BANFF – Parks Canada is coming up with a plan to deal with exploding visitation in the Lake Minnewanka region of Banff National Park which could include managing access to popular lakes and day-use areas.
The 2022 Banff National Park Management Plan talks about the need to create a standalone plan for the Minnewanka region – a road map for the future of the area that now sees an estimated one million visitors a year, primarily from Calgary and surrounding area.
An online survey is open until Oct. 25 for Parks Canada to hear from Canadians about what they value about the Lake Minnewanka area and what they would like to see there in the future. The survey can be found at www.letstalkmountainparks.ca website.
“We are very much in the scoping phase right now so everything is on the table,” said Natalie Fay, external relations manager for the Banff National Park field unit.
“This is why we really want to hear from people and figure out what our path forward is so that when we go to draft the plan, it aligns with the things and the priorities that we’ve heard from Canadians.”
The Lake Minnewanka area includes the Minnewanka Loop Road, Cascade Ponds day-use area, Two-Jack Lake day-use area and campgrounds, Johnson Lake day-use area, and Lake Minnewanka day-use area, and the surrounding backcountry.
Bursting with paddlers, boaters, divers, hikers, bikers, campers, picnickers, star gazers, wildlife watchers and sightseers, the Minnewanka region attracts about one-quarter of the flagship park’s four million annual visitors and has seen traffic volumes increase by about 50 per cent over the last 10 years.
Fay said the increase in visitors at Lake Minnewanka aligns with wider visitation patterns throughout the national park over the past decade.
“We do know that people use these day-use areas and are using them at an increasing rate, and we’re also seeing more and more people who may not have grown up in the national parks come here,” she said.
“And just with our population growth in Calgary, we’re getting a lot of first-time park visitors so how do we manage an area that is very accessible to the public?”
This skyrocketing visitation has created many challenges, including human-wildlife conflicts, feeding of wildlife, garbage and overflowing garbage bins at day-use areas, and congestion and parking chaos.
Fay said the Lake Minnewanka Loop has been temporarily closed on occasion on the busiest of summer days because of the traffic volume.
“On busy times of the year, especially on nice sunny weekends in Banff National Park, there have been times where we’ve had to implement certain traffic measures just to manage the number of vehicles that are driving around the Minnewanka loop going to the day-use areas,” she said.
“We now have the day-use areas staffed where we have people who are there helping people park, ideally ensuring that they are not parking where they’re not supposed to, such as the middle of roadways, because that does become quite a challenge.”
The Banff National Park management plan calls for a multi-use trail extending between Lake Minnewanka, both Two Jack Lake campgrounds, Johnson Lake, Cascade Ponds and the community of Banff.
In addition, it talks about potential development and redevelopment proposals.
Fay said that reference in the park management plan involves public facilities such as existing campgrounds or day-use areas as well as commercial facilities – Pursuit’s lease at Lake Minnewanka where the company runs boat tours and the Black Anchor snack shop.
“In the future when Parks Canada is making decisions, let’s say about refurbishing a campsite or looking at improvements, is that where people want to see the improvement? What does the future look like for commercial development within leasehold?” she said.
“That’s why it’s important for us that we hear not only from those leaseholders and the key stakeholders and business community, but also from Canadians about their experience with those offers.”
For decades, the western portion of the Minnewanka road has been closed to vehicles during the winter months to allow wildlife, such as wolves and cougars, to move undisturbed around the Norquay-Cascade corridor.
Lake Minnewanka is also on the edge of one of three core areas for grizzly bears in Banff National Park, where a concentration of female grizzly bears live and raise their cubs.
Importantly, the region also contains a portion of the park’s rare montane ecoregion, which provides significant wildlife habitat for bears, bighorn sheep, wolves, cougars, and elk, and includes the Norquay-Cascade and the Two Jack wildlife corridors.
One of the biggest ecological concerns in the Minnewanka area is the potential for the introduction of aquatic invasive species (AIS) into one of the lakes or streams through recreational use, which can be dangerous for native fish populations.
In 2016, Johnson Lake was confirmed to have the first cases of whirling disease in Canada, leading to the popular swimming hole being drained in order to eliminate the disease, which causes infected fish to swim in a whirling pattern and die prematurely.
Lake Minnewanka is also the only place in Banff National Park where motorized boats are allowed.
