(Photo: Government of Alberta)

By rdnewsNOW staff

$5M will be saved, government says

Alberta releases list of parks slated for full or partial closures

Mar 3, 2020 | 11:46 AM

Alberta has released a list of cuts it is making to the parks system, including 20 full or partial closures.

The public will be barred from 11 of those parks, while nine will be accessible but without any services.

Another 164 parks are to be handed over to third parties to manage. These sites include J.J. Collett Natural Area near Ponoka, The Narrows and Buffalo Lake provincial recreation areas, Rochon Sands Provincial Park, and Red Lodge Provincial Park.

The changes are throughout the province – from campsites at Dinosaur Provincial Park in the south to the complete closure of Kehiwin Provincial Park in the north.

The total amount of land involved is about 16,000 hectares.

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The government says that’s less than one per cent of the province’s parks system, but it isn’t clear if that includes the national parks.

The United Conservative government says the changes, which it calls optimizing Alberta’s parks, will save $5-million.

A government spokeswoman has said the cuts will allow the province to focus on what it calls high-value areas.

The full list of closures is posted to the provincial government’s website.

(With file from The Canadian Press)