Letters to the Editor
Park will preserve the area
By Sharon Ward, Kaleden
First appearing in the Penticton Western News on Oct. 30, 2008.
I have been privileged to visit national parks due to the foresight of others. Banff National Park was created in 1885 and I must wonder what it would look like today without that status. How many species would be extinct? How much private enterprise would have taken its beauty and diversity from the Canadian people? How many tourist dollars would have been lost by now?
Sadly, the one area not represented in B.C.’s seven national parks is the Okanagan, yet this is the region with the most to lose. With a diverse and unique ecology it continues to be the most threatened in the province.
Revelstoke has a national park, but remains a viable recreation area with much wilderness and with one area safe from its unprecedented growth.
A national park on our doorstep hardly means that every wild space will be parkland. It will mean there will be some parkland for those of us who think of wilderness as a special place rather than a playground. I do not know when the back country became everyone’s sandbox and I don’t know what happened to the ‘take only pictures and leave only footprints’ approach to the wonders of our province. I have seen the ‘footprints’ of the toys that prevail around us. I have seen the footprints of the cattle grazing on what used to be grasslands. I have visited
Kelowna has seen humanity’s footprint marching up the mountains in the form of housing developments and vineyards. How much grassland will there be left once the last vineyard is in place? How many have been added in the last five years. Think of the century old cattle industry and apply today’s standards. It requires more cattle to make a profit. More cattle means more water, more threat to the grasslands and more weeds.
If we are short-sighted and selfish enough to leave our surroundings to the future without the protection of parkland we are cheating our children and their children. Hats off to those with the initiative to protect some areas. The Nature’s Trust, TLC and Nature Conservancy and the few provincial parks have begun the process. Surely we are mature enough and caring enough to see the need to create national parkland where none has been and where the need is greatest.
Those who think their way of life is guaranteed and think themselves and their lifestyles more important than everyone else may find themselves or worse, their descendants, in the middle of wineries and subdivisions in the future if we do not act now. The lifestyle they profess does not guarantee protection of the many rare and special species that are indigenous to the South Okanagan. A national park would keep a portion of those areas and species safe and flourishing and here for future generations as well as for those unable to enjoy the wilderness as it is presently used.
Contact politicians today to tell them to help make the national park a reality!