Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 02/00) - Improving campgrounds, especially in the Yellowknife area, has been a major endeavour for the territorial government in recent years.

Fact File - 10,904 parties or 29,430 people used NWT campgrounds in 1999. A total of 1,862 more parties or 6,638 more people used territorial campgrounds last year. - 25 per cent of the parties were NWT residents. 51 per cent were from other parts of Canada compared to 48 per cent the year before. 10 per cent were from other countries, up one per cent from the year before. - Five places of origin accounted for 75 per cent of all camping parties. In descending order the parties came from the NWT 25 per cent, Alberta 25 per cent, British Columbia 14 per cent, Ontario 6 per cent and Germany 5 per cent. - Of the 14 per cent of parties from the USA, 13 per cent were from California, 9 per cent were from Alaska, 8 per cent were from Washington, and 4 per cent were from the following states: Florida, Oregon, Minnesota, and Colorado. *Source 1999 Campground Permit Statistical Report

With tourism numbers climbing and few people leaving the city during the summer months on holidays, there has been increasing pressure to provide more quality camping access in the Northwest Territories.

"The numbers (of residents using campsites) have been climbing and the proportion of non-residents have been climbing as well," said Robin Reilly, director of Parks and Tourism for Renewable Resources and Economic Development (RWED).

"For a number of years we've been investing heavily in building up the parks. That's been tapering off in the last few years, but we're still making modest improvements."

According to Reilly, prospects for future development of park areas and camping sites along the Ingraham Trail will be limited by two factors: One, dwindling space; and two, unsettled land claims to the area by aboriginal groups.

"One thing that is squeezing us a bit, is that we're running out of buildable space along the Ingraham Trail and land claims," Reilly said.

Regardless of the problems faced by park officials in developing camping areas along the Trail, the number of campers using the parks have been steadily climbing. Last year, over 2000 people visited Reid Lake campground and approximately 3000 people camped at Prelude Lake. Fred Henne Park topped the scales for the NWT with almost 10,000 people camping there over the summer.

Overall, according to the 1999 Campground Permit Statistical Report, the number of non-NWT residents using territorial parks was four per cent higher than the previous year and the numbers are expected to be even higher this year, park officials said.

"We've gone through the normal amount of wood for the summer, so that's a good indicator that the parks are being used more," said Garry Tees, Supervisor of Parks Services for the North Slave Region.

"Mid-week here is mostly tourists," said Alan Morton, "host camper" at Reid Lake. "The biggest percentage is from B.C. and Alberta."

Morton said the weekends still belong to local residents at the campground, but mostly because Reid Lake is further down the road from Yellowknife than other campgrounds, and most tourists tend to stay closer to town -- a point emphasized by Rebecca Jaud, general manager of the Frontier Visitor's Centre.

"Reid is a little bit further out," Jaud said.

"Most tourists stick closer to town where they can do laundry, go shopping and go sightseeing around town."