Ontario Parks is the branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources that administers the provincial parks in Ontario, Canada. The Ontario Parks system covers over 78,000 square kilometres (30,460 sq mi), about 10 percent of the province's surface area or the equivalent of an area approximately equal to Nova Scotia. The Ontario Parks system is often used as the model for other parks systems in North America. This can be attributed to its delicate balance of recreation, preservation, and conservation. Many parks in Ontario also offer a Natural Heritage Education program.
Ontario Parks' mandate is to protect significant natural and cultural resources in a system of parks and protected areas that is sustainable and provides opportunities for inspiration, enjoyment and education: now and for future generations.
Read more about Ontario Parks: History, Provincial Park Classes, The Parks
Famous quotes containing the word parks:
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)