Castle Parks to get nearly $20 million from Budget 2017

Highway paving and new water pipelines are part of nearly $20 million in infrastructure investment for the Castle Provincial Park and neighbouring communities.  Six million dollars from Budget 2017 will go towards paving an 11-kilometre gravel section of Highway 774 (the roadway to Castle Mountain Resort) within the newly established park. Another $9 million is earmarked to help the Municipal District of Pincher Creek construct a water line that ties Castle Mountain Resort to the Hamlet of Beaver Mines. The water line will also serve the Castle Provincial Park.  It builds on $4.7-million in grants from the province and the federal government to construct a water line between Beaver Mines and the Village of Cowley. All three pieces of infrastructure support local tourism in and around the Castle parks.

Read the whole story in the Pincher Creek Voice here.

Draft Management Plan for Castle Parks Available for Public Comment

The Government of Alberta today announced the establishment of the boundaries of the expanded Castle Wildland Park and the new Castle Provincial Park.  In addition, the Government issued the draft management plan for the parks for public review and comment until March 20.  The draft management plan can be downloaded here: https://talkaep.alberta.ca/CastleManagementPlan 

There is also a link to an on-line survey for submitting comments and information about other ways to submit your comments on the plan. 

Conservationists have outstanding concerns about Castle provincial parks

From the Calgary Herald, "One year after the province announced two parks in the Castle wilderness area, there are still several unresolved issues around their development."

For the full article, click here.

Global Forest Watch Canada releases draft Castle report for review

The following is excerpted from Global Forest Watch Canada's (GFWC) website (http://globalforestwatch.ca/node/257).  Land users in southwest Alberta may be interested in the content of this report and may wish to participate in the public comment opportunity offered.  

"GFWC is pleased to release for review its draft report: Disturbance, Intactness, and Linear Density in the Castle Wilderness Area of Alberta. GFWC has sent the review to a number of experts but welcomes feedback from anyone who would like to review the report. 

To facilitate the review of datasets created for this report, GFWC has posted the datasets online on Data Basin (databasin.org). In order to view the linear disturbance and intact forest landscapes mapping datasets, you may create a free account at https://databasin.org/auth/create_account. Once you have an account, please send an email to review@globalforestwatch.ca to request access to the GFWC Castle review materials. Once in the GFWC Castle workspace, you can layer the datasets in a map and turn the datasets on and off to review them.

Review comments are due by August 18, 2016 and should be sent to review@globalforestwatch.ca.  Thank you in advance."

Moving forward to protect southern Alberta’s headwaters

In this Calgary Herald article, Alberta Minister of Environment and Parks, Shannon Phillips, describes the provincial government's planned approach to protecting the headwaters of southern Alberta.  Phillips writes, "...the province is designing a parks management and a tourism strategy for southwest Alberta. That work will involve months of engagement with local communities, Albertans, land users and First Nations. This kind of broad consultation is a necessity in order to get it right."  "A parks management plan for the Castle will involve input from local towns and counties, tourism authorities, land users, environmental organizations and recreational users. It will also ensure First Nations’ access for traditional land use and preservation of constitutional treaty rights."

For the whole article, click here.