Alberta’s Crown lands include our parks, provincial recreation areas, natural areas, and many other land designations. They provide some of the world’s best landscapes and opportunities for outdoor recreation. They are an important source of economic diversification for communities, contributing to a sustainable provincial economy.

Strong policies and legislation are critical to ensure long-term protection of these places and recreational activities. CPAWS Northern and Southern Alberta have been involved in advancing sustainable recreation for many years. Parks and public lands must be carefully managed to ensure they can continue to provide exceptional conservation and community benefits. Managed well, our Crown lands can provide outdoor recreation opportunities while maintaining ecosystem services, biodiversity, and habitats.

We appreciate the opportunity to comment on funding for recreation management in Alberta; however, this survey is separate from the government’s plan to remove 164 parks from the parks system and does not address the need for public engagement on this decision. Broader engagement will also be needed on the other objectives of the Crown Lands Vision.

We encourage everyone to take the opportunity to share your input. CPAWS Northern and Southern Alberta have provided our thoughts on each of the questions.

What to keep in mind while using our comments as a guide:
Our team at CPAWS has reviewed the survey and provided our professional comments and opinions on the questions asked. However, many questions in the survey are very individual and responses will be strongly dependent on personal preferences and priorities. In particular, questions 9-15 are entirely personal and we do not provide comments on these.

Please feel free to use as much or as little of what we have compiled in your personal responses and note that we do not “prescribe” any specific response to the questions. We encourage you to share your personal thoughts and opinions!

Download our survey comment guide here.

Not sure where to start with the ideas page? We’ve got you covered: check out our ideas here!