Boundary change proposed for Ont.’s Wanapitei park

A proposed boundary change for Wanapitei Provincial Park, north of Sudbury, Ont., is open for public review.

The Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines is planning to remove one area from park regulation and add an area of Crown land about the same size.

The western section of the park would be removed in order to meet an Ontario cabinet commitment for mineral exploration. When the park was regulated in 1985, mineral exploration was a permitted use. However, new policy adopted in 1988 prohibits mineral exploration in all provincial parks.

The ministry says that because of the interest expressed in mineral potential, it was agreed that the western section of the park would be deregu-lated.

The ministry says it has identified a backcountry area to the northeast “which complements the representational values of the core area.” This new area includes a small watershed, sand plain and rockland terrains.

The area to be removed from the park will be managed as Crown land, with mining, timber harvesting and recreation as the primary uses.

In the section to be removed, two gold-bearing areas (the Bennett and McVittie showings, 7 km apart) may form part of a west-northwest-trending structure under the north shore of Wanapitei Lake, the ministry says.