Improvements coming to Livingstone-Porcupine Hills

New camping areas, bridges and trails are planned for the Livingstone-Porcupine Hills area of southern Alberta.

Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips says about $5 million will be spent to provide bridges, rebuild trails and protect fish habitat over the next four years.

Future projects will also include new camping facilities, signage and improvement to the Atlas, McGillivray, Window Mountain, Beaver Creek and Trout Creek staging areas for year-round recreation.

And new bridges will be built at damaged stream crossings to accommodate off-road vehicles, Phillips said Friday.

Albertans are meanwhile invited to offer feedback on her department’s draft “land footprint and recreation management” plans before April 26, she added. “This is responding to what we’ve been hearing.” Generations of Albertans have enjoyed exploring the Livingstone-Porcupine Hills area, she noted.

“After years of underfunding in this area, our government is proud to provide much-needed investment in new infrastructure that will ensure recreation continues on these lands.”

Funds announced Friday, she said, will include $2.2 million for the fisheries habitat enhancement and sustainability program, as well as $3.3 million for this year’s trail development, camping improvement and maintenance projects. The habitat initiatives are designed to benefit such threatened species as bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout in the Allison, Giraldi, Hidden and Lyon Creeks.

Last year, Phillips noted, her department invested more than $700,000 in three off-road vehicle bridges in the McGillivray area, as well as new trails and site improvement and a bridge for a snow groomer for winter trails in the Allison and McGillivray staging areas.