protected areas. Albertans
were invited to nominate additional parcels of provincial Crown
land, and more than four hundred nominations were submitted over
the course of the program. At the provincial level, a multi-stakeholder
Special Places Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) was appointed
by the provincial government to review public nominations, provide
overall direction for the program, and submit candidate sites for
detailed consideration through the "local committee" process.
The PCC represented the broad interests of Albertans and included
representatives from more than twenty provincial stakeholder groups,
including local governments, industry and environmental organizations.
The PCC completed its mandate on March 26, 1999 after identifying
and recommending candidate sites for local committee review in all
six of Alberta's natural regions.
At the local level, volunteer committees were asked to examine
candidate sites and provide advice on boundary options, site-specific
management guidelines and appropriate land use activities. Local
committees ensured community involvement by gathering public input.
This input was combined with detailed site information to prepare
recommendations for the Minister.
Albertans can be proud of the program's success in preserving representative
examples of our natural heritage. Through the Special Places program,
concluded in July 2001, a total of 81 new and 13 expanded sites
added 2 million hectares to Alberta's protected areas land base.
For more information about Managing the Network,
contact Archie
Landals.
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