Parks Day

July 18 –

A nighttime light show, life-sized climate action board game, and Parks Day Jeopardy are just some of the fun and educational activities taking place on Saturday, July 18 – Canada’s Parks Day – in B.C.’s provincial parks.

“Parks Day is a great time to explore the outdoors and discover more of B.C.’s spectacular provincial parks,” said Environment Minister Barry Penner. “Not only is the BC Parks system important for conserving wildlife and significant habitat, but it’s also a great place for families to take part in fun and healthy activities. People of all ages will find an incredible range of things to do in our provincial parks.”

Parks Day is celebrated annually on the third Saturday of July in every province and territory across the country. Parks Day activities include natural and cultural hikes, children’s nature games, fun runs, marine interpretation, scavenger hunts, nature slide shows, and a visit from our favorite park employee – Jerry the Moose.

On Parks Day, a number of provincial parks will be offering children ages four to 12 the opportunity to participate in the fourth annual Colour Your Parks Kid’s Art Contest. Children will draw, paint or colour pictures that will encourage other kids and their families to go to their favorite park. All entries must be received by Sept. 11, 2009.

In addition, B.C. Parks is hosting its iParks Youth Webcast Competition. To enter, youth ages 18 and under are to produce a one minute or less video webcast (podcast) answering the question: “The people of the world are coming to B.C. next year. What would you tell them about your favourite B.C. park?” The top 10 webcasts will be posted on the B.C. Parks website for public viewing. Winners will be chosen on Sept. 25 and be notified by the end of September 2009.

Prize sponsors include Arc’teryx, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Coghlan’s, micalendar.ca, Owlkids, the BC Society of Park Facility Operators, the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, Parks Canada and BC Parks.

To find out which provincial parks are holding Parks Day events on July 18 and to learn more about the Colour Your Parks Kid’s Art Contest and the iParks Youth Webcast Competition, please visit www.bcparks.ca.

To make the province’s world-class parks system better than ever before, the B.C. government has made capital investments of more than $107 million over the past five years to improve park infrastructure and acquire additional parkland.

Since 2001, the provincial government has established 57 new parks, 143 conservancies, one ecological reserve and nine protected areas, and expanded more than 50 parks and six ecological reserves, protecting more than 1.9 million hectares. Today, over 14 per cent of British Columbia is protected – more than any other province in Canada.

Press release
July 16, 2009
Ministry of Environment