Lake Superior Provincial Park Management Plan Review

This notice was originally posted in the old Environmental Registry under number PB04E6012.

Description of Policy

Lake Superior Provincial Park is located 130 kilometres northwest of Sault Ste. Marie and 15 kilometres south of Wawa. The majority of park visitors use the park as a stopover, while travelling across Canada or around Lake Superior. The main recreational activities are hiking, camping, fishing, canoeing and picnicking. The park includes a varied landscape of rugged shoreline, beaches, rolling hills and inland lakes. Lake Superior Provincial Park's 2.6 billion year geological history is one of intense volcanic activity, mountain building, faulting, rifting and glaciation. The park is located in a transition zone between the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence and Boreal Forests.

The park was established in 1944 by Order-in-Council to protect a significant area of Lake Superior's coastline between Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa. Lake Superior Provincial Park is a 155,647 hectare natural environment park located along the rugged eastern shore of Lake Superior. An addition (P292) to the park was identified in Ontario's Living Legacy Land Use Strategy (1999). This park addition encompasses 5,163 hectares and was regulated under the Provincial Parks Act. There are four components to this addition: The MacGregor Cove, Superior Headlands and Montreal Falls natural heritage areas and a group of Crown land parcels south of the Superior Headlands. The MacGregor Cove natural heritage area provides habitat for "arctic coastal" disjunct species. These plants are rare in Ontario representing past arctic climates amongst the now typical forests of red and white pine, sugar maple and yellow birch. The Superior Headlands and Montreal Falls natural heritage areas provide rugged landscapes with a variety of forest vegetation including sugar maple, red maple, white birch, yellow birch, white pine, white spruce and cedar. Lake Superior Provincial Park encompasses a total area of 160,810 hectares.

A park management plan provides direction for the protection of natural and cultural heritage resources while providing for appropriate recreational and educational opportunities. Park management plan reviews are carried out to reconfirm with the public that the park management and development policies reflect current resource and recreation needs and conditions and are consistent with goals and objectives for natural environment class parks. Plan reviews also provide an opportunity to report new information regarding park resources and development.

These terms of reference signify the start of the Lake Superior Provincial Park Management Plan (1995) review process.

Purpose of Policy

This plan review will address park management related to policies identified in Ontario's Living Legacy Land Use Strategy (1999), consider management direction for the park and review existing management prescriptions. The result of this review will provide up-to-date management direction for Lake Superior Provincial Park while protecting Lake Superior Provincial Parks' outstanding natural and cultural heritage, and guiding its use, development, management and operation.

Other Information

In 1979, the Lake Superior Provincial Park Master Plan was developed for the park. On April 1, 1988 a review of the 1979 Master Plan was initiated. The Lake Superior Provincial Park Plan Review involved four phases: Background Information and Issues, Issues and Policy Options, Preliminary Management Plan and the approved Management Plan. The result of that process was the Lake Superior Provincial Park Management Plan (1995), which also provides direction for a plan review within 10 years.

In 1999, Ontario's Living Legacy Land Use Strategy was approved and provided direction for the regulation of the Lake Superior Addition (P292) to Lake Superior Provincial Park. The park addition was regulated (O. Reg. 311/02) in 2002 and requires management direction. Ontario's Living Legacy Land Use Strategy also provides policy direction for provincial parks within the planning area. A review of the Lake Superior Provincial Park Management Plan (1995) will consider the policy direction identified in the Strategy.

Public Consultation

This proposal was posted for a 47 day public review and comment period starting August 04, 2004. Comments were to be received by September 20, 2004.

All comments received during the comment period are being considered as part of the decision-making process by the ministry.

Please note: all comments and submissions received have become part of the public record.

Other Public Consultation Opportunities

In accordance with the provisions of the Ontario Provincial Park Management Planning Manual (1994), public and Aboriginal consultation is required during the preparation, review and approval of this plan. Ontario Parks' policy requires direct written notice to certain individuals, First Nations and organizations at each stage of the planning process. Other interested individuals, First Nations and organizations may request to be added to this list, which is updated at each stage.

Opportunities for public consultation will be provided at each stage of the management plan review process as follows:

• stage one - Invitation to Participate - Opportunity to Review the Terms of Reference, Summer 2004
• stage two - Opportunity to Inspect Background Information and Management Options Document, Autumn 2004
• stage three - Invitation to Review and Comment on the Preliminary Park Management Plan, Spring 2005
• stage four - Opportunity to Inspect the Approved Park Management Plan, Autumn 2005