The area includes more than 5,000 square kilometres of public land divided into six public land-use zones — Blackstone Wapiabi, Dormer Sheep, Job/Cline, Kiska/Wilson, Panther Corners, Upper Clearwater/Ram.

Bighorn hosts a large variety of recreational activities including camping, OHV and snowmobile use, hiking, fishing, hunting and cycling.

Nixon voiced his concerns that Bighorn may face restrictions imposed on other pieces of land across Alberta.

“When we see them do this elsewhere in the province, they’ve ended up shutting down large areas of public land to most types of human activity,” he remarked. “You often you hear about ATVs, but there are other activities that see a reduction, including access just by people, horses, hunting and fishing activity.

“We don’t know what they will do and when you have a government that has already decided just to blindly go do whatever they want on this issue without talking to the people that are from the area, it’s extremely alarming for us.”

Nixon says he isn’t able to get in touch with Minister of Environment, Shannon Philips, but was able to question Minister of Energy, Margaret McCquaig-Boyd, in the Legislature.

“We’re working in the back country on responsible land-use, that’s been incredible, and we’ve working with many local groups, managing off-highway vehicle trails and monitoring campgrounds,” McCuaig-Boyd said. “There’s also been an enormous engagement with all stakeholders, efforts to repair the damage by those who don’t respect this region and Mr. Speaker this is going to be a good park for everyone because it’s got stakeholder input from all sides.”

“What we just heard was the energy minister confirm that memo in fact is true,” Nixon responded.

Nixon says he will continue to raise the issue with Phillips.