Alberta’s parks are in worse shape than they were a year ago as development grows in national parks and the province lags on adding protected areas, according to a new report by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

The sixth annual report on the state of parks, titled Losing Ground: Time to Embrace the True Value of Parks, suggests they are under threat across Canada due to commercial development and resource extraction.

“Our biggest concern is the growing trend toward commercial interests,” said Katie Morrison, conservation director for CPAWS’ southern Alberta chapter.

For example, the report highlights a proposed hotel at Maligne Lake in Jasper. It’s suggested the development will pose a threat to wildlife, particularly a mountain caribou herd that continues to decline.

There are only five caribou left in the Maligne herd, which is part of a population assessed as endangered by scientists advising the federal government on at-risk wildlife in Canada.

“It’s putting that herd at risk,” said Morrison, noting the proposal development also goes against a park policy that prohibits any new commercial accommodations outside of the townsite. “It’s blatantly against park policy.”

The report also criticizes Jasper’s Skywalk, an interpretive walkway that opened this year over the Sunwapta Valley, as a “theme park like” development that’s inconsistent with policy and sets the stage for other developments that could threaten wildlife.

No one from Jasper National Park returned calls for comment on the report.

Throughout the rest of Alberta, it noted that the province has not added any parks or protected areas in years.

“It’s the stalling of creating protected areas that we know are very important for both Albertans, who love our parks, and for nature, human health and even for the economy,” said Morrison.

Another report by the Canadian Parks Council showed parks provide social and economic benefits, as well as environmental ones.

Morrison said the province could address the issue in its upcoming land-use plan for southern Alberta, due out this month, by adding protections to places such as the Castle Wilderness area.

“We’re hoping to see that entire 1,000-square-kilometre area of the Castle protected in the land-use plan to really create those benefits in southern Alberta,” she said.

Tim Chamberlin, a spokesman for Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation, said the land-use plan for southern Alberta is still being finalized.

“Like all of the regional plans, the intent is to strike a balance between the social, economic and environmental goals,” he said.

Chamberlin said a similar plan in northern Alberta’s Lower Athabasca area has increased the protected areas by 40 per cent through the creation of 14 new wildland parks and provincial recreation areas.

“We are planning for expansion,” he said, noting there was also $1 million allocated in this year’s budget toward the protected areas in northern Alberta.

The CPAWS report highlighted similar concerns across Canada.

For example, the report noted that B.C. amended its Park Act with little public notice or debate to make boundary adjustments for pipeline and other industrial developments. Another effort to protect the Yukon’s Peel River watershed is now in court with local First Nations and conservation groups contesting the government’s plan for the area.

It also questioned whether Parks Canada is less able to protect the ecological integrity of parks due to 2012 funding cuts to its science and conservation programs.

cderworiz@calgaryherald.com