Canada's first national park was created in 1885 through an Order-in-Council[3] to reserve 26 km2 (10 sq mi) over the Cave and Basin Hot Springs to prevent the land from being sold for private development despite claims being made for it. Modelled after the American experience with Yellowstone National Park, the Rocky Mountains Park Act, adopted in 1887, established the Rocky Mountains Park (now Banff National Park).[4] The idea of a national park was popular and led to numerous proposals for the Ministry of the Interior to consider, including additional sites along the Canadian Pacific Railway (e.g. Yoho and Glacier and an expansion of Banff) and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (e.g. Jasper). In 1911 the Rocky Mountains Park Act was replaced by the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act which created the world's first National Park Service, the Dominion Parks Branch, to administer national parks in Canada.[5] These early national parks, including those established under the leadership of JB Harkin who was the first commissioner of the Dominion Parks Branch, were set aside to reserve lands principally for tourism and conservation but also had an exclusionary policy prohibiting First Nations peoples from using their traditional lands within the new parks.[6] In 1922, Wood Buffalo National Park was the first to allow traditional indigenous activities to continue. In 1972, Parks Canada defined national park reserves as lands administered by the agency intended to become national parks pending settlement of indigenous land rights and agreements for continued traditional use of the lands.[7][8]
As of July 2021[update], there are 38 national parks, 10 national park reserves, and one national urban park, covering an area of approximately 342,456 km2 (132,223 sq mi),[9] or about 3.3% of the total land area of Canada, and representing 31 of its 39 natural regions. There is at least one park located in every one of the nation's 13 provinces and territories. Parks Canada reported attendance of 15,449,249 at all national parks and reserves in 2016–17, including over four million visits to the busiest park (Banff) and only two persons at the least-visited park (Tuktut Nogait).[10] Parks Canada additionally manages three National Marine Conservation Areas (NMCAs), a single NMCA Reserve, and the country's lone National Landmark. The Canada National Parks Act also allows for recognition of National Historic Sites that commemorate events, landmarks, or objects of national importance, and which may include similar levels of protection and administration as national parks.[1] Feasibility studies are underway to establish further national parks in unrepresented regions.[11]
National parks and national park reserves
National park reserves are indicated by "(Reserve)" after the park name. The national urban park is indicated by "(Urban)" after the park name.
Located on the northern part of Banks Island, the completely treeless polar desert of Aulavik is home to the world's largest concentration of muskoxen, as well as the endangered Peary caribou.[14]
One of Canada's largest parks and located almost entirely within the Arctic Circle, Auyuittuq on Baffin Island preserves a rugged arctic wilderness featuring some of the highest peaks of the Canadian Shield.[15]
Formed from lands previously designated Ontario's Cyprus Lake Provincial Park, Bruce preserves a unique shoreline formation of the Niagara Escarpment and forms part of the larger UNESCO Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve. The Bruce Trail, one of Canada's longest hiking trails, passes through the park. The locally threatened massasauga rattlesnake is found within the park, as well as Canada's southernmost population of black bears.[12]: 142–143
Atlantic Canada's oldest national park features Acadian and boreal forest environments in the Cape Breton Highlands. One-third of the Cabot Trail passes through the central portion of the park. Most of Nova Scotia's population of Canada lynx are found in this park, and the endangered North Atlantic right whale is found in waters off the park's coast.[12]: 42–43 [16]Western moose were introduced to this park from Alberta's Elk Island National Park between 1947 and 1948, the native eastern moose having been hunted to near-extinction.[17][18]Parks Canada started a four-year project with the Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources and other partners to begin to restore boreal forest regions within this park in 2014.
