Whatever your interest—whale watching at French Beach, scuba diving at Porteau Cove, or skiing at Cypress—provincial parks have wildlife and scenery for everyone to enjoy. Encompassing over 13 percent of B.C., provincial parks include 195,000 hectares of mountainous wilderness above Howe Sound in Garibaldi, the vital spawning grounds of Adams River sockeye at Roderick Haig-Brown in the Shuswap, and 115 kilometres of remote ocean shoreline at Cape Scott on Vancouver Island. Parks are places to hike, kayak, watch birds, swim, camp, or generally relax in natural surroundings. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first provincial park designation (Strathcona, on Vancouver Island), and B.C. can be justly proud of possessing one of the largest park systems in the world.

B.C.’s parks and protected areas are intended for wildlife habitat conservation and public recreation. There are several classes of parks, defined by allowable uses, as well as ecological reserves for the protection of specific fauna and flora, and some new conservancies, recognized as important for First Nations. Many parks are easily accessible from highways and have family camp sites and hiking trails, while others are remote and require good backcountry skills. Every year, visitors from around the world flock to provincial parks to marvel at B.C.’s giant coniferous trees, snow-capped mountains, rolling grasslands, and island-studded coastline. Photographs of B.C.’s bears, whales, chipmunks, and birds fly around the globe. “Super, Natural British Columbia” certainly defines our provincial parklands.

Political interest in maintaining a functioning parks system, however, has constantly declined over the past years, while the area designated as “protected” has doubled as a result of land and resource management planning. Because parks are ridiculously under-funded and under-staffed, these public recreation areas and important wildlife habitats have minimal governance. There are only 10 full-time park rangers, in charge of on-the-ground supervision of 1,000 parks and more than 13 million hectares! They often cannot afford fuel for their trucks. B.C. Parks’ budget, never very large, declined from about $40 million in 1991-92 to $30,641,000 in 2010. This year, the centennial, the budget was cut by a further $660,000 to $29,979,000 and there will be only 87 seasonal auxiliary staff for the summer, compared with 145 last year.

A parks system cannot operate without funds. Poachers and vandals take advantage of unpatrolled areas. The entire copper piping from a newly built washroom block was stripped recently in a popular camp site. Visitor centres and interpretation programs have been shut down, due to lack of money. Trails fall into disrepair and become hazardous. With many fallen trees due to bark beetles, this year is particularly bad for closed trails even in well-used parks. Signs become old and are not replaced, including safety and wildlife information and trail markers. This makes the whole area look run-down and gives a bad impression. Visitors cannot help but compare the park infrastructure with other places they have been. What does this do to our reputation and local economy? Volunteer help, a mainstay in the parks for decades, has been hindered in recent years by restrictive regulations. Why should a local charitable society provide the government of B.C. with insurance coverage for their volunteers who build trails, for example? Keen to join in the restoration of our park system, the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C. has just passed a resolution calling on the government to make their volunteer help possible once more.

Day to day management of provincial park facilities and services is contracted to private parks facility operators. These days, the urban public often wants flush toilets, warm showers, and other such amenities when they go “into the wild”, all adding to the cost of running a park. So parking fees were introduced in 2003 but were always controversial. Compliance was low (people often did not have the right change) and it discouraged visits to parks (there was an immediate 20 percent decline in park use the year fees were introduced). So abolition of the parking fees this summer was seen as a positive move by many. Now they are gone, however, there is even less money in the budget. Although Premier Christy Clark at her announcement cancelling the meters said decommissioning costs and lost revenue would not come from the parks budget, Minister of Environment Terry Lake has since said that parks are, in fact, expected to absorb the costs.

Our beautiful B.C. parks and protected areas need support. Those millions of acres of mountains, forests, lakes, and shorelines, rich in wildlife, are what make B.C. unique. Parks promote a healthy lifestyle, reducing future health care costs and giving quality of life for generations. The outdoor classroom is a wonderful environment for learning and all children deserve access to nature and nature interpretation. The provincial government must find the vision and willpower to ensure that the parks and protected areas network is truly appreciated and funded, on a long-term basis.

Anne Murray is a naturalist and the author of two books on Lower Mainland nature and ecological history—Tracing Our Past: A Heritage Guide to Boundary Bay and A Nature Guide to Boundary Bay.