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W ilderness is protected in Ontario only through provincial and federal park legislation. Wilderness parks are well-known, high-profile areas, but park implementation targets for wilderness are very modest. The present target is a single wilderness park and wilderness park zone in each ecological region. Protection of areas as parks is complicated by policies that exclude hunting and other activities. "Conservation reserves" are a recent innovation to recognize protected areas but permit hunting and other activities. To date, four conservation reserves have been registered but it is too early to assess their potential for protecting wilderness and old-growth areas. Park policies recommend that wilderness parks be as self-contained as possible, bounded by natural features such as landforms or watersheds, and at least 50,000 hectares in size. A single minimum-size standard may not be appropriate for all of Ontario's ecological regions, and doesn't reflect the decreasing size of the remaining roadless areas. It is a high minimum size by international standards, and has been used to argue against new wilderness parks in the south. Ontario's eight wilderness parks are outstanding: Polar Bear, Wabikimi, Opasquia, Woodland Caribou, Quetico, Kesagami, Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater and Killarney. An additional five parks have wilderness zones: Algonquin, Neys, Sleeping Giant, Lake Superior and Massasauga. |
Overall, only 13 of more than 260 provincial parks recognize wilderness values. More than half of Ontario's wilderness parks and zones are less than 50,000 hectares. There are 14 ecological regions in Ontario. None has more than a single wilderness park, and five have no wilderness parks yet. Similar shortfalls have occurred in establishing natural environment parks and nature reserves. The great vision of the Ontario park system has yet to be realized on the ground. A protected-areas system, however, includes more than provincial parks. Conservation reserves, roadless wilderness areas, old-growth areas, wetlands and areas of natural and scientific interest all represent parts of the system of protected areas in Ontario. The real challenge is the same for all of these -- to get them formally recognized by those managing and using our public lands. In 1995, Wabikimi was expanded from 155,000 to almost 890,000 hectares. Ecology figured prominently in this expansion. The initial park was based on constraints suggested by the potential of adjacent resources. The park was expanded to include an area large enough for a fire-based ecosystem to function. It may also be large enough to sustain its woodland caribou. Wabikimi sets a fine example of how future parks should be added to Ontario's park system. |
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| An old-growth pine in the Algoma Highlands region, an area still unprotected. Photograph by Brad Cundiff |
(1959)
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