I've been torturing the Pacific Rim Nat'l Park Reserve visitor experience manager with emails regarding the kayak closure. He has been very patient in his responses.
I. Park Canada's explanation of the permitting rules for kayakers.
Hi Alex Sidles,
We received your email regarding sea kayaking access to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (Pacific Rim NPR), and wanted to respond to the questions you raised to clarify the guidelines and regulations.
Firstly, the incident cited in the Times Colonist article, “
Six Friends Fined Thousands of Dollars for Illegally Camping on West Coast Trail,” was an unusual one. Unfortunately, the group chose to visit the area—knowing that it was closed to the public—which showed disregard for the remote Indigenous communities who are vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parks Canada cooperatively manages Pacific Rim National Park Reserve with these First Nations communities who have ḥaḥuułi (traditional territories) there, and we expect that visitors to the region observe the Nuu-chah-nulth principles of Iisaak (respect), Hishukish Ts’awalk (everything is one) and Uu-a-thluk (taking care of) during their visits.
The West Coast Trail unit of Pacific Rim NPR is a beautiful place and visiting it by land or sea is a spectacular experience. Keep in mind that Parks Canada limits visitation to the area because we have a responsibility to protect the natural and cultural integrity of the landscape and to maintain the visitor experience. All visitors are required to attend a West Coast Trail orientation to allow them to recreate here safely. When visitors come without attending an orientation, their lack of understanding of the place—both culturally and in terms of safety— can introduce issues and extra pressure on the area.
If you do intend to pass through the marine waters of Pacific Rim NPR, here are the things you need to know and do to prepare:
- Parks Canada prohibits paddlers from landing on the West Coast Trail from October 7 to April 30 annually.
- Paddlers transiting through the marine waters of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve for the sole purpose of transiting directly to an area outside of it, do not require a permit if they are not stopping, but as you noted, this is not a likely scenario due to the distance and conditions you will encounter.
- The boundaries of Pacific Rim NPR extend out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the 20 metre isobaths, including the beaches surrounding of Indian Reserve lands and Treaty Settlement lands.
- To stop in the marine waters of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve or land their kayaks onshore, a number of permits and conditions must be met:
- Obtain a valid National Park Entry pass (for Pacific Rim NPR or the Parks Canada Discovery Pass). You can obtain these passes here.
- Contact a WCT Orientation Centre in advance to help trip plan and ensure you are aware of all the requirements.
- Attend a West Coast Trail orientation. To arrange your orientation, contact us at 250-647-5434.
- For daytime stops, you must also have a valid West Coast Trail day use permit, which you can obtain from the West Coast Trail orientation.
- For overnight stops, you must have a West Coast Trail overnight use permit. For overnight stays at Keeha Beach, a Keeha Beach backcountry camping permit. Overnight reservations must be made in advance through the Parks Canada Reservation Service.
Thank you for taking the time to inquire about the steps needed to plan a kayaking visit to Pacific Rim NPR. For more information on trip planning, visit our website at:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/bc/pacificrim.
II. A request for clarification.
I was buoyed by Parks' response. It seemed Parks was telling me that kayakers are allowed in the West Coast Trail Unit again, provided they obtain the required permits!
The permitting process did not sound like very much fun: a mandatory reservation with specific dates, plus a mandatory orientation session, plus an entry pass, plus an overnight permit, plus a separate overnight permit for Keeha Beach, plus fees for all of this (including a separate fee just for making the reservation). It wouldn't be easy to coordinate all this for a kayaker. Unlike hikers, kayakers aren't always in control of their start and stop dates due to weather. Kayakers can't make reservations with that level of precision months in advance. And how would a kayaker, entering the park by kayak, manage to attend an orientation session? There isn't even an orientation center on the Bamfield side! Still, even an arduous permitting process is a lot better than a complete closure. I don't welcome multiple layers of governmental review of my kayaking, but at least there seemed to be a way forward.
Yet I remained troubled by the statement on the
park's website that says, "Motorized and non-motorized vessels,
including kayaks, are not permitted to land anywhere within the West Coast Trail Unit." So I pointed out that statement to the visitor experience manager, and I asked:
Just so I’m clear: Kayaks can land in the West Coast Trail Unit during [the operating season], so long as they have obtained the necessary permits, correct?
Alas, Parks replied:
Kayakers landing on the West Coast Trail is a restricted activity that is only allowed under certain conditions [and he referenced the permitting requirements discussed above].
The section on the website that you are referring to is listed under the “COVID-19 impacts” and were the regulations as of September 2021. PRNPR will be cooperatively meeting with First Nations over the upcoming months to discuss removing/reducing some of these COVID-19 regulations for the upcoming 2022 operating season, but at this time nothing has been 100% confirmed.
Thank you
This was discouraging. It turns out kayakers still aren't allowed after all! So I asked a follow-up question:
[T]he West Coast Trail was closed to both hikers and kayakers in 2020 as a COVID-19 impacts measure. The West Coast Trail reopened to hikers in 2021, but did not reopen to kayakers, and still remains closed to kayakers. I hope the West Coast Trail will open to kayakers in 2022, as you suggest it might, because I do not understand why kayakers on the trail would pose more of a COVID risk than hikers on the trail. Can you explain the rationale for excluding kayakers but not excluding hikers?
Parks replied with a non-answer:
Hi Alex,
In 2021, due to the fluid and unknown impacts of COVID-19 and changing federal, provincial and regional guidelines and regulations, PRNPR and First Nations cooperatively made the decision to open up the WCT to hikers only. Overnight camping at Keeha Beach, access to the Nitinaht Triangle and marine access to land on the WCT remained closed to visitors.
As mentioned, we will be discussing moving back to hopefully more “normal” operations for 2022 but nothing yet has been confirmed.
Thank you
This non-answer repeats the content of the rule (no kayakers) and identifies the rule-makers (Parks and First Nations), but it does not answer my question, which was the rationale for the rule (why hikers but no kayakers). I asked a second follow-up question, emphasizing that I wanted to know not just the content of the rule but the rationale behind the rule. Why, as a COVID measure, are kayakers excluded but hikers allowed?
Parks has not responded to this latest follow-up question. I sense I may be exhausting the patience of the visitor experience manager. Still, I am reluctant to let this point go, because it speaks to something I mentioned earlier in the thread: Parks Canada has a reputation, especially along the West Coast Trail, of using false rationales to justify its regulations. Whether this reputation is deserved, I cannot say. But it makes me suspicious to learn that kayakers and hikers were both banned due to the coronavirus, but now only kayakers remain banned. If there is some coronavirus-related reason why kayakers but not hikers are banned, I'd love to hear it. If, as I suspect, Parks Canada has some other, non-coronavirus reason why kayakers are banned, I'd love to hear that reason, too. These decisions, whether right or wrong, ought to be made in the open, not behind closed doors, and not under false pretenses.
III. Where things stand.
So! Freedom of expression remains alive and well in Canada, because it is the criminal defendants themselves who propose restraints on their own expression!
And, in more good news, there is a permitting process that will allow kayakers to visit the West Coast Trail! All they have to do is plan their trips with day-to-day precision months in advance, obtain one of the limited numbers of permits before the hikers gobble them up, attend an orientation that occurs only at one end of the park, and pay hundreds of dollars in permit and reservation fees! Oh, and none of this is available right now! It might be available this summer! Who knows—that coronavirus sure is tricky!
Thanks for staying with me, folks. It's been a long thread! But there are important issues here, and I've appreciated everyone's contributions. I'll try to let it rest now, unless Parks Canada says something noteworthy in response to my last question about the rationale for the kayak closure.
Alex