OUTDOOR RECREATION DIVISION 



PARKS AND RECREATION AREAS BRANCH 



The Branch was reorganized in July, 1971, into two 

 sections with duties and responsibilities as follows. 



Park Planning. Long-range and detailed planning for 

 parks, related pubhc recreation areas, and nature reserves. 



Park Management and Development. Park operation 

 standards; park interpretive programs; operating revenues 

 and expenditures; statistical data; public access points to 

 lakes and rivers; and canoe routes, hiking trails and 

 snowmobile trails. 



PARK PLANNING 



Work continued in the search for future parkland for 

 Ontario residents, and further developments were made 

 toward simulating tourism and recreational behavior with 

 computer programs to predict current and future trends. 



CORDS 



Phase I of the Canada Outdoor Recreation Demand Study 

 (C.O.R.D.S.) was completed. Ten Provinces and the Federal 

 Government co-operated to create data files from park user 

 surveys, national household surveys, and an outdoor 

 recreation facilities inventory. Phase II, the development of 

 systems for interpreting the data collected, was undertaken 

 in 1971 to assess the relative demand and need for 

 recreational facilities. 



TORPS 



During 1971-2, the inter-departmental Tourism and 

 Outdoor Recreation Planning Study (T.O.R.P.S.) achieved 

 major progress toward its goal of predicting the interaction 

 between outdoor recreation demand and supply and the 

 evaluation of alternative strategies. Work completed during 

 the year included; the building and programming of a 

 research model simulating tourism and recreation behavior; 

 the development of an operations manual; development of 

 a sensitivity analysis program to compare the effects of 

 changing parameters against the base model run; and 

 development of a skiing attractivity analysis. 



CORTS 



Work continued on the Canada-Ontario-Rideau-Trent- 

 Severn Study (C.O.R.T.S.) to optimize recreational use of 

 the 425-mile waterway. Progress in 1971 included the 

 publication "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow", which was 

 released to the public to determine reaction and solicit 

 comments. Some 26 public hearings have been held. Special 

 studies were also commenced on Lake Simcoe and the Bay 

 of Quinte. 



NEW PROJECTS 



Fathom Five. Canada's first underwater park, located off 

 the tip of Bruce Peninsula, advanced another step with the 

 completion of background planning and the start of the 

 master planning stage. 



Bronte Creek. Ontario's first urban-oriented Provincial 

 Park, a 1 ,500-acre site half way between Toronto and 

 Hamilton, is planned to provide year-round, day-use 

 recreational opportunities for the large urban population of 

 the region. 



Peche Island. Another urban-oriented park, located in 

 the St. Clair River just outside Windsor, was purchased in 

 1971. 



National Park. During the year a memorandum of intent 

 was signed by the Government of Ontario to transfer 

 ownership of the Pukaskwa tract, on the north shore of 

 Lake Superior, to the Government of Canada for 

 development into a national park. Subsequently, a joint 

 Federal-Provincial Co-ordinating Committee was estabhshed 

 to work out the details that will result in a master plan for 

 the park. 



Park Reserves. As of March 31, 1972, there were 101 

 park reserves, totalling 1,258,221 acres, or 1,966 square 

 miles. 



SKIING 



To serve the growing demand for skiing facilities, it is the 

 intention to study areas for future ski development. Two 

 key areas acquired are in the Beaver Valley, just south of 

 Collingwood, and the Kendall Hills area, north of Oshawa. 



NATURE RESERVES 



Nature reserves are Class V parks or they may be zones 

 within other classes of parks, encompassing both unique 

 and representative segments of flora, fauna, geology and 

 physiography. During the summer of 1971, teams of 

 ecologists and geomorphologists carried out inventory 

 surveys of Provincial Parks, park reserves and some specific 

 locations on the Niagara Escarpment, particularly the Bruce 

 Peninsular section. These ecological inventories serve as a 

 basis of master planning, sit£ planning and interpretive 

 planning. 



PARK MANAGEMENT 

 AND DEVELOPMENT 



Park use increased substantially in 1971. The number of 

 visitors increased from 12,172,254 to 13,658,619, a gain of 

 12.2 per cent. This number included 1,618,948 campers, a 

 7.7 per cent increase on the year. Camper-days were up to 

 3,788,525, a 7.3 per cent increase. 



The occupancy rate of camping areas during July and 

 August continued to rise, going from 60 per cent in 1970 to 

 62 per cent in 1971. Many parks in the south and in some 

 parts of the north were unable to meet the demand for 

 campsites on a number of weekends. The greatest demand 

 for campsites was in southern Ontario where 75 per cent of 

 the campsites are located. 



