Lakefield Herald Special Report

GCH gets progress report on Kawartha Highlands Park

by Terry McQuitty

Galway-Cavendish and Harvey council received an update on the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site during Tuesday afternoon’s council meeting.

Park Superintendent, Dave Coulas appeared before council to give an overview of the operation including staffing and capital projects.

Coulas stated that the park has been converting staff from contract positions to regular full time positions. This process has taken two years to implement.

Coulas also referred to the park’s continuing relationship with the Ranger program. This program is made up of young people between the ages of 17 and 18.

Last season the Rangers were able to visit all the campsites in the park three times by using canoes. Any youth interested in joining the Rangers can visit the Ministry of Natural Resources website and view the youth programs section.

Work is also underway on the individual campsites. Fire pits with grates have been installed along with signage and picnic tables. These tasks bring the site in line with other provincial parks.

Staff is also making an effort to have all boats within the park registered. All boats have to be identified and this is done through the use of tags.

The time frame for registering your boat has elapsed, however the deadline has been extended.

Three hundred boats have been tagged to date, however all boats will have to be identified by 2011 or they will be removed from park property.

There is presently no charge for registration.

Capital projects have also been started over the past year. Parking lots at Military Bridge and Bottle Lake are being upgraded to accommodate park visitors.

The lot at Military Bridge is nearing completion where as the lot at Bottle Lake has taken a little longer to get the shovel in the ground.

Park staff and local stakeholders have met in regard to the Bottle Lake lot to agree on a concept. Work is scheduled to be completed by the May long weekend of this year.

Once the lot is completed it will be 100 per cent inside park boundaries.

The parking lots are an important component to the park as it will gage usage of the campsites. There are 17 sites accessible through this entry point.

Camp sites within the park will be subject to reservations. Once all the sites have been reserved the park will be deemed full. Staff will patrol the park to ensure that people using the sites are legitimate. Those camping without a reservation will be subject to consequences.

Coulas stated that it will take some time to educate the public on the procedures of the park.

Kawartha Highlands Signature Site is working on a park map, but they are in no rush to release it as they are not going to market the park until they have upgraded utilities. The plans are to release the map in 2011.

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