Renovation plans for the park area at Prelude Lake have been met with a a full range of emotions by the general public.
Phil Duffy and Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 25/01) - Prelude Lake territorial park is an out of the way campground located 29 kilometres east of Yellowknife along the Ingraham Trail.
About 97 hectares in size, the park, which was established in the mid-60's, offers camping and picnicking, facilities, hiking, swimming, and boating.
Along with campers who enjoy about 30 campsites, the park is intensely used by Yellowknife residents and tourists, as well as the lot owners and lease holders included within its boundaries.
Since 1997 user demands have increased both in the campground and the boat launch area.
The park, which is owned by the territorial government, will not be expanding its size or adding any new campsites until after an environmental assessment review on possible negative environmental effects is completed.
Residents and cabin dwellers have expressed concerns about details of the proposed plan, which includes either moving the existing access road or building a new one as well as the possibility of expanding he boundary and boat-launch facility and adding more campsites and parking facilities.
Dan Costache has owned a cabin at Prelude for more than 20 years.
"It's a beautiful area and the cabin that we have is fairly isolated. We like that because you don't have people running around the area, and the expansion is going to be very close to our place," he said.
No peace and quiet
"The way things are now, we can hear noises from the campgrounds, and if you bring new campsites even closer we're not going to have any peace and quiet anymore."
Another concern regarding overcrowding is that the problem of the all-terrain vehicles and dirtbikes damaging the land, that already exists, will worsen.
"Being a cabin owner at Prelude Lake for several years, one of the safety concerns I have with the area is the use and abuse of all terrain vehicles and dirt bikes.
"This has eroded the land to an alarming degree. The park has become a motorcross place for a lot of people over the summer. I am hoping that this issue will be addressed in this plan," said Vincent Gauthier.
Karen LeGresley Hamre is the landscape architect with Avens Associates LTD. who designed the master and alternative re-development plans for Prelude.
"The proposal on all-terrain vehicles in Prelude is that they would be banned from the park except for work purposes. Special permits will be available to lot owners or lease holders that use ATVs for work purposes, otherwise they will be banned," she said.
There have been several public meetings on the Prelude subject over the past few months, and one of the most repeated concerns from lot owners is the removal of trees to build a new access road.
Because the soil is fairly sandy, when one tree is removed it will undermine the shallow root systems of surrounding trees resulting in a domino effect.
"The addition of an access road will not only take away privacy from the cabin owners and damage the surrounding trees, there could be an adverse environmental impact on the natural springs in the park," said Ron MacLellan, a homeowner who lives in Prelude year-round.
Polution from boaters
Prelude Lake is considered by cabin owners to be virtually fished out, and the oil and gasoline slicks floating on the water are evidence that perhaps there is already too much motorized traffic on the lake.
"You can always see the gasoline or oil on the water, and over by the boat launch the rocks are getting slimy with a build-up of oily residue," said Nancy Marchiori, whose family owns a cabin by the lake.
"I'm worried that this problem will only get worse if the park is expanded. It would be better if they improved the marina because the marina hasn't grown and the number of people using it has greatly increased."
The most asked question from lot owners and lease holders about the Prelude plan is perhaps best phrased by Costache.
"If they're going to put that much money into a project, why not relieve some of the existing stress from the park and look at another site, rather than just trying to re-structure with the same parcel of land?"
Gary Tees is the supervisor of Parks Services for the North Slave region and is Project Manager for the Prelude Lake master plan revision.
He offers this answer to the location question.
"It all boils down to the ownership of the land.
"We would certainly like to be able to have the option of looking into other park sites, but right now there is a land freeze involving various aboriginal groups negotiating with several levels of government, so at this time we can't just phone up the local aboriginal people and start negotiating for land, at least not at the regional level."
There are two basic goals for the Prelude proposal.
The first being to provide an enjoyable, safe and natural setting with clearly defined activities for touring vacationers, local campers and day users.
The second is to preserve and protect the environment and natural experience at Prelude Lake Park through sound and sustainable environmental management. Most of the people who have an opinion on the proposal greatly appreciate the environmental protection aspect.
"I think that the environmental study they are proposing is a very positive thing," said Sharon Berry, who has owned a cabin in the park for seven years and has lived there year-round for two.
"I think the public reaction was positive. A lot of people are really happy with the environmental impact assessment. They are concerned with the over-all health of the park and are glad to see that it is the first step," said Hamre.