Created as a wildlife sanctuary for elk, the park has become a part of bison conservation, the Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve, and the Beaver Hills Biosphere Reserve.[19] Eighteen moose (nine males and nine females) from Elk Island were introduced to Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Highlands National Park between 1947 and 1948.[18]
The lands of the first park in Quebec were traditional hunting and fishing grounds for the Mi'kmaq and Iroquois, and were exploited for their rich supplies of lumber.[12]: 98–99 Two hundred twenty-five families were controversially expropriated from the park lands prior to creation of the park in 1970. In 2011, the Government of Canada issued a formal apology to these families for their mistreatment.[20]
Featuring the highest tides in the world, the Bay of Fundy exposes ocean floor at low tide which is covered by up to 16 m (52 ft) of salt water at high tide.[21] The park forms the core portion of the UNESCO Fundy Biosphere Reserve.
Adjacent to Vuntut National Park and the American Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the park has arctic tundra that was not glaciated during the last ice age and consequently contains the oldest river in Canada, the Firth River. Ivvavik is the first national park created as a result of an aboriginal land claim agreement, the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.[28]
Adjacent to the Nahanni National Park, Nááts'įhch'oh extends the protected area into the Sahtu Settlement Area to include additional land with the South Nahanni River watershed to Mount Nááts'įhch'oh and the Moose Ponds.[33]
Representative of the coastal plain portion of the Pacific Coast Mountains natural region, the park is divided into three separated parts: Long Beach, the Broken Group islands, and the West Coast Trail.[36]
The first national park established for conservation, Point Pelee is the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland, and also includes the southernmost point overall on Middle Island. The marshy wetland environment is a known stop for migratory birds and monarch butterflies,[37] and since 1987 is a Ramsar Convention Wetland of International Importance.[38]
Sensitive sand beaches and dunes on the island's north shore provide nesting habitat for the endangered piping plover and are designated an Important Bird Area. An extension added in 1998 protects parabolic sand dunes and an area with archaeological evidence of Paleo-Indian occupation up to 10,000 years ago.[40] The park also encompasses Green Gables, the inspiration for the popular Anne of Green Gables novels.[12]: 62–63
Located on the Voyageur Hiking Trail and the longest stretch of undeveloped shoreline in the Great Lakes,[41] Pukaskwa protects an area of boreal forest largely untouched by logging and mining industries, owing to the terrain's remarkable ruggedness.[12] A large cluster of the Pukaskwa Pits are located within the park.
Thaidene Nëné, which translates in Canadian English as "Land of the Ancestors", is a protected area that spans 6.5 million acres (26,376 km2) at the transition between boreal forest and tundra. It includes the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, the deepest freshwater source in North America, and provides habitat for red fox, black bear, wolf packs, grizzly bear, lynx, wolverine, marten, Arctic fox, moose, beaver, muskoxen, and critical wintry weather for the last herds of barren-ground caribou.
Adjacent to the Ivvavik National Park and the American Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the park area was not glaciated during the last ice age and now hosts Pleistocene fossil sites. Remote and inaccessible by road, the park was established, and is operated, in collaboration with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation as part of that nation's Final Agreement with Canada.[52]
Created from a portion of the provincial Churchill Wildlife Management Area, Wapusk helps protect the land base that act as maternity denning areas for polar bears.[53]
The following are areas which Parks Canada is in the process of evaluating as potential parks. While they may be reserved from alienation or have federal-provincial/territorial agreements, they have not been formally established through legislation as parks.
There remain six Natural Regions unrepresented by either current or proposed parks.[61] As Parks Canada has a long-term goal of preserving representative areas of all Natural Regions, future parks will likely be established in these areas.[62] These regions are:
the "Boreal Lake Plateau" region of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec
the "Laurentian Boreal Highlands" region of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec
the "Northern Interior Plateaux and Mountains" region of British Columbia and Yukon
the "Southampton Plain" region of Nunavut
the "Ungava Tundra Plateau" region of Quebec and Nunavut
the "Whale River" region of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, and Quebec
Brereton and Vidal were transferred to provincial jurisdiction, both continuing as (renamed) provincial parks.
Buffalo, Menissawok, Nemiskam and Wawaskesy were created expressly to protect and regenerate dangerously low populations of bison and pronghorn, and were delisted when those populations improved.
