KENOSEE LAKE, Sask. – Bob Brickley knows grazing cattle in provincial parks is good for the land.
The cattle producer from Kennedy, Sask. said he wasn’t too worried that people attending a recent meeting on the future of provincial parks would see it differently.
He said a study on the carrying capacity of park land several years ago found grazing favorable because it simulated how bison used the land.
“It identified the land was anything but overgrazed,” Brickley said in an interview. “Some city people see one square yard (of overgrazed land) and grazing is perceived as something bad. Every few years we go through this exercise.”
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About 1,600 cow/calf pairs grazed in Moose Mountain provincial park this year.
“We’ve been grazing here 100 years, and we don’t feel we’ve hurt it,” said Hugh Smythe, also of Kennedy.
John Vandall of the environment department, told a Moose Mountain meeting that officials “do believe that you can use grazing as a (resource) management tool.”
The province held a series of public meetings to discuss the park system during the summer. Saskatchewan has 34 provincial parks, 22 protected areas, eight historic sites and 150 recreation sites.
The system is under pressure to replace and upgrade buildings which are, on average, more than 28 years old. An estimated $28 million is needed in the next 10 to 15 years for upgrades, repair and equipment.
Meetings in spring
Recommendations arising from the public meetings will be made in the spring of 1997.
While grazing was not identified as negative, oil exploration was, even though the industry pumped $300,000 into Moose Mountain park last year. It was the only Saskatchewan park to turn a profit last year, and that is due to oil royalties, said Vandall.
“I can remember when this park was a pristine beautiful place,” said one man at the meeting. “I wish the hell the oil had never come into this.”
Vandall told the crowd that the oil industry in Moose Mountain park will not grow any larger.
“There are virtually no new areas available for oil development in this park,” he told the meeting.
