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Tourism, Parks & Recreation Minister's reply Castle Special Place – Conceptual Proposal
A consensus-based, broad, local citizens’ initiative – Castle Special Place Citizens’ Initiative – has proposed that southwest Alberta’s Castle Special Place be legislated and protected within the province’s network of protected areas and parks, as Alberta has been done with its other 80 Special Places. The proposal was developed in response to the Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation’s September 2007 announcement that he hoped to see more locally-driven citizens’ initiatives bringing forward proposals, as was successfully done for the new provincial recreation area and park at Drayton Valley. Should the Minister decide to proceed, as with all new protected areas and parks the Department undertakes, the Department would carry out public consultation and negotiations with existing disposition holders. It is proposed that the present types of recreational uses, including hunting and fishing, and the summer grazing permits continue within the ecological limits of the Castle Special Place. Oil and gas activities would continue in conjunction with the existing leases in accordance with the September 2003 agreement between the provincial departments responsible for energy and legislated protected areas. Castle Mountain Resort is located outside the proposal. More than 99 per cent (1023 km2 or 395 mi2) of the Castle Special Place protected area is proposed as a Wildland. (An example is the Bob Creek Wildland in the Whaleback area west of Claresholm.) The remainder is the existing West Castle Wetlands Ecological Reserve and the five current Provincial Recreation Areas (PRAs). It’s proposed that Beaver Mines Lake, Castle Falls, Syncline and Lynx Creek PRAs be upgraded to provincial parks. Castle River Bridge remains as a PRA; Syncline Cross-Country Ski Area is proposed as a PRA; and it is proposed that these two be linked with Syncline park into one unit through a small provincial park along the river. These non-Wildland sites all total one per cent or 12 km2 (4.5 mi2). The Castle Special PlaceThe Castle Special Place was mapped and designated as a protected area by the Government of Alberta in 1998 as a result of public consultation during its Special Places 2000 program. It is public land located in the very southern end of the Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve, abutting the north boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park. Appendix I of the conceptual proposal has the Government's announcement of that decision and their background information on it. News - Goverment tells public proposal will be considered in Regional PlanIn its Summary of Public Input (July 2010, pg. 5) regarding development of a regional plan for the South Saskatchewan Region under the Alberta Land Use Framework (region encompasses all of southern Alberta), the Alberta Government states that "input from agencies and groups such as the Oldman River Regional Service Commission, Castle Special Place Working Group and Alberta Water Council will be considered in the development of the regional plan..." That answer to questions about concurrent processes was also given by the government during its public input sessions in December 2009. The South Saskatchewan Regional Advisory Council (RAC), which provides the government with advice on the vision and content for the regional plan received the Castle proposal from the Castle Special Place Working Group in October 2009. Once the Government's terms of reference for development of the region were released, the Working Group also sent RAC a summary of how the proposal fits the terms. RAC verbally informed the Working Group that as a matter of practice, it does not meet with or receive in-person presentations from any entity outside the provincial or municipal governments. RAC is to complete its recommendations to Cabinet by December 2009. Spring 2011 is when it is expected that Cabinet will release its vision document for the regional plan, after which there will be the plan itself. News - One Minister commends proposal, another schedules Castle for clear-cut loggingEarlier in 2010, the Minister of Tourism, Parks & Recreation (TPR) sent her comments and reply to the Working Group regarding the conceptual proposal for legislating the Castle protected area under the province's protected areas and parks legislation. Highlights of her reply letter include:
The Assembly of Treaty Chiefs in Alberta, City of Lethbridge and Oldman Watershed Council also passed resolutions supporting the conceptual proposal in principle and in addition to the support in principle from ID#4 (Waterton). Then, in a move that is seen as preempting regional planning, the Minister of Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) slated the core of the Castle Special Place/Special Management Area for clear-cut or what is technically called "cut block" logging by Spray Lake Sawmills, located more than four-hours haul away in Cochrane, west of Calgary. The logging, set to commence July 2011, is contrary to the Government's 1998 decision adding the Castle Special Place as the Castle Special Management Area "to Alberta's protected areas network under Special Places... as a major milestone in the preservation of Alberta's natural heritage for future generations." The Municipal District of Pincher Creek wrote a letter to the Minister noting the Castle Special Management Area "is of particular concern to our Council, specifically with respect to the environment, Grizzly Bear population, and watershed management" and expressing concern that the SRD Minister's logging approval "is premature in allowing cut block logging until this Land-use Framework is in place, as the two may be contradictory." The Working Group sent a similar letter and met jointly with the SRD and TPR Ministers in July 2010. At the invitation of TPR Ministers, the Working Group completed and submitted the Castle proposal in October 2009; after consideration of comments it received from a June 2009 mailing of the draft and Frequently Asked Questions document to 102 organizations and interests beyond the 35 on the Working Group, including to the five municipal governments. These documents, including the invitation to comment, were also posted during the review period on this website. In addition to written communication, representatives of the Working Group presented the proposal at the council meetings of the following municipalities: Municipal District of Pincher Creek, Town of Pincher Creek, Municipality of Crowsnest Pass and the City of Lethbridge. Tips for reading the Conceptual Proposal
This proposal was developed through 12 months of extensive dialogue and information sharing, during which the Working Group discussed and weighed alternative approaches and trade-offs. Be sure to read the rationale provided for the specific recommendations. If you do not understand the rationale, please contact the facilitator Carole Stark, Chinook Institute for Community Stewardship at carole.stark@chinookinstitute.org or mail to Chinook Institute, Box 8618, Canmore, AB T1W 2V3 for clarification.
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