Purpose statements: heritage…

Purpose statements:
heritage, including:
o significant or rare ecosystems, including provincially significant parabolic and freshwater dunes, prairies, and wetlands
o species at risk and their habitats
o artifacts and information from the HMS Nancy and the War of 1812
o Indigenous history associated with the park area
o cultural history of the community of Wasaga Beach and surrounding area
• provide a variety of accessible, high quality, year-round, ecologically sustainable recreational opportunities, such as the all-season trail network and public access to Georgian Bay
provide high quality interpretive and educational opportunities and experiences based on the park and surrounding area’s cultural and natural heritage

Vision Statements
Manage the park for the benefit of future generations.
• Protect the park’s ecological integrity and contribute to climate change resilience
• Provide outstanding, ecologically sustainable, all season, welcoming recreational and educational experiences

Permitted uses:
I would like to see more available food and beverage vendors on the beach areas. I feel there is a significant economic opportunity that is missed by having families arrive at the beach with coolers full of food and drinks purchased in their home communities. It would be nice to have some take out/quick service options available from Beach 2-6.

Boundaries:
I am in support of the province assuming oversight for the town-owned areas of the beach.

Overnight accommodation:
I am in support of adding overnight accommodation, so long as it is managed appropriately and with a view to maintaining the environmental integrity of the park. The risk of the park becoming a party location are significant. Policies that address this might be required, which may be unique to other Ontario park camping policies. The availability of roofed accommodations is supported, as they are very popular with people who only camp 1-2 times per year. In addition, adding some serviced sites for trailers (water, sewer and electric) would be a unique attraction in the Ontario Parks system. Rockwood Conservation Area in the GRCA system has a small section of 'trailer friendly' sites that are very popular and quite lovely to use (well treed, level, grassed and large). We have a trailer but tend to use private parks for the full hookups, but would love to take advantage of more provincial parks if they had full hookups, particularly for longer stays (or the option of a honey wagon would be nice, anything to avoid pulling the trailer out midway through the stay to dump).

Park classification
I support changing the classification as I feel it is more representative of the established park uses.

Beach Access paths
I support leaving them as is, but perhaps using more control measures (fencing, breakwalls, vegetation) to better define them and keep people from straying off the path (the poison ivy does a good job of that!). Also, some hard surface paths would be beneficial for people using wheelchairs, or pulling wagons and strollers.

Renaming
I don't have an issue with exploring it, given that it might assist visitors in better selecting a park area to visit. That said, I know what is at each site, so the numbers are ok too. Perhaps better marketing materials on the website explaining each beach area, its features and attractions etc. would be helpful, along with some visual icons at the gate houses for each park area would be helpful.

Other
I would like to see more interpretive programs, particularly for families and children at the park. A better directionally managed beach trail from Beach 1-6 would be helpful as well (more signs, better paths). Lastly, more dog beach areas, ideally, one per beach area would be helpful. Its inconvienent to only have beach area 3 available to dogs. In my opinion, I believe this leads to more violations and then increased enforcement requirements. Similar sections of dog beach in each park area would address this. Better signage to the closest washroom would also be helpful for visitors.