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Kal Park Future Meeting Tonight

Jan 18, 2018 | 8:59 AM

A public meeting will be held in Vernon this evening on development of a new management plan for Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.

Keith Baric, the planning section head for the Okanagan for BC Parks says public input is needed to develop that plan.

An online forum has been taking comments since October with a wide range of ideas.

“What we’re hearing is preservation and conservation of the high grassland values of the park is a big one. Because the park is situated very close to an urban centre and residents, there’s concerns about wildfire.”

Ecological restoration will also be a large component.

Baric knows knows that parking is one issue that needs to be addressed.

“We want to put some ideas out to the public to gain feedback on where they’re using the park, and where we might want to focus our energy on enhanced parking opportunities.”

One of those ideas expanding the parking at Red Gate, by taking a small portion of the park for that.

The public comment period will be open until the middle of March.

“(That’s when) my work truly begins, to start drafting the management plan into the spring and into the summer. Then we will hopefully have another opportunity for the public to review the draft plan, which reflects a lot of the input and feedback which we’ve received thus far.”

He’s hoping to have a draft plan ready for the end of the year

The meeting this evening is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Prestige Hotel.

The old plan has been around since before more than 2 thousand hectares of protected land was added to the park in 2001