Meadow Lake Provincial Park EBM Plan

Meadow Lake Provincial Park (MLPP) in Saskatchewan is a 1700 kilometre squared Natural Environment Park at the southern edge of the boreal forest, bounded to the south by agricultural land and to the north by commercial forest. Most of the park is made up of natural vegetation that is classified into 20 ecosites including grassland, pine-dominated stands on sandy soils, pure aspen forests and mixed aspen-white spruce stands on loamy soils, black spruce on moist soils, and extensive peatlands. About a quarter of the park is water, including several popular recreational lakes and the Waterhen River system. The park supports rich biodiversity, including 376 vascular plants, 191 birds, 48 mammals, 4 amphibians, and 1 reptile species.

This section is adapted from: Government of Saskatchewan. 2019. Meadow Lake Provincial Park Ecosystem Based Management Plan. Saskatchewan Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport, Regina, SK, Canada. Available at: https://pubsaskdev.blob.core.windows.net/pubsask-prod/114603/MLPP_Ecosystem-based%252BManagement%252BPlan_Final%252BAprroved.pdf

The park landscape is shaped by both natural and human disturbances. The natural disturbance regime is dominated by wildfire, but there have been few large fires since the “Great Fire of 1919”. The human history includes indigenous use and 20th Century trapping, logging, and homesteading. Recreation became the dominant land use with the creation of the park in 1959. The footprint of development on MLPP is relatively heavy, with over 700 campsites, over 300 cottages, 14 natural gas wells and associated pipelines, and over 900 km of roads and trails. The park is also used for hunting (including commercial outfitting), trapping, sport fishing, and livestock grazing.

This EBM plan provides strategic directions for the maintenance, protection and restoration of natural landscape, ecosystem and species diversity of MLPP, which in turn enhances visitor experience and public appreciation and understanding. In the plan, each issue is given context, management goals and objectives are identified and corresponding recommendations are provided. The management plan is designed to provide a long term and comprehensive framework to guide both park operations and park services in using natural resources in a sustainable manner. The plan identified two main EBM goals and nine objectives, including:

• Goal 1: Enhancement of Recreational, Aesthetic, Educational, and Interpretive Opportunities within a Safe Outdoor Environment.
  • Objective 1. Manage park vegetation to ensure an attractive, safe and natural environment for park patrons utilizing MLPP trails and non-core area campgrounds
  • Objective 2. Provide enhanced opportunities for the interpretation of park vegetation, landscapes, ecosystems, and species
  • Objective 3. Manage core area vegetation to regenerate a vigorous natural forest in campgrounds, and adjacent beach and recreation areas, and to ensure the timely removal of hazardous trees.
• Goal 2: Maintain and Restore the Natural Landscape, Ecosystem, and Species Diversity of MLPP
  • Objective 1. Restore a more natural disturbance regime to park ecosystems
  • Objective 2. Assess the impact of all ongoing management activities and proposed developments on park biodiversity and make management recommendations
  • Objective 3. Monitor the state of MLPP environment and the outcomes of EBM actions
  • Objective 4. Ongoing inventory of MLPP’s biological and ecological resources
  • Objective 5. Prospects for expanding MLPP to create a land management unit with greater ecological integrity and stability
  • Objective 6. Build conservation partnerships with NGOs and other government agencies

Major recommendations include:

• Managing future development and cancelling existing grazing permits are recommended, to avoid degrading the natural capital of the park— the scenery, natural setting, and biodiversity that attract people to go there in the first place.
• The relative lack of forest renewal since the 1940s has led to a high proportion of the forest being in the mature to old stage and little area of young forest. Maintaining a diversity of forest age-classes over the various ecosites is necessary to provide habitat for all of the biodiversity of the park. Renewal of some of the mature to old forest by natural disturbance emulation harvests and/or fire treatments to create more young forest, while maintaining most of the old to very old forest (i.e., white spruce stands), are recommended to increase age-class diversity. Development of forest management plan and fire management plan is necessary to indicate specific management actions regarding the maintenance and renewal of park ecosystems.
• Invasion by exotic plant species, while localized at present, is considered to be a major future threat, because of the proximity of agricultural land and the high fragmentation by roads and other developments, and grazing activity. Control of existing infestations and reduction in activities such as ATV travel and livestock grazing that contribute to invasion, are recommended.
• Closure and reclamation of roads and trails that are not needed for access or recreation is recommended to reduce fragmentation and spread of exotic plants.
• Management of core-area vegetation is recommended to identify and deal with risk trees, and to renew the forests surrounding most developments.
• The climate of MLPP is expected to become warmer and drier over the coming century, with grasslands becoming a more important part of the landscape. The patches of grassland now present, besides being important as unique ecosystems, will be the source area for this expansion, so maintaining their ecological health is critical. Therefore, development of a specific grassland management plan for MLPP is recommended. Other unusual ecosystems (e.g., wetlands) and occurrence of species at risk in the park are recommended to document and assess their habitats and any threats to them to maintain the diversity of species and ecosystems in MLPP.
• The park zoning map requires revision using current standards, and using the ecosystem-based management plan as a foundation. Expanding the park to the north should be considered to provide more protection for wildlife habitat, plant biodiversity and water quality. Other land surveys surrounding the park are also recommended to identify potential lands and ecosystem diversity for park expansion.
• There is a need to develop the interpretive material on the concepts of EBM planning and specific topics related to ecosystem-based management such as the role of ecosystem diversity and natural disturbances, grassland remnants, threat of exotic species and fragmentation.