Recently introduced restrictions mean that all motorized watercraft must undergo a Parks Canada inspection and have valid proof of inspection before launching into the reservoir to reduce the risk of introducing AIS.
The park management plan talks about managing water-based activities and access in a bid to avoid introduction of AIS.
Fay said there has been major growth in aquatic-based sports.
“Previously it may have been there was a lot of terrestrial-based activities, and now we’re seeing more and more people getting out on the water … it seems everyone has a stand-up paddle board these days,” she said.
“That is something that we want to see continue and what do we need to think about when we’re looking at that? Is this the offer at this place? Is this the right place for it? Lake Minnewanka itself is a very large lake. Is that the best place for paddle boarders when it gets windy?”
The survey at www.letstalkmountainparks.ca talks to potential of managing high levels of visitor use in the area, including restructuring private vehicle access to improve predictability, reducing congestion and improving safety.
It also asks Canadians how important different ways of accessing the Lake Minnewanka area are to people – access by personal vehicle and predictable access for day-use, for example through a reservation system and bookings.
Opinions are also sought on alternative access methods, frequent and reliable transport access, commercial shuttles and tour buses and access that allows for reliable transport of bulky or larger recreational equipment like canoes, bicycles, and camping gear.
Parks Canada officials say ecological integrity is the first priority, noting the plan will consider ecological parameters and address environmental concerns through examination and inclusion of strategies, objectives and targets that support ecological integrity.
“How do we manage an area that is very accessible to the public, but there’s also really important wildlife corridors and key habitat for the wildlife that makes this place so special – that’s why we’re turning to Canadians right now and seeing how would they like to see us manage this balance,” Fay said.
“How can we look at this area and find opportunities for people to still use the area and connect with this place… and how do we do that while also making sure that ecological integrity is at the forefront of everything we’re doing?”
The Bow Valley Naturalists (BVN) say they would like to see more landscape level planning rather than just concentrating on the Lake Minnewanka area.
“Parks has a long history of trying to solve a problem in one area and inadvertently creating problems elsewhere,” said Reg Bunyan, BVN’s past president and a retired Parks Canada resource conservation officer.
Because of Lake Minnewanka’s proximity to the Banff townsite, Bunyan said at a minimum the area plan needs to be integrated into Town of Banff planning, especially on the transportation end.
He said visitation pressure on the area coming from the provincial side “where there is still a Wild West free-for-all mindset” needs to be considered.
“For many years, Parks professed to be moving away from the ecological island mentality and trying to manage more holistically,” Bunyan said.
“But with the recent emphasis on area plans and especially with one area plan every 10 years, it seems like our destiny is to float from one management crisis to another.”
The Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment (AMPPE) is calling for more capital and operating funding for Parks Canada, including Banff National Park, which the organization believes will help solve problems in the park.
Debbie Harksen, the group’s executive director, said the mountain national parks received 12 per cent of the last funding envelope of $557 million in 2022, yet the mountain parks get 60 per cent of the visitors and generate 50 per cent of the revenue.
“Parks are underfunded and that proper funding will fix a lot of the problems that are occurring in the parks, and this will extend to Minnewanka as well,” she said.
“When we’re looking at Minnewanka now, things that could change will take money and so we’re hoping for things like connectivity to town and provisions for active travel.”
While much of the focus has centred around explosive summer use, Harksen said AMPPE wants to see better infrastructure to support winter use such as cross-country skiing.
“Cross-country skiing is a very low-impact, climate-friendly activity that’s in high demand, but it’s going to take some infrastructure to be built,” she said.
“We’d love to see a warming shack. We’re talking about a safety item, we’re not talking about a new ski area, just talking about a shack in the woods.”
Harksen said there are also several ways to deal with congestion in the area.
“With proper infrastructure such as adequate number of buses and an easy booking system, and a bike policy that would allow e-bikes, that can help to reduce some of that,” she said.
While the online survey ends Oct. 25, further engagement with Indigenous peoples, specific groups and the broader public will be available for input on the draft plan.
Fay said additional opportunities for engagement will be made available as the planning process unfolds and will be based in part on input from phase one engagement.
“Hopefully, at some time in 2025, we will have a draft plan ready for more feedback from the public,” she said.
“This is no easy task, but this is why we’re hoping that with the help of Canadians and people who know and use this area, we can come up with a really good plan that will be best for this place.”
