Central Alberta campers will have to cross Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park off their list of getaways, because of provincial budget cuts.
A pair of campgrounds at the park about 90 kilometres southeast of Red Deer are among 20 sites to be closed or partially closed in cost-saving moves.
Another 164 parks, including J.J.Collett Natural Area near Ponoka, and Red Lodge Provincial Park, 30 kilometres southwest of Innisfail, are to be turned over to third parties to manage.
Red Deer River Provincial Recreation Area, 60 kilometres southwest of Sundre; Raven Provincial Recreation Area, 16 kilometres east of Caroline; and several Buffalo Lake locations, including The Narrows and Buffalo Lake Provincial Recreation Areas, and Rochon Sands Provincial Park, are also available for partnerships.
The sites were chosen following a review of all 473 sites in the Alberta Parks system, says the province.
Sites removed from the system would have their park designations removed, and could be open for “alternate management approaches,” says the province in its notice of the closures.
Those could include selling or transferring a park to a municipality, or to another entity, “so that sites could continue to provide important economic and recreational benefits to local communities.
“Some of the sites could also stay open under a public lands management model or revert back to vacant public land.”
The province is also boosting camping fees by $3, and the fee for services such as power, water and sewer by $1.