Waterton Lakes National Park: Moving Towards Ecosystem Management

Abstract

"Protection of old growth forests along British Columbia's coast, expansion of the Celgar pulp and paper mill near Castlegar, diseased bison and Wood Buffalo National Park, and a solid waste disposal site in Toronto's Rouge Valley are but a few examples of resource and land use issues that have escalated from regional concerns to provincial or national issues. Often one side of the debate advocates that the solution is the establishment of a wilderness area or a park. The Wood Buffalo and Rouge Valley examples, however, show that protecting a core area of land in itself is not the solution. The debates then move on into arguments filled with popular terminology including regional integration, threats, sustainable development, and ecosystem management. Solutions appear to be elusive and parties to the issues feel that in the end what they value has been eroded or unnecessarily compromised."