Sasquatch Provincial Park
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Sasquatch Provincial Park
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 View of Hicks Lake |
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| location | British Columbia (Canada) | |
| surface | 12.17 km² | |
| WDPA ID | 18653 | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 21 ' N , 121 ° 42' W | |
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| Sea level | from 170 m to 470 m | |
| Setup date | May 2nd, 1968 | |
| administration | BC parks | |
The Sasquatch Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Canadian province of British Columbia . The 12.17 km² large park is 6 km north of Harrison Hot Springs in the District of Kent, about 115 km east of Vancouver and is frequented by more than 330,000 visitors per year. There are three campsites and three hiking trails in the park, namely the 500 m long Beaver Pond Interpretive Trail , the 2 km long Deer Lake Trail and the 4 km long Hicks Lake Trail .
"Sasquatch" is a legend of the surrounding Indians , who are called First Nations in Canada . It was a very hairy giant, also known as Bigfoot .
history
The area was visited by various groups of the Chehalis (Sts'a'i: les First Nation), the Yale First Nation and various Stó: lō , so it is part of their traditional territory . While there are archaeological traces in the Harrison area, the only artifacts found within the park were Green Point.
The later park area was completely cut down. For this purpose, a large logging camp was set up at Green Point, slopes for the trucks were cut through the forest and Hicks Lake was dammed, as was Trout Lake Creek. Electricity was also generated for Harrison Hot Springs, and blocks of ice were cut in Trout Lake for the hotel there and transported away. These interventions ended in 1951 when BC Hydro abandoned the projects.
A first protected area of 20 hectares was established in 1959 on the Inlandfjord under the name Green Point Park . In 1960 it became a picnic area. Elevated to the park in 1968, the three lakes, the Hicks, Deer and Trout Lakes, were added to the park area. Since there were occasional disputes over the use of the park, the lakes were intended for different user groups. The two large lakes, the Hicks and Deer lakes in the east, were released for motorboats, while on the small Trout Lake not far from the nearby Harrison Lake, only canoes were allowed. The lakes are less suitable for swimming as cercaria are common here. They cause cervical dermatitis with its unpleasant symptoms. In 2001 the park already had 275,000 visitors, in 2013 it was over 330,000.
BC Hydro began preparations in 2012 for the laying of a power line from Nicola Valley to the Lower Mainland, more precisely to Coquitlam . The line runs right along Sasquatch Park, runs through the southern end of Golden Ears Provincial Park and through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park .
On June 19, 2014, at the invitation of the Tamihi Logging Co. and at the instigation of the Seabird Island First Nation , a meeting was held in Chilliwack to determine whether lumberjack trucks should be allowed in the park. In the so-called Park Amendment Act , the provincial government had decided that raw materials should be searched for within parks and, if they were found, park boundaries should be adjusted in favor of the interests of the timber industry or for pipelines (Park Boundary Adjustment Policy) . However, the First Nation does not want to build a new road, but rather access to a Lot, an area where they want to cut trees.
fauna and Flora
The park, which is a category II protected area ( national park ), is assigned to the "Southern Pacific Range Drier Maritime subdivision of the Coastal Western Hemlock (CWH) biogeoclimatic zone". Biogeoclimatic zones are characterized by a fundamentally identical or very similar climate and the same or very similar biological and geological conditions. This results in a very similar population of plants and animals in the respective zones.
The diverse landscape offers space for very different habitats. The common species include beavers, mountain goats , woodpeckers, wood warblers and vireos . The bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ), tailed frogs (they only occur in the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada) and the dragonfly species Tanypteryx , known here as "Black Petaltail", are also rare. There are more than ten species in the lakes. Trout Lake is not only home to trout, as the name suggests, but also ketal salmon (called chum salmon), which spawn in October and November. The white sturgeon has been spotted in Harrison Lake .
literature
- Sasquatch Provincial Park. Management Plan , 2002 (PDF).
Web links
- Sasquatch Provincial Park . In: BC Geographical Names (English)
- Sasquatch Provincial Park . In: English language website of the park at BC Parks
- Map of the park , PDF
Remarks
- ^ A b Management Plan for Sasquatch Provincial Park. (PDF; 864.75 KB) British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks , June 2002, accessed on June 21, 2014 .
- ^ Seabird looking for access to woodlot. In: The Agassiz Harrison Observer, May 22, 2014.
- ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - Sasquatch Park (English)
- ^ 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 .
- ↑ Biogeoclimatic Zones of British Columbia. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, accessed May 19, 2016 .