Dinosaur Provincial Park (DPP)

Dinosaur Provincial Park (DPP) was established on June 27th, 1955 and is located near Brooks, Alberta in our country’s largest bad land (“Dinosaur Provincial”, 2014). The landscape has a unique habitat for bird biodiversity, and is the origin of the most dinosaur fossils ever discovered (“Dinosaur Provincial”, 2014; Evans, 2010). Dinosaur Provincial Park became a world heritage site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on October 26th, 1979 (“Dinosaur Provincial”, 2014; “Park research”, 2014). While the park management plan is in development, DPP is currently governed by the Alberta Government’s Provincial Parks Act (“Park Research”, 2014). The ecological values all Alberta provincial parks, and consequently

DPP are defined by this blanket legislation and are quite apparent in the section that describes the purpose of parks.:
“(a) for the preservation of Alberta’s natural heritage, (b) for the conservation and management of flora and fauna, (c) for the preservation of specified areas, landscapes and natural features and objects in them that are of geological, cultural, historical, archaeological, anthropological, paleontological, ethnological, ecological or other scientific interest or importance, (d) to facilitate their use and enjoyment for outdoor recreation, education and the appreciation and experiencing of Alberta’s natural heritage, and (e) to ensure their lasting protection for the benefit of present and future generations.” (“Provincial Parks Act”, 1977, p.4)
The leading reason for Alberta’s establishment of parks is maintaining “natural heritage”, (“Provincial Parks Act”, 1977, p.4) which is defined as: “natural landscapes and features and the ecosystems, ecological processes and biological diversity and the related cultural attributes that those landscapes and features include.”(“Provincial Parks Act”, 1977, p.3) This illustrates a cultural & spiritual instrumental value (Dudley et al., 2010). While it encourages preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems, this value is anthropocentric because the worth of these natural entities is measured in their cultural significance to Albertans. An example of the deep cultural ties between the park and Albertans was the spiritual and historical significance of the dinosaur bones to the Blackfoot First Nations who inhabited the bad lands (McMahon, 2008).
Secondly, another value shared between Alberta’s parks is one of ecological conservation, and is stated as the second reason for their creation.

The underlying intrinsic value here is one of biodiversity (Dudley et al., 2010). This value is important in DPP due to the Cotton Wood trees that are part of an “endangered riverine ecosystem” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014,para. 2) for an extensive habitat of birds (“Park research”, 2014).

The third purpose of Alberta Provincial Parks and the most noticeable when visiting DPP is “preservation of specified areas, landscapes and natural features and objects… that are of … scientific interest or importance” (“Provincial Parks Act”, 1977, p.3) The value of human knowledge (Dudley et al., 2010) is engrained in this park, and we can see this in its agreements with scientific researchers, academic institutions and most notably, the Royal Tyrell Museum (“Park Research”, 2014) There is a rich history of scientific exploration and palaeontology in the bad lands (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica,

2014).
The most anthropocentric reason for the parks is their recreational purpose. The health and recreational values (Dudley et al., 2010) of the Provincial Parks Act have lead to hiking trails and campgrounds in the UNESCO site. While visiting DPP, I wondered if the unlimited access to such important lands by visitors would lead to destruction, on a mini “Tragedy of the Commons” scale (Hardin, 1968). Instead of increasing cows, individuals would take a fossil, or wander off the trails. Although, in Hardin’s eyes it is exempt from the tragedy due to it being owned by the state, the eight thousand hectares of bad lands are just too large to be monitored by a warden (“Dinosaur Provincial”, 2014). This value of recreation could be hurting the natural landscape, which could hurt scientific research, conservation efforts and fifth reason for the park’s existence: preservation for future generations, a Pichot-like, anthropocentric value of the park.
Dinosaur Provincial Park stands alone amongst other provincial parks in that it is a hub of scientific research in palaeontology (“Park research”, 2014), and is a UNESCO site (“Dinosaur Provincial”, 2014).

The legislation for all of Alberta’s provincial parks has a blanketing effect, that neglects key values of a distinctive and unique park, like DPP. It imposes the government of Alberta’s values broadly, without taking into account every diverse park’s specificities. It would perhaps be beneficial for the Park Management Plan that is currently being created to be more specific to the park by having a heavier emphasis on intrinsic biodiversity values to protect cotton wood trees, the birds that live near them, and to also the landscape and the bones buried below them for scientific purposes. Values like recreation that would work for other provincial parks, like Fish Creek Provincial Park in metro Calgary are, in my own experience at DPP, hurting it’s landscape and overshadowing other value that should be prioritized in the

park.