BC Parks Statistics

As of December 3, 2008:

14.26%, or 13.5 million hectares, is the overall size of the protected areas system in the whole of the province of British Columbia (this includes national parks, and national park reserves, as well as provincial parks and protected areas).

The size of the protected areas system administered and managed by BC Parks (which includes those areas formally established by the Park Act, Ecological Reserve Act, Protected Areas of British Columbia Act or the ) is 972 parks and protected areas, totalling 13.01 million hectares.

Park Facilities (2006)

• Campgrounds (vehicle accessible): 340
• Campsites (vehicle accessible): 11,125
• Day-use areas (vehicle accessible) recording visitor use: 263
• Number of day-use parking spots: 15,585
• Boat launch areas: 11
• Kilometers of hiking trails (approximate): 7,000

BC Parks Attendance

The data below has gone through a quality assurance process to ensure that it, as accurately as possible, reflects the total number of recorded visits each year. Recorded visits are those recorded through campground registrations, trail and traffic counters, and visual counts.

Recorded Park Visits (thousand)	2003	2004	2005	2006
Camping	2,231	2,223	2,257	2,325
Day Use	16,657	15,933	15,950	16,491
Boating	152	181	155	205
TOTAL Visits	19,040	18,337	18,362	19,022

BC Parks Campground Reservation Service:

In 2006, over 68,000 people made reservations in