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Albertans can still visit these areas, but they’ll have to bring in their own firewood and no other services will be provided.

“Our goal is to try to get the money used to service these underutilized areas and redirect them to our crown jewels, to improve the experience for Albertans and enhance tourism,” said Nixon.

What about the following statement from his ministry’s own website, where it states: “Sites removed from the parks system allow a greater range of uses that were previously not possible under government regulation. Successful sale or transfer to a third party will enable these sites to continue to be part of the community while generating new economic opportunities.”

“This is not about selling Crown land,” said Nixon. “Those lands will no longer be governed under the Parks Act, they will simply revert back to Crown land. Where it says ‘sale’, it’s referring to the assets that may be in those areas.”

Photo by Andrew Penner / Calgary

For instance, years ago Nixon ran a Christian ministry for the Mustard Seed at Mountain Aire Lodge outside of Sundre. The land was owned by the province but the group had a lease to run the lodge, gas station, campground and restaurant in a program designed to help addicts kick their destructive lifestyles.

If a private individual or group wants to run a campground, for instance, they can purchase the lease — but not the land. Nixon also points to the Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant in Fish Creek Provincial Park in Calgary. While the people who run the highly regarded restaurant don’t own the land in the park, they can lease out the building to someone else to run the restaurant, if they so choose.

Nixon’s favourite example of the kind of partnership he hopes will occur in some of Alberta’s less-used parks can be found with the Friends of the Eastern Slopes Association. The not-for-profit, volunteer group runs the Bighorn Campground on the Parks Canada Ya Ha Tinda Ranch. They’ve been doing that since 1994 and charge only a $30 membership fee to those who camp in the maintained areas.

So, you can safely ignore the petition, put on your hiking boots and continue to happily enjoy Alberta’s great outdoors.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist.

lcorbella@postmedia.com