IMPROVING CYPRESS HILLS INTERPROVINCIAL PARK

Released on January 5, 2011

Forest Renewal, Campground Upgrades and Expansion

The lodgepole pine forest in the campground area in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is being regenerated and improvements are underway in some of the campgrounds. The regeneration project will encourage growth of new trees and reduce the possibility of old or diseased trees falling and damaging property or injuring people.

"The forest in Cypress Hills is the only stand of lodgepole pine east of the Rockies," Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Bill Hutchinson said. "It is being challenged by age and by insects such as the mountain pine beetle. We are working to renew the forest in an environmentally sound and safe manner that will ensure the park continues to be a special place for generations to come."

The most visible impact of the Campground Redevelopment Project is the vegetation management program. Lodgepole pine regeneration requires removing the trees to encourage the natural forest renewal process. Forest renewal activities will begin during the winter of 2011 in the Pine Hill Campground, as part of a 10-year Forest and Fire Management Plan for the Cypress Hills. Developed in 2004, it continues to direct forest renewal and wildfire protection. Vegetation renewal projects, such as this, have been underway for several years in other provincial parks.

All of the lodgepole pine in approximately half of the Pine Hill Campground will be removed this winter. Trees that can be used for building materials will be cut into lumber. Smaller trees and those that are too old or decayed will be used for firewood in the park.

The natural regeneration of lodgepole pine will be helped along by planting seedlings in the spring of 2011. A similar process will take place in the rest of the Pine Hill Campground next winter. The Pine Hill Campground will be closed until the lodgepole pine re-grows, and will re-open in approximately 10 to 15 years as a redeveloped and expanded campground.

A vegetation management demonstration site is being established on a 0.4 hectare plot near the entrance to the Rainbow Campground. It will show how natural regeneration and planting lodgepole pine seedlings will help renew the lodgepole pine forest in the park.

The Meadows Campground is being upgraded and expanded. The work includes developing 87 new sites with full electrical service. They will replace the sites in the closed Pine Hill Campground and are scheduled to open during the 2012 camping season. During construction approximately half of the existing sites in the Meadows Campground will be closed for safety reasons.

Electrical service in existing sites in the Rainbow and Terrace Campgrounds is being upgraded. Electrical service will also be added to some existing campsites.

When the work is completed there will be 397 campsites with electrical service in the Meadows, Terrace, Rainbow, Pine Hill, Warlodge and Lodgepole Campgrounds.

The electrical work is part of government's program to add electrical service to 1,000 campsites over a four year period. The forest renewal program is part of a province-wide program to regenerate the forest in the core areas of several of the province's provincial parks.

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For more information, contact:

Sean St. George
Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport
Regina
Phone: 306-787-9087
Email: sean.stgeorge@gov.sk.ca
Cell: : 306-526-8635