For the first time in more than two decades a local company will be taking care of Powell River’s provincial parks.
On November 1, Unlimited Trails, a company that helped restore the trail around Inland Lake in 2008, was selected by BC Parks to operate both Inland Lake and Saltery Bay provincial parks.
Kathleen Richards owns the local company and she has signed a 10-year agreement with the provincial government to run the parks.
Inland Lake and Saltery Bay’s previous operators were from the Lower Sunshine Coast and Vancouver. They only spent summers in the park, she said.
Richards has a strong history and connection to Inland Lake park.
“Unlimited Trails was created when I started working at Inland Lake six years ago,” she said. At the time, Richards’ company was contracted by Powell River Model Community for Persons with Disabilities Society, which has a stewardship agreement with BC Parks for Inland Lake, to fix the 13-kilometre trail around the lake and make it more accessible for hikers with mobility issues. “We widened the trail, re-gravelled and cleaned it up,” she said. “We brought it back to its original state and better in some places.”
Being local to Powell River will make all the difference, she said. “Having it run locally will allow us to put so much more care into it.”
Local businesses will also benefit because Richards said she plans on hiring local contractors to work on projects.
Park operators handle maintenance of the park facilities which can include cleaning out outhouses, picking up trash visitors have left behind, minor repairs and clearing fallen trees on established trails. “Pretty much everything,” Richards said.
She plans to use the winters, when there are less visitors and use, to work on larger maintenance projects, like building picnic tables.
“I want everything to be nice for the spring when people start using the park,” she said. “It’s awesome to have a job you can take pride in. It’s important to me.”
The parks are open to campers from May until September and the fishing season at Inland Lake runs from April to October.
Richards said there are a number of capital projects, like replacing boardwalks, that need tackling at Inland Lake and the park is ranked second on the parks service’s list of priorities, she said.
These larger projects are the responsibility of BC Parks to complete, but Richards said she hopes to be able to help out and suggest Powell River contractors to complete the work.
Saltery Bay Park is in better shape, she said, explaining that it does not have the same labour intensive trail system as Inland Lake to take care of.
She explained that the parks are a part of Powell River and to have them in good shape is a matter of civic pride. She said park users will see improvements in the facilities because she will be on hand to provide timely preventive maintenance. “It’s easier to do locally,” she said.
Richards said that she had been waiting six years for the previous contract on the park to expire so she could apply for the job. She found out in mid-October that the job was hers if she wanted it.
