Peter Beckett, a volunteer and board member with the Osoyoos Desert Society, applies a finish to one of the kiosks at the Desert Centre. Last week more than 10 volunteers turned out to restore four kiosks and two sign stations, applying new finish to protect the wood. The work was expected to be completed by this week. (Richard McGuire photo)
A national park advocate sees a glimmer of hope in a recent statement by MLA Linda Larson that she wants to make the Osoyoos Desert Centre into Canada’s smallest national park.
“We want to use this as a potential opening,” said Peter Wood, terrestrial campaigns director with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) B.C. “This is the very first time she has said the words that a national park is possible.”
Wood, nonetheless, said he would be surprised if Parks Canada would support a park limited to the 67 acres of the Osoyoos Desert Centre and excluding the larger study area for the park.
Wood pointed out that in 2010, the area being considered for a national park was reduced to a study area of 284 square kilometres from an original size of 650 sq. km.
“That was a major give in terms of reducing the aspirations of the national park,” said Wood. “I know that the exclusion of that larger area was done to accommodate interests including ATV users and hunters.”
Larson was quoted by Oliver blogger and town councillor Jack Bennest as saying: “A small national park is possible.”
Bennest said the MLA made the comments to him at a ceremony to rename Haynes Point and Okanagan Falls provincial parks. Bennest attended that event and sat with Larson, but other media weren’t invited.
“The province could support such a national park if it was part of a carefully planned area, but not a blanket proposal that takes in so much land controlled by the province, the Nature’s Trust (sic), the Land Conservancy (sic) etc.,” Bennest wrote on his blog, Oliver Daily News, on May 22.
The Nature Trust of B.C. and the Nature Conservancy of Canada have purchased environmentally sensitive lands in the area in order to protect them in the absence of a national park reserve.
Larson, however, posted a “clarification” to Bennest’s blog the following day.
“I stand by my desire to not create an all-encompassing national park in the South Okanagan,” the Boundary-Similkameen MLA wrote. “I have stated on more than one occasion that I thought the Desert Centre in Osoyoos would be a great Smallest National Park in Canada. I have always kept the door open to any innovative way to create tourism in the South Okanagan.”
The Osoyoos Times has repeatedly requested a short interview with Larson since Thursday to clarify her comments. She did not respond directly, but in an email to the Oliver Chronicle on another matter, she added a postscript:
“Ps. The comment I made on Jack’s blog on supporting a national park referred only to the Desert Centre in Osoyoos, which I have publicly stated before and was ignored.”
It was unclear whether she meant that Bennest ignored this detail or whether she meant that media have ignored her previous statements on this matter.
Bennest responded to a request for an interview by deferring the matter back to Larson.
Currently, Canada’s smallest national park is Georgian Bay Islands National Park in Ontario, which is 13.5 sq. km. The Osoyoos Desert Centre’s 67 acres is about 0.25 sq. km, making it smaller than one 50th the size of Georgian Bay Islands.
Lee McFadyen, president of the Osoyoos Desert Society, acknowledged that Larson had mentioned her idea of making the Desert Centre into Canada’s smallest national park. But it was more mentioned in passing during discussion of another of Larson’s ideas, to have the Osoyoos Desert Centre recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“We didn’t have a discussion about it,” McFadyen said, referring to the smallest national park idea. “I’m not really sure that it’s what she’s really proposing. You have to ask her that.”
McFadyen said there has been no contact with Parks Canada about Larson’s idea. She also emphasized that any discussion of the UNESCO idea has been Larson’s initiative rather than the Desert Society’s.
Asked what she thought of Larson’s national park proposal, McFadyen said her board hasn’t discussed it, but her personal view is that the area is too small and lacks the contiguity needed to protect habitat.
“The Desert Centre is extremely important and does what it does very well,” said McFadyen. “It is a small portion of fragmented antelope brush ecosystem. Without something larger being permanently protected, it wouldn’t be truly representative of the antelope brush ecosystem.”
The Desert Centre, she said, is constrained in its ability to expand because it is surrounded by highways, a landfill site and agriculture.
The centre’s strength is its use as a teaching tool that is accessible to the public to come and learn about ecosystems. It is also a place where important habitat restoration research takes place, she said.
Wood of CPAWS also believes that if the national park were limited to the Desert Centre, it would do little to protect habitat.
“It would do nothing for the bulk of the 57 species at risk in that area,” he said. “I think the (provincial) government would be very wise to consider the additional benefit and additional funding that comes with protecting that greater area. I would be surprised if Parks Canada would even go for this concept. It’s such a minor area.”
He noted that the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA), a key partner in discussions of a national park, has called for a larger area than the 284 sq. km study area.
In its feasibility study released in February 2013, the ONA says: “Although the current park concept is deemed feasible, it is insufficient in size to promote the broader vision for protection of Syilx cultural and ecological integrity in the South Okanagan Lower Similkameen.”
Nonetheless, Wood sees one key benefit to Larson’s idea – it would bring the province back to the table with the federal government.
The provincial government abruptly pulled out of talks with Parks Canada at the end of 2011 and Parks Canada as a result has had to be silent on the issue since then.
This means the federal government hasn’t been able to speak about its proposals to address the concerns of ranchers and helicopter training company Canadian Helicopters, a division of HNZ.
“All that can only happen when the B.C. government comes back to the table,” said Wood. “So even if this is just around a smallest national park, if that triggers some kind of renewed discussion with Parks Canada, I think that would be a positive step.”
The province, he said, has cited lack of certainty around economic activity as a reason why it can’t be part of discussions, but having a seat at the table is what’s needed to get that certainty, he said, calling it a “conundrum.”
Nonetheless, Wood wants Larson to go beyond just looking at the 67 acres of the Desert Centre.
“I would sincerely hope that she would listen to what the feasibility study recommended and the First Nations recommended,” he said. “And now poll results show the way to go is definitely through the current concept area.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Tom Gee (right) and Leahann Nordin, volunteered last week at the Osoyoos Desert Centre to apply a finish to one of the kiosks. Last week more than 10 volunteers turned out to restore four kiosks and two sign stations, applying new finish to protect the wood. The work was expected to be completed by this week. (Richard McGuire photo)
MLA Linda Larson.
