National Parks of Canada - Timeline

Timeline

• 1885 – Banff National Park established as Canada's first National Park. Originally this park was called Banff Hot Springs Reserve and later the Rocky Mountains National Park.
• 1908–1912 – Four national parks established in Alberta and Saskatchewan with a mission akin to national wildlife refuges. All would be abolished by 1947 once their goals were achieved.
• 1911 – Dominion Parks Branch created, the world's first national park service. Resided in the Department of the Interior. Now known as Parks Canada, the governing body of Canada's National Parks.
• 1930 – Canada's parliament passes the first National Parks Act, regulating protection of the parks.
• 1930 – Transfer of resources agreement signed.
• 1970s - National Parks System Plan devised with an aim to protect a representative sample of each of Canada's 39 natural spaces.
• 1979 – National parks policy is revised to make preserving ecological integrity the priority in Canadian Parks, ending the so-called dual-mandate with recreational uses.
• 1984 – First National Park established through a land claim agreement.
• 1988 – National Parks Act amended formalizing the principle of ecological integrity in the park system.
• 1989 – The Endangered Spaces campaign is launched by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and World Wildlife Canada to encourage the completion of the national parks system. The goal of the campaign is to have parks and protected areas which represent each of the country's natural regions.
• 2011 – To mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of the national parks system, Parks Canada, Primitive Entertainment and Discovery World HD commissioned the National Parks Project to create a series of documentary films about various parks in the system.