Gulf Islands National Park Reserve is a national park located on and around the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada. In the National Parks System Plan, this park represents the Strait of Georgia Lowlands natural region, the only place in Canada with a Mediterranean climate that has dry, sunny summers and mild, wet winters. This climate happens because mountains near the area block rain from reaching the region. The park has similar main types of plants to the Pacific Northwest, such as coastal Douglas-fir, western red cedar, shore pine, Pacific dogwood, bigleaf maple, and red alder. It also includes the northernmost areas of some drought-tolerant trees, like Garry oak and Arbutus. The park was established in 2003 as Canada's 40th national park. It covers 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi) across 16 islands and more than 30 islets, reefs, and surrounding waters, making it the sixth smallest national park in Canada.
History
Over 75% of the land on the Gulf Islands has become private property. As people built homes and developed the area, it affected the islands’ natural features, ecosystems, and places for recreation. To help protect these areas, several conservation efforts were started. The province promoted tourism and created provincial parks, such as D'Arcy Island Marine Park and Princess Margaret Marine Park on D'Arcy Island and Portland Island, respectively. They also formed the Islands Trust, which was created to "preserve and protect the trust area and its unique amenities and environment."
At the federal level, Member of Parliament David Anderson supported organized conservation efforts. In 1971, Minister of Fisheries Jack Davis asked for a study to check if a marine park could be created. A year earlier, Parks Canada had released a plan to include 39 natural regions in the national park system. One of these regions, the Strait of Georgia Lowlands, was not yet represented in the park system. This region, which includes the Fraser Lowland and the islands along the Strait of Georgia like the Gulf Islands, is the smallest and most developed natural area in Canada. In 1973, Parks Canada and the U.S. National Park Service published a study about creating a protected area that would cross borders, including the Gulf Islands, San Juan Islands, and Point Roberts. However, the provincial government was satisfied with its existing provincial parks and did not want to give up development rights, so progress on creating a national park was delayed until 1995. At that time, the federal and provincial governments each promised $30 million to buy land in the Strait of Georgia area for conservation, with the goal of creating a national park.
On July 26, 2002, Ulla Ressner and John Fry donated 7.8 hectares (19 acres) of ecologically important land on Saturna Island to the Gulf Island National Park Reserve. The park was officially announced on May 9, 2003, after a formal agreement was signed to transfer 26 square kilometers (10 square miles) of land to the federal government for use as a national park. In April 2004, the provincial government passed official orders to transfer nine provincial parks (Beaumont Marine Park, Cabbage Island Marine Park, D'Arcy Island Marine Park, Isle-de-Lis Marine Park, Princess Margaret Marine Park, Sidney Spit Marine Park, Winter Cove Marine Park, Prior Centennial Park, and McDonald Park), as well as the Saturna Island Ecological Reserve and the Brackman Island Ecological Reserve, to Parks Canada. These former provincial parks would include most of the new national park’s recreational areas, such as camping sites and anchorages. Additional land on Saturna and Pender Islands, along with Reay Island, Greig Island, Hawkins Island, Imrie Island, the Belle Chain Islets, the Channel Islets, and the Red Islets, was also added to the park.
Climate
The park and the Strait of Georgia Lowlands natural region are located in a flat coastal area near the ocean, with mountains around it. Warm air from the Pacific Ocean jet stream reaches the area, but the mountains of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Mountains remove moisture from the air, creating a rain shadow effect. This causes dry summers with few clouds, which is known as a Mediterranean climate. Winters are cooler and wetter because Arctic air mixes with Pacific air, leading to heavy rain. The park has a climate monitoring station on Saturna Island that has been working since 1989. The area receives about 838 mm (33 in) of rain each year, with more than half of this happening between October and February.
Ecology
The land part of the park is located in an area the province calls the Coastal Douglas-Fir Biogeoclimatic Zone, named after the main type of plant life that grows there. The most common tree is the coastal Douglas-fir, which grows with western red cedar and grand fir in wetter areas, and with Arbutus and Garry oak in drier areas. Other trees found in the area include red alder, shore pine, Pacific dogwood, bigleaf maple, and bitter cherry. Shrubs in the area include salal, dull Oregon-grape, oceanspray, baldhip rose, bracken fern, sword fern, lady fern, and spiny wood fern. In wetter areas, plants such as salmonberry, false lily of the valley, vanilla-leaf, and skunk cabbage may also be found.
