Facts and Figures

Facilities and Recreational Opportunities:

• 10,700 vehicle accessible campsites & approximately 2000 walk in/ backcountry;
• 39 group campgrounds and picnic areas that can be reserved;
• Approximately 1/3 of parks offer some form of developed facilities  (approx 324)
• 60 picnic shelters;
• 126 boat launch areas;
• About 6000 kilometres of hiking trails;
• 1,138 kilometres of roads;
• Approximately 27,000 parking spaces
• more than 230 parks have facilities for those with disabilities;

Park and Protected Area Information

As of March 2011, 14.27%, or 13.5 million hectares of land, is the overall size of the protected areas system in the whole of the province of British Columbia (this includes national parks and national park reserves, as well as provincial parks and protected areas).

The size of the protected areas system administered and managed by BC Parks (which includes parks, conservancies, ecological reserves and recreation areas) is 999 protected areas, totaling 13.14 million hectares of land and marine waters.

• British Columbia has the second largest parks system in Canada, after Canada's National Parks.
• The 947,026 hectare Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park is a World Heritage Site. Together with adjacent parks in Alaska and the Yukon, it forms the world's largest international World Heritage Site;
• Khutzeymateen Provincial Park is Canada's only grizzly bear sanctuary and is home to about 50 grizzlies, the highest known concentration along the British Columbia coast;
• Liard River Hot Springs are ranked in the top five of all North American Hot Springs;
• The largest intact coastal temperate rainforest in the world is protected in Kitlope Heritage Conservancy;
• Anne Vallee (Triangle Island) Ecological Reserve protects the largest seabird colony in British Columbia and the largest Stellar's sea lion rookery in Canada and the second largest in the world;
• 70% of British Columbia's five million nesting seabirds are protected in 13 of our ecological reserves;
• 14.26% (13.5 million hectares) of British Columbia's land base is protected;
• Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, one of Canada's largest and most significant parks, supports populations of wildlife and includes one of British Columbia's most important habitats for woodland caribou;
• Tweedsmuir Provincial Park at 989,616 hectares, is British Columbia's largest provincial park. The smallest is Memory Island, at less than one hectare;
• Stone Mountain Provincial Park is the highest elevation pass of the Alaska Highway;
• Strathcona Park (created in 1911, it was B.C.'s first provincial park) contains the 440 metre Della Falls, which is Canada's highest and one of the ten highest falls in the world; and,
• The world's most productive sockeye salmon run can be viewed at Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park.

Visitor Use and Attendance

• almost 90% of British Columbians have used a provincial park at some time; and,
• about six in ten residents of British Columbia use a provincial park each year.

Park Visitation

The data below has undergone a quality assurance assessment to ensure that it reflects the total number of recorded visits each year, as accurately as possible. Visit numbers are those recorded through campground registrations, trail and traffic counters, and visual counts. Please note, the year represents the fiscal year, 2009 to 2010 is from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.

Recorded Park Visit	2006/2007	2007/2008	2008/2009	2009/2010	2010/2011
Camping	2,323,110	2,381,099	2,365,520	2,519,665	2,358,896
Day Use	16,942,850	17,081,091	17,067,285	17,532,494	17,132,601
Boating	205,798	180,663	179,757	206,662	187,488
TOTAL Visits	19,471,759	19,642,854	19,612,561	20,258,821	19,678,984

 

BC Parks Discover Camping Reservation Service (2010):

• Discover Camping Reservation Service allows for campsite reservations in 90 parks and 137 campgrounds.
• In 2010 BC Parks had 845,014 visits to the Discover Camping website in 5 ½ months, a 30% increase over 2009

Park Facility Operators (PFO):

• 22 PFOs operate 29  bundles (which include 201 parks)
• 50 additional parks are operated under individual contracts (non-bundled parks).

Further information

• Frequently Asked Questions - lists various questions and answers regarding policies and procedures to follow while visiting our provincial parks and protected areas.
• Province of BC Facts - lists interesting facts provided by the Government of British Columbia.