  Preserve and Protect Algonquin
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| Preserve and Protect Algonquin
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Immediately below is an email letter sent to Ms. Adair Ireland-Smith, Managing Director Ontario Parks, Ministry of Natural Resources. It officially offers the "Guidelines" pamphlet and Doug Vance's posters as fresh, eye-catching means to promote ethical environment behavior and safe practices.
Below that is an email letter sent to the Hon. Jerry Ouellette, Ministry of Natural Resources. An identical email was also sent to Ms. Adair Ireland-Smith and others at the same time. The letter shares both personal observations and broader social concerns, endeavoring to elicit the minister's understanding.
At the very bottom is a draft letter, intended as a sample.
March 8/03
Ms. Adair Ireland-Smith
(copies to Algonquin Park Superintendent John Winters, The Friends of Algonquin and the Honourable Jerry Ouellette Minister of Natural Resources)
Dear Ms Ireland-Smith:
Thankyou for your response to my email.
Prior to emailing you, I had already been in email and telephone communication with Algonquin Park Superintendent John Winters. Superintendent Winters informed me of the enforcement statistics for 2001 and indicated that the education of park users was as important as the enforcement of regulations.
My involvement with Algonquin Park, in addition to frequently visiting as a canoeist-camper, is as the operator of the information exchange website "AlgonquinAdventures.com".
My initial contacts with Superintendent Winters were the result of concerns I shared with a number of the site's regular visitors, concerning the worsening conditions of some campsites and the increasingly inappropriate practices of some campers.
I request that you visit the Algonquin Adventures website and examine its "Preserve and Protect" section. While its main long-term focus is to obtain extra enforcement of existing park regulations, it has since taken on a couple of initiatives pertaining to the education of campers. The specific web address that will take you directly to the educational "Promotions" page is ... http://www.algonquinadventures.com/indexpp.htm .
I believe that there is a serious need for new ways of sensitizing and educating park users. At the above web address, you'll see two examples of such new methods. These items have been produced in response to both the concerns of responsible campers and the suggestions of Superintendent Winters.
The pamphlet and posters you'll see on the website are offered to Ontario Parks, The Friends of Algonquin and the Ministry of Natural Resources without restrictions. Please either take them outright for your use or utilize them as models for similar efforts.
Algonquin Park is already well-known for its very informative mini-newspaper and booklet publications. However, the issues of ethical environment behavior and safe practices will require a fresh, eye-catching approach. I believe you'll find the pamphlet and posters being promoted at Algonquin Adventures are just that.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to either email or telephone me.
Thankyou again,
Barry Bridgeford
Feb. 17/03
Hon. Jerry Ouellette
Dear Minister Ouellette
I've been visiting Algonquin Park regularly for a great many years and recently have noticed a degradation to both the drive-in campground facilities and the interior camping environment. Having recently retired from the provincial public service, I have first-hand knowledge of the government's various methods of down-sizing, re-organization and its focus on achieving "more-with-less". I'm also personally familiar with how reduced management now oversees multiple programs by deligating responsibilities to undertrained and inexperienced contract employees.
It's not the changed ways in which services are being provided that I'm at odds with. Rather, its the fact that in the matter of compliance with and enforcement of provincial park regulations, effective results simply aren't happening!
A growing element of uneducated, irresponsible and uncaring visitors to Algonquin are leaving their destructive marks upon the campgrounds, canoe routes and hiking trails. Mutilated trees, trashed latrines, fouled campsites and destroyed portage signs are becoming increasingly common. Dry spell fire-bans and the bottle-can ban are now being flaunted openly. Antisocial and belligerent behavior is nolonger an uncommon occurrence.
I realize that this government doesn't consider itself in the "ethical behavior" business. However, a point is being reached where the negative consequencies of this kind of uneducated and destructive behavior is definitely "bad for business".
In the past, the economic spin-offs associated with park visitors and campers were substantial for area merchants and tourism operators. Only ten to five years ago, interior camping was extremely popular with tourists from overseas. One typically met numerous American, Japanese and German tourists on the interior portages and lakes. In recent years, these same portages and lakes are by comparison more lightly travelled, by those from more local origins.
You may find it convenient to explain these changes by the "terrorist threat", by changes in foreign exchange or by reductions in overseas advertising. However, we certainly cannot expect a degraded, unattractive and uncultivated resource to generate an attractive reputation or repeat visits from international tourists.
I'm requesting you to invest extra funding into Algonquin's management, to increase effective in-field education and enforcement services. Only by re-establishing Algonquin Park's reputation as the flag-ship of Ontario's Provincial Parks will you ensure its continued success as a meaningful natural, social and economic resource.
Thankyou.
Barry Bridgeford
905-727-1764
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The following is a draft letter. Your own letters should be worded to explain your personal situation, experiences and concerns. The opening paragraph should introduce you .. your age, favourite parts of, activities in and appreciation of Algonquin. The purpose of this is to establish you as a distinct individual in the reader's mind. In the following paragraphs, you can express your concerns .. drawing on the draft letter's points .. and expanding them with your own observations. Your concluding paragraph should emphasize the reader's responsibility to do their part to preserve Algonquin for all generations to come, by funding greater numbers of wardens and conservation officers, thereby protecting the park's unique natural environment.
Dear _________ ___________ I am writing to express my deep concern about the effects of MNR staff reductions on Algonquin Park, Ontario's flagship natural environment park. Algonquin is known worldwide for the beauty and quality of it's natural features. However, recent reductions in park staff, particularly those of the park's conservation officers and wardens, have resulted in a degradation of the wild features so many visitors have come to appreciate. In the past, traditional park rangers, wardens and conservation officers could be relied upon to provide assistance to visitors in need and to enforce park regulations when necessary in the interests of safety, protection and preservation. Over the past few years, a lowered quality of park management has coincided with recent MNR staff reductions, re-organizations, cutbacks and privatization. The services that used to be provided by wardens and conservation officers are now missing or have been greatly reduced. This has resulted in those users who are neglectful routinely breaking the park's boating, fishing and camping regulations. Worse still, park users often do not know how to properly conduct themselves in such a natural environment, especially with far fewer staff to advise them on safety and sustainable-use practices. This is a deteriorating situation with respect to MNR's stated goal of maintaining the sustainability of natural park values. If allowed to continue, this will result in greater numbers of poorly-informed users degrading campgrounds, campsites, portages and trails, as well as compromising their own safety by neglecting to take the necessary precautions in a natural setting. Ontario's Algonquin Park needs increased protection. I urge you to take action immediately to bring wardens, conservation officers and their patrols to an effective level. The present level of management is simply not good enough. If we leave Algonquin to the bare-bones protection and limited management resources we have today, the neglect and degradation will continue to increase. Again, please take the necessary steps to improve warden and conservation officer services so that we may continue to enjoy a wild, natural and undegraded Algonquin Park.
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