Parks Canada wants every visit to Canadian national parks and historic sites to be a memorable one. To help make this happen park entry and camping fees are invested directly back into the facilities and services that help visitors travel safely and get the most out of their stay. Visitor fees contribute to information, search and rescue, camping services and interpretive programmes. Fees also help maintain structures like picnic areas, viewpoints, roads and bridges.
2007 will be a signature year for explorer, fur trader, cartographer ,writer, surveyor and naturalist, David Thompson. It marks the 200th anniversary of his first crossing of the Rockies to anchor the lucrative trans- mountain fur trade. Schooled in London, David Thompson was North America's greatest geographer, charting 1/5th of the NOrth American continent. Thompson's contribution may have been the most formative in the context of Canadian nationhood. More than 30 national parks, national historic sites and heritage rivers have direct links to Thompson. www.davidthompson200.org
Alberta
2006 marks the 100th anniversary of Elk Island National Park, an undiscovered oasis of wildlife just 45 minutes from Edmonton, Alberta's capital city. Find yourself in a herd of bison or listen to the songs of the 250 species of birds that inhabit this small park. Elk Island is celebrating its special year with a host of events from a vintage car show to live theatre.
British Columbia
In the southern portion of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) is Gwaii Hanaas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, a remote wilderness achipelago accessible only by kayak, boat or floatplane. Gwaii Haanas combines rare opportunities to experience adventure and solitude. Haida Gwaii Watchmen welcome visitors to ancient Haida villages such as Sgang Gwaay.
Manitoba
Are polar bears walking on thin ice? CLimate change may be the newest threat affecting one of the world's largest polar bear maternity areas. Wapusk National Park in northern Manitoba was established in 1996 to protect the estimated 1,200 polar bears and their habitat along the shores of the Hudson Bay. Parks Canada is working with the Canadian Wildlife Service to study the bears and the changes that are occuring in their environment.
New Brunswick
Do you dare explore the mysteries of the night forest alone? Well , you don't have to! As night swallows the forest, some of the creatures in Fundy National Park don't go to bed- they are just getting up. Join a national park interpreter for a guided 2 hour evening excursion through the forest. Learn what is lurking in the night and experience the dark side of nature. Offered weekly for a fee throughout July and August
Newfoundland and Labrador
A new park reserve - the first to be established in Labrador - will open to visitors in 2006. Protecting approx. 9,600 square km of Labrador's arctic wilderness the Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve will offer cruise visitors a wide range of exciting opportunities and experiences. Visitors will be able to view a variety of wildlife - caribou, polar bears, and birds including peregrine falcon and golden eagle - as well as enjoy wilderness hiking, climbing and kayaking. Eventually the park will also offer a heritage interpretive programme on the history, culture and stories of the Labrador Inuit people.
Northwest Territories
Explore the wild splendour of Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View bison , bears , and other wildlife as you traverse this vast boreal landscape on an all weather gravel road. A stop at the Salt Plains is a must. You can touch ancient salt deposits , marvel at unique salt loving plants and spy on a sandhill crane. Learn the secrets of karst at Karstland interpretive trail, a gentle stroll past sinkholes and other interesting features. Interpretive programmes are available upon advance request.
Nova Scotia
The power of Mother Nature has unearthed a 260 year old surprise for the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic site. A storm surge that accompanied a February snowstorm exposed two sections of what archaeologist Rebecca Duggan describes as an orginal counterscarp wall constructed in 1740. Situated on a 15 acre site on Cape Breton's eastern shore, the Fortress is considered NOrth America's largest historical reconstruction project. Founded in 1713 , Louisbourg served as the gateway to the New World for the early part of the 18th Century.
Nunavut
High above the arctic circle is an extraordinary landscape that is home to Sirmilik, one of Canada's newest national parks and the 3rd largest in the country. In Inuktituk, Sirmilik means 'place of the glaciers'. This photographer's paradise is situated at the top of the world and features a spectacular mountain range, deep fjiords and inlets , hoodoo formations, flat tundra, intricate glaciers and steep granite walls. Teeming with wildlife, the park is home to seal, polar bear, caribou, narwhal, beluga and bowhead whales, as well as the world's largest population of Greater Snow Geese. Accommodation and experienced outfitters can be founds in Pond Inlet.
Ontario
Parks Canada will mark the Rideau Canal's 175th birthday with a series of celebrations planned in communities along its route. The canal has also been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and if chosen, its designation will coincide with the celebrations. The Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal in North America and now serves as a recreational waterway stretching 202 km from Kingston to Ottawa , the nation's capital
Prince Edward Island
In 2008, Anne of Green Gables will be 100 years old! Written by Lucy Maud Montgomery , this tale of fiction was inspired by locations in and around today's Prince Edward Island National Park. Nearly a century after its first publication, 500,000 copies of the novel continue to be sold each year.
Quebec
Writer Walt Whitman once described the waters of Quebec's amazing Saguenay - St. Lawrence Marine Park as "dark as ink, equisitely polished and shiny under the August sun". Within the 1138 sq km area is a network of fifteen discovery sites offering a maritime, coastal or inland experience for visitors. At the new Marine Environment Discovery Centre in Les Escoumins , for example, an interactive viewing room lets landlubbers engage in lively conversation with Parks Canada divers on the seabed.
Saskatchewan
Plains bison were re-introduced in Grasslands National Park in December 2005, afer 120 years of absence. This vast , windswept prairie evolved with bison, drought, periodic fire and variable continental climate. Prior to the European settlement , the praries were home to millions of free roaming bison. By the 1880's many changes had occurred on the landscape and the large herds that had once roamed were nearly gone. The reintroduction of the bison to the park restores a 'grazing regime' of large herbivores in the park. As well, the bison are symbolic of the prairies and provide the visitor with a fuller assemlage of the species.
Yukon
Ivvavik is the first national park in Canada to be created as a result of an Aboriginal land claim. A 'place for giving birth' Ivvavik protects a portion of the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd. Many of the sites in Ivvavik mark the passage of the Inuvialuit, the original people, and their use of the land.
For more detail on Canadian Parks click on www.pc.gc.ca
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