Conservation groups want NDP action on Castle area

Several conservation groups have started a letter- writing campaign to remind Alberta’s NDP government about its pledge to better protect the Castle wilderness area in southern Alberta.

During the past week, the Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative have all sent out emails to their members to send the message to Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips.

“It was in the NDP platform to protect the Castle,” said Wendy Francis, interim president of Y2Y. “Here we are three or four months later.”

The NDP’s platform said it would protect the Castle wilderness area, but it didn’t say how. However, the government suggested last month that they would enhance the current protections.

Laura Tupper, press secretary to Phillips, said they are still working on a plan on how enhanced protection of the area will look.

“We do know it was part of the platform,” she said Tuesday, noting they have been receiving messages about it from Albertans. “Stay tuned.”

The South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, released a year ago, committed to a 546- kilometre conservation area known as the Castle Wildland Provincial Park. It’s being managed as a park under the plan, but has never been formally designated by the province as a protected area.

Conservation groups would like to see the entire 1,020- square kilometre area set aside as a wildland provincial park.

The Castle wilderness area provides about one- third of the water for the Oldman basin, the source of drinking water for downstream communities such as Lethbridge.