B.C.’s Joffre Lakes Park will be partially closed, allowing for conservation and tourism

PEMBERTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA – An agreement between the BC government and the First Nations that manage Joffre Lakes Provincial Park will see the popular tourist spot closed for part of the year to protect its “natural and cultural values.”

The announcement comes after a dispute over public use of the park led to the Lilwat and N’Quatqua First Nations closing access to the park for about a month last year.

Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that the decision to close the park for a short period was made in collaboration between the province and the two countries.

The park will be closed from April 30 to May 15, June 14 to 23 and September 3 to October 6, allowing indigenous communities to hold cultural celebrations and traditional fall harvest practices.

Visitors to the park will still be required to reserve free day passes to visit Joffre Lakes so that BC Parks can “reduce the impact of visitors on the natural environment.”

Lilwat Nation Chief Dean Nelson said in a statement that the park area is sacred to his community and that the closures are necessary for the well-being of his people.

“By implementing these closures, we aim to reintroduce our community to an area where they have been marginalized,” he said. “The time and space created by these closures will allow our youth, elders and all citizens of Lilwat to exercise their inherent rights as they reconnect with the land.”

The Lilwat and N’Quatqua countries suspended public access to the park for part of August and September last year for their harvest celebrations, claiming they were asserting their ownership rights to the land.

The province says monitoring the increasing impact of visitors to Joffre Lakes has revealed the “need for improved visitor use management” to prevent environmental degradation caused by “unsustainably high human traffic.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2024.

The Canadian Press