Herald Provincial Park

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Herald Provincial Park

IUCN Category II - National Park

The 27 m high Margaret Falls

The 27 m high Margaret Falls

location British Columbia (Canada)
surface 79 ha
WDPA ID 65223
Geographical location 50 ° 47 '  N , 119 ° 12'  W Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '15 "  N , 119 ° 12' 23"  W
Herald Provincial Park, British Columbia
Herald Provincial Park
Setup date 11th September 1975
administration BC parks

The Herald Provincial Park is a 79-hectare Provincial Park in the Canadian province of British Columbia . It is on the shores of Shuswap Lake and about 14 kilometers east of the small community of Tappen near Salmon Arm . The access road leaves Highway 1 in taps . The park is located in the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District .

investment

The small park is located directly on the shores of Shuswap Lake on the Interior Plateau . The camping area of ​​the park is divided into three parts. The park is traversed by the Reinecker Creek. This separates two of the camping areas from the third camping area and the picnic area. Before the creek flows through this area, however, it has flowed through the Upper Canyon and fell in two stages the Margaret Falls about 27 meters deep.
The camping areas have different densities of trees. While one of the three sub-areas is completely without trees, trees partially provide shade in the second area and the last area is then densely forested with trees. The picnic area is also divided into areas with dense and areas with little to no forest.
The park is a category II protected area ( national park ).

history

The name of Margaret Falls is said to refer to the name of the first white woman to visit the waterfall. However, there is no evidence of this. Evidently, however, there was a farm in the park area from 1905 onwards, which was owned by a Dr. Dundas and a woman Edith Herald belonged. The small park was then established in 1975 and was to undergo further changes in terms of its legal form and size over the years.

As with almost all provincial parks in British Columbia, this one too was the hunting and fishing area of ​​various First Nations tribes long before the area was settled by immigrants or became part of a park .

Flora and fauna

Wooded area on Reinecker Creek above Margaret Falls

Within the British Columbia ecosystem, the area in which the park is located is assigned to the Moist Warm Subzone of the Interior Douglas-fir Zone . In addition to the Douglas fir , the giant arborvitae and paper birch also grow here . These biogeoclimatic zones are characterized by the same or a very similar climate and the same or similar biological and geological conditions. This results in a very similar population of plants and animals in the respective zones.

The trees here in the park no longer belong to the original vegetation after they have been used for timber industry, but are so-called secondary forest . However, the forest also has an undergrowth of ferns and other plants. So here you can find the umbel winter love and the alder-leaved rock pear . The endangered Rocky Mountain Sedge (Carex backii) , a sour grass plant, can also be found in the park . The Pacific flowering dogwood , the heraldic plant of British Columbia, which is widespread in large parts of the province , is also found here.

The lake is rich in fish, represented here primarily of sockeye salmon (English sockeye ). The fish attract ospreys and bald eagles . In the park there are mainly small rodents and small mammals such as the Douglas squirrel , while black bears , lynxes and pumas can also be found in the sparsely populated hinterland of the park . Many bird species are native to the park area. Including the heraldic bird of British Columbia, the tiara jay . Overall, the park administration states that around 70 different bird species live in the area.

activities

The special tourist attractions of the park are Shuswap Lake on the one hand and Reinecker Creek Canyon with Margaret Falls on the other. The park as a whole is criss-crossed with numerous, mostly relatively easy, hiking trails. The lake location in particular makes the park popular with families. The lake is ideal for all water sports.

In addition to a picnic area, the park has 119 parking spaces (some of which can be reserved) for campers and tents and has several sanitary facilities with showers.

Web links

Commons : Herald Provincial Park  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margaret Falls on an English language database on waterfalls
  2. ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - Herald Park (English)
  3. ↑ a b Herald Provincial Park - Purpose Statement And Zoning Plan. (PDF; 134.78 kB) British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks , January 2003, accessed on February 5, 2016 (English).
  4. ^ Ecosystems of British Columbia. (PDF; 10.31 MB) British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations , February 1991, accessed on December 29, 2012 .
  5. ↑ TreeBook. Paperbirch. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations , February 1991, accessed December 29, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Biogeoclimatic Zones of British Columbia. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, accessed May 3, 2016 .