Among the Canadian AlpsBurpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
History
Among the Canadian Alps
Burpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
One other plan that is being earnestly advocated by the progressive
Commissioner of Dominion Parks will appeal with peculiar force to
those who are labouring to bring the physical, mental and moral
advantages of out-of-door life within reach of the masses of our
city-dwellers. The plan is simply to bring National Parks to the
people--a step distinctly in advance of the old policy of providing
parks, and letting the people get to them if they were able. The
Commissioner recognises the fact that the great mountain parks of
Canada are for the most part accessible only to the comparatively
well-to-do. To the majority of those who live in the cities the cost
of the railway journey is of course prohibitive. He proposes, then,
that the Dominion Government should secure a suitable tract of wild
land within easy reach of each of the principal centres of population
throughout the country, make it accessible by means of roads and
trails, put it in charge of competent wardens, make it a sanctuary for
the wild life of the neighbourhood, and throw it wide open to the
people. Probably no other country is so favourably situated for such a
measure at the present time. Wild land, with every variety of
delightful natural scenery, may still be set apart or secured at no
great cost within an hour or so's journey of most of the Canadian
cities. At the same time these cities are growing at a phenomenal
rate, and in a few years' time when the need of these natural
playgrounds of the people will be much more acute than it is to-day,
the cost of the land would probably be prohibitive. An illustration of
what may be done for other Canadian cities is the proposed park on the
British Columbia coast between Burrard Inlet and Pitt River. This park
will be of great benefit to the present people of the city of
Vancouver, but it will be of infinitely greater moment to the
Vancouver of fifty years hence with its population of a million or
more.
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