Whitehorse consults on plan for massive Chadburn Lake park

People in Whitehorse are being asked for input to develop a management plan for Canada's largest park within a municipality.

The Chadburn Lake Park is more than 7,500 hectares, making it more than 18 times larger than Vancouver's Stanley Park. Several lakes, including Chadburn, Chadden, Long and the Hidden Lakes, fall within the park boundaries. Grey Mountain and Canyon City are also part of the park.

"We have a variety of really important values all in this one big area, largely uninterrupted by residential or commercial or industrial development," said Darcy McCord, a city planner. "Our objective is to ensure compatible uses and making sure that we balance the different values that people have in the area."

McCord said different user groups will be consulted in the coming weeks, such as snowmobilers, birders, paddlers and mountain bikers, "to come up with a way of saying what type of uses are appropriate, where."

He said the city is also interested in preserving "heritage values," some of which are not being shared as part of the planning process.

"We don't want people going and trying to identify archaeological sites. The specific locations of them aren't known. A lot of them have to do with pre-Gold Rush, First Nations heritage," McCord said.

Sierra Van der Meer of the Contagious Mountain Bike Club called the consultations "a great opportunity."

"I think that as a community, we believe in shared access for people," she said. "Imagine a Chadburn Park area where there were warming huts that people could use when they're skiing or walking or biking."

The city expects to have a new management plan in place by June.