In the sea, animals such as orcas, porpoises, seals, salmon, lingcod, shiner perch, saddleback gunnel, and three-spined stickleback live or swim. The largest land animal in the park is the black-tailed deer. Fallow deer are also present but were brought to the area in the past when the islands were used for hunting. Other land animals include mink, river otters, raccoons, and deer mice. Birds that can be seen in the park include cormorant, bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, falcon, turkey vulture, rhinoceros auklet, Brant geese, great blue heron, Hermann’s Gulls, and oystercatcher.
Geography
The park covers 31 kilometers (12 square miles) of land and 6 kilometers (2 square miles) of water spread across 16 islands and more than 30 small islands and reefs at the southern end of the Gulf Islands archipelago in the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait, and Boundary Pass on the Canadian side of the border with the United States. The islands line up in a northwest to southeast direction, partly because of folded rock layers in the Nanaimo Basin. The shape of the land was also influenced by the last ice age, when 1.5 kilometers of ice covered the area. As the ice melted, water carved out softer parts of the land, which drained into the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Georgia. Today, the land continues to rise slightly due to post-glacial rebound.
The most accessible part of the park is the SMONEĆTEN Campground in North Saanich on Vancouver Island, just north of Sidney. The site covers 10 hectares (25 acres) of second-growth forest but is divided by Highway 17 and the Swartz Bay Road overpass. It is surrounded by urban and agricultural areas. The campground was a provincial park since 1948 and became part of Parks Canada in 2004. It has 49 drive-in campsites with water, pit toilets, and picnic tables. In 2021, the campground was renamed SMONEĆTEN in partnership with Parks Canada and the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council.
The Sidney Island area includes the northern 400 hectares (988 acres) of the island and 220 hectares (544 acres) of coastal land. Two spits form long sandy beaches. Sidney Spit stretches over 2 kilometers (1 mile) to a light beacon, while Hook Spit creates a sheltered lagoon with eelgrass. Located in Haro Strait, Sidney Island is only reachable by private boat, ferry, or small plane. Recreational facilities like a campground, dock, and moorings were added when it was a provincial park. Before that, the area was used by First Nations for clam harvesting, later affected by a failed subdivision, clay mining, logging, and the introduction of non-native animals. The province tested the idea of a marine park in the late 1950s and made it a provincial park in 1961, adding facilities like mooring buoys, docks, and campsites.
The southernmost part of the park includes D'Arcy Island in Haro Strait, an 81-hectare (200-acre) island with a 25-meter buffer of protected water. It is accessible by sea kayak from Island View Regional Park or by motorboat, though there are no docking facilities. Like Sidney Island, it was developed as a marine park with backcountry campsites, pit toilets, and hiking trails. Old buildings and a memorial plaque remain from its time as a leper colony between 1891 and 1924.
East of Sidney Island and Gooch Island is Isle-de-Lis, a 5-hectare (12-acre) island once called Rum Island because it was used by rum-runners during U.S. Prohibition. It is less than one mile from the U.S. border. The island was privately owned until 1978, when it was donated to the province and renamed. It became a marine park with backcountry campsites, pit toilets, and hiking trails, but no docking or potable water.
On the northern end of Haro Strait is an area centered on Portland Island, including Brackman Island and other islets. Brackman Island was an ecological reserve before becoming part of the national park. Archaeological remains, like midden deposits, show that First Nations once lived on Portland Island. The island was also used for farming and logging before being returned to the province after the owner’s bankruptcy during the Great Depression. It was later given to Princess Margaret in 1958 and donated back to the province for park use. The province operated it as Princess Margaret Marine Park with anchorages, a scuba diving reef, hiking trails, and three campgrounds with pit toilets but no potable water.
Russell Island, located in the Satellite Channel near Salt Spring Island, has an anchorage area, a small dock, and a 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) loop trail. It includes a First Nations foreshore clam garden and the Mahoi House, built when the island was owned by a Native Hawaiian family from 1886 to 1959. The island was purchased in 1997 for park purposes.
Pender Island is served by BC Ferries, allowing access to drive-in campsites at Prior Centennial Campground. Another campground is near Bedwell Harbour, with mooring buoys, an anchoring area, and a beach for kayakers. A third campground, Roesland Park, is near Shingle Bay and accessible by boat or a steep hike. It includes a loop trail around Roe Lake and a path to Roe Islet during low tide. Other areas on Pender Island include hiking trails to Greenburn Lake and Mount Menzies, with views of Plumper Sound and Saturna Island.
About half of Saturna Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (GINPR), created in 2003 from donated land, provincial parks, an Ecological Reserve, and Crown land. A large First Nations reserve also exists on the island. Saturna Island has a permanent population of about 350 people, with more visitors in the summer. The national park covers about 43% of Saturna Island’s land.