National Marine Conservation Areas
National Marine Conservation Areas (NMCAs) is a program established in 2002 with the goal of preserving marine ecosystems representing the 29 marine regions of Canada.[67] They are designed for sustainable use, although they usually also contain areas designed to protect ecological integrity. National Marine Conservation Area Reserves are protected areas proposed to be added to the NMCA system pending settlement of indigenous land and water rights. In the interim, they are administered under park rules.[68]
As of 2020[update], established NMCAs and NMCA Reserves protect 14,846 km2 (5,732 sq mi) of waters, wetlands, and coastlines, representing five of the 29 identified marine regions with studies underway for protected areas in three additional regions.[67]
The marine counterpart to Bruce National Park, Fathom Five is named for a line in Shakespeare'sThe Tempest. The first marine unit in the national parks system preserves a unique aquatic environment and several small islands including Flowerpot Island. The unusually clear waters and numerous shipwrecks on the shoals of Georgian Bay make the park a popular destination for scuba divers.[12]: 189
Along with the national park reserve of the same name, Gwaii Haanas protects an area extending from the ocean floor of the Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Basin to the mountains of the Haida Gwaii. The marine reserve preserves the Haida people's traditional use of the waters while protecting the area from oil exploration and commercial fishing.[12]: 299
The National Landmarks program was established in 1978 to protect specific natural features considered "outstanding, exceptional, unique, or rare to this country. These natural features would typically be isolated entities and of scientific interest."[76] The enabling legislation expired 10 years later, and was not renewed. Pingo National Landmark was the only such unit established in that time.
Located on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, Canada's only National Landmark preserves eight ice-cored mounds known as pingos including Canada's largest, Ibyuk Pingo, along with other land and ice formations unique to the permafrost environment.
Provincial parks categorized as national parks
Provincial and territorial parks are administered and funded by their respective governments. However, Quebec has named its provincial parks “national parks”, though none are in the national park system.
Some sub-national parks are categorized by the IUCN under the umbrella term national parks (Category II) in its global Protected Area Management Categories. As of 2011, there were more than 1500 Category II-listed areas across the country, including nearly 700 in B.C., and at least 500 in Ontario. Only Quebec uses the term “national park” for such provincial areas, using the IUCN’s category name as justification.
In addition to the national park system, several federal agencies manage natural, scientific, and recreational areas. In the National Capital Region, a number of parklands come under the jurisdiction of the National Capital Commission, including Gatineau Park in Quebec. None of these are part of the national park system.
^South Moresby National Park Reserve was created 12 July 1988, with the signing of the South Moresby Agreement; renamed Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on 28 February 1996. Includes SGaang Gwaii (Anthony Island) World Heritage Site.[26]
^Established as Northern Yukon National Park in 1984, renamed Ivvavik National Park in 1992.[27]
^Kluane National Park Reserve was set aside in 1976, following the Kluane Game Reserve of the early 1940s. Subsequently, an eastern portion of the Reserve became Kluane National Park in 1993.
^In 2007, the government announced that 29,000 km2 (11,197 sq mi) of land would be added to Nahanni, making it 33,766 km2 (13,037 sq mi). However, these changes have not been fully implemented as of 2017[update].[34]
^Binnema, Theodore; Niemi, Melanie (2006). "'Let the line be drawn now': Wilderness, Conservation, and the Exclusion of Aboriginal People from Banff National Park in Canada". Environmental History. 11 (4): 724–50. doi:10.1093/envhis/11.4.724.
^Riding Mountain National Park of Canada and Riding Mountain Park East Gate Registration Complex National Historic Site of Canada Management Plan. Parks Canada. 2007. ISBN978-0-662-43469-6.
^ abFederation of Alberta Naturalists, Fish and Wildlife Historical Society (2005). Fish, Fur & Feathers: Fish and Wildlife Conservation in Alberta 1905–2005. Nature books of Alberta. p. 100. ISBN0-9696134-7-4.
^Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park(PDF) (Map). Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs du Québec. Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
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