More B.C. provincial parks, national parks reopening June 1

Some popular provincial parks are set to reopen next week, albeit with restrictions in line with Phase 2of B.C.'s COVID-19 response.

According to B.C. Parks,Cypress, Juan de Fuca, Inkaneep, the Kettle River Recreation Area, Liard River Hot Springs, Porteau Cove, Mount Seymour, some Shuswap Lake sites and Shannon Falls will all open their gatesto visitors on June 1, along with dozens of others.

Services that will and will not be operating in each of the parks are listed on the B.C. Parks website.

Hundreds of other provincial parks in B.C. already reopened on May 14.

Meanwhile, ParksCanada says day use at some nationalparks,nationalhistoric sites, historic waterways, andnationalmarine conservation areas will resume June 1.

The list included six national parks in B.C.:Yoho, Kootenay, Mount Revelstoke,Glacier, Pacific Rim Reserve and Gulf Islands Reserve.

For many B.C. towns, park tourists constitute amajoreconomic driver.

In Port Renfrew on the west coast of Vancouver Island, businesses are getting ready to welcome back visitors for what it hopes is a busy summer season.

"We're going to see a move to more locals and B.C. residents accessing those parks," said Karl Ablack of the Port RenfrewRecovery Task Force.

"Hopefully, the parks will be fulland the traffic will be coming into our area and other coastal areas and we'll see that economic driver returning."

Ablack said Port Renfrew, which sits at the south end of the West Coast Trail in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, has taken a "significant" economic hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 75-kilometre West Coast Trail has not reopened yet.

Earlier this week, the B.C. Parks website crashedimmediately after opening for summer campsite bookings due to overwhelming demand.

The provinceannounced last weekthat recreational camping would resume at provincial parks on June 1, and will only beopen to B.C. residents this summer to limit the spread of COVID-19.