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Letter: A Climate Corps could help the Sea to Sky park system

A Climate Corps could provide adequate staff to ensure our existing parks and trails’ upkeep and maintenance.
the-stawamus-chief-hike-will-be-open-once-again-with-conditions
The Stawamus Chief trail in Squamish, B.C. Photo: Getty Images

It’s no secret that there’s a problem with B.C.’s outdoor recreation infrastructure, especially here in the Sea to Sky.

There aren’t enough campsites, the backcountry is crowded, trails need work, and there are issues with parking, garbage, and more. So, how do we fix it?

The easy answer most people give is to increase BC Parks’ funding, and while that’s a part of the equation, this isn’t just a money problem. Nor is it one that the province can likely fix on its own.

Instead, we need to think bigger and approach the crisis in B.C’.s outdoor infrastructure as a massive public works project that can help address more significant societal issues like unemployment, climate change, and the COVID-19 recovery.

The best way to do that would be for the federal government to fund our version of the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC] and put it to work on B.C.’s outdoor infrastructure.

Created by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the New Deal, the CCC put millions of young men to work building trails, campgrounds and other outdoor infrastructure across the U.S.

The most popular New Deal program of the time, the CCC helped expand and develop outdoor recreation opportunities across the US. In fact, if you’ve travelled through any of the U,S, national parks, forests or monuments near where we live in B.C., there’s a good chance you’ve stepped on some miles of trails built through this program.

Here in B.C, a program like this would have a huge impact. First, it could provide adequate staff to ensure our existing parks and trails’ upkeep and maintenance. Whether it’s patrolling and maintaining crowded spots like Joffre Lakes and Garibaldi, staffing campgrounds, or rehabilitating old, out-of-use sites and trails, there is already plenty of work to be done.

Second, it would force the government to implement plans for building and expanding our outdoor infrastructure for this plan to really work. A project like the long-planned Pinecone Burke Provincial Park around Pitt Lake would suddenly have an army of workers ready to make it a reality. Forgotten trails, like the Stoltmann Wilderness Route could be cleared and reconstructed, while heavily trafficked spots like Watersprite Lake could get the upgrades they need to deal with massive increases in use.

Even the yet-to-be-built Spearhead Huts could benefit, able to rely on a steady team of workers instead of having to depend on volunteers and fundraising solely.

Third, it would help deal with two huge issues in our country right now, rebuilding after COVID-19 and climate change. The thousands of jobs created through this program would, by design, be green jobs. And, they wouldn’t just be building trails. In the same way the original CCC took on many conservation projects, this new version could be a sort of Climate Conservation Corps — an idea that President Joe Biden has already embraced— that works on major climate mitigation and adaptation projects.

Of course, an undertaking like this would be no small feat. Thousands of people would need to be hired, trained and put to work. But, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. BC Parks already contracts trail work to organizations like local heroes Dream Wizards.

And, with a handful of mountain clubs like the BC Mountaineering Club and Alpine Club of Canada already experienced and carrying out many of these tasks with teams of volunteers, there is a ready supply of expertise to lead this kind of project.

On the administrative side, Canada already runs programs that support nonprofits in hiring thousands of summer students, which could easily be a blueprint for implementation.

We already know there is some appetite for a project that puts young people to work on public service projects at the federal level. Even better for the Prime Minister is the fact that a project like this could help them change the channel on the WE Charity scandal. Not to mention that there are still millions of unspent dollars from that program that could be repurposed into a Canadian Climate Corps.

We’re facing some massive challenges in the world right now, and it can be too tempting to try and break them down into small, digestible pieces. But, small actions won’t work to tackle the scale of problems like climate change and rebuilding after COVID0-19. For that, we need big ideas. And, a Canada Climate Corps, put to work fixing up B.C.’s outdoor recreation infrastructure is exactly that.

Cam Fenton, of environmental organization 350.org

Squamish



 
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