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Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park stays resilient

Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park (GRPP) is staying resilient in the face of lost revenues as a result of COVID-19. 

The Alberta government mandated the closure of the park – located southeast of Cochrane – in mid-March, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. According to Sarah Parker, executive director of the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation (GRPF), the closure meant the park was virtually vacant for six weeks, as people were not allowed to travel there by car.

“There were still a few people who were able to access it from the Gleneagles path that links to the park on the west end, but other than that, it was basically empty,” she said. “Our [foundation] staff, as well as the park staff, worked from home. We came in occasionally, but we were nearly all working remotely except for maintenance staff.”

The biggest setback related to the pandemic has been the park’s guided golf cart tours being called off for the summer – a massive hit to GRPF’s revenue, Parker said.

“That is tens of thousands of dollars in revenue that typically goes to supporting our foundation and the work we do in the park and in the community,” she said. “So that has made the foundation have to work a bit differently now.”

While the government lifted some restrictions for provincial parks as early as May 1, Parker said GRPF’s educational programming had already been cancelled by then.

“And then, with [Alberta Environment and Parks’ cuts] to vegetation management programs, we also took over the vegetation management program for this summer,” she said.

Though GRPP has reopened, Parker said some public health measures are in place to help limit the possible transmission of COVID-19. She said only half of the park’s outhouses are available to the public. Cleaning crews disinfect the outhouses twice a day.

Additionally, the park’s visitor centre is still closed to the public.

With the losses in revenue and donations decreasing since the pandemic began, Parker said the foundation has applied for financial support through relief programs offered by the provincial and federal governments.

“We are doing our absolute best from a financial standpoint to take advantage of all federal and provincial subsidies that are out there,” she said. “We also are really grateful to organizations like the Calgary Foundation, who have a pandemic relief grant, which we were able to access to fund our vegetation management program for this summer.  

“Through the government programs and grants, we are confident that we are going to be alive and well and functioning in 2021.”

While the golf court tours are not available this summer, Parker said the park will still provide a handful of guided walking tours, where a limited number of visitors can hear about the history, ecology and wildlife of GRPP. She added one tour is taking place on Canada Day, while another will be held in August. Interested participants can register for the tours at grpf.ca

In addition to those guided walks, GRPF is offering four free programs for children this summer.

“We're keeping the groups small just for social distancing purposes, but we'll be doing two mini grassland programs and two mini pond exploration programs,” she said. “We've been able to go ahead with those following Alberta health and safety regulations.”

Despite the many negative impacts of the pandemic, Parker said the events of recent months have given GRPF the opportunity to be more of an information source than ever before. She said the foundation’s social media following has increased “leaps and bounds.”

“We regularly post pictures of the park, so when people were stuck at home, they were able to watch the seasons change, from winter to spring into summer on our Facebook page,” she said.

Another unintended – yet positive – outcome was the creation of new online resources, Parker said. She said plenty of guided videos have been uploaded online, which were provided to schools and classrooms that usually visit GRPP for field trips. While the park’s annual Indigenous Day event was cancelled this year, Parker said GRPF is preparing a virtual tour that visitors can enjoy in July.

“Visitors will be able to listen to Indigenous knowledge keepers from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation speak about the vegetation on Tiger Lily loop [as well as] some of the history of the people who lived here prior to European settlers,” she said.

Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19



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