More camping, more trails and enhanced services at the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation are on the agenda for Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park. Parks officials shared the news with M.D. of Lesser Slave River councillors at their Apr. 23 meeting.
“But we really can’t do any of this until we have a secure water supply,” said Elaine Nepstad, who looks after planning for the provincial parks department in the northwest region. “Which is where the M.D. comes in.”
The M.D. has been talking about the possibility of supplying running water to the provincial campground at the north end of the park, as well as to the hamlet of Marten Beach. A study is underway on the feasibility of running pipe across the lake from Canyon Creek.
Council heard that the park’s Marten River Campground is usually at or over capacity. Parks would like to either add a couple of loops to it, or perhaps to establish a campground near the southern end. Ken Zurfluh, the regional director, told council that proximity to boat launching was one attraction of the second option. He also said that an earlier plan to expand the existing campground was abandoned when it came to light that there were some old burial sites in the vicinity.
A trail system connecting the major attractions of the park is another agenda item for the parks planners. That would mean, in addition to the Freighter Lakeshore Trail that already runs the entire length of the park, a spur reaching to the top of Marten Mountain, which is also the trailhead for the Lily Lake trail. Nepstad said there could be loops added here and there as well.
On another note, Zurfluh said Parks is interested in adding more territory to the park, if possible, at its southern end. He mentioned the wetlands east of Hwy. 88 specifically. Asked by M.D. manager Allan Winarski if Parks might be interested in extending its jurisdiction to include the boat launch area below the weir, Zurfluh said, “we’re very interested in that.”
Responsibility for maintaining that area, which is popular for anglers and is often very messy, has been in a sort of no-man’s land for years. It belongs to the province, not the municipality, but the province has a hands-off policy when it comes to keeping it clean. Private groups have been looking after it, off and on, for the past few years.
One more note on camping. Zurfluh said that last year’s experiment with making campsites available for reservation had mixed results. While no doubt out-of-town campers were happy to be able to reserve a spot, locals were not happy to find that Chris Bruntlett, Zurfluh’s counterpart for the northeastern part of the province, reported on some of the parks and issues in the eastern part of the M.D. Cross Lake Provincial Park has seen some developments, he said, including a new five-kilometre trail. At Lawrence Lake, he said, a new provincial recreation area has been established, with possibilities for new trails and camping.
Asked about the status of the Hubert Lake Wildland Park, Bruntlett said a plan for it is on the drawing board, but is not high on the priority list and probably won’t be finished for two or three years, after which public input would be sought. He was advised by councillor Tim Walmsley that certain members of the original Special Places committee that proposed Hubert Lake as worthy of park designation feel their recommendations for park use have not been followed. Degree of off-highway vehicle use is apparently the main issue.
On another topic, Bruntlett reported that a proposal for protection of the Crooked Creek area didn’t get very far off the ground. “It kind of blew up in their faces,” Bruntlett said, when local landowners showed up at meetings and said ‘no way’. “So they’re back to the drawing board.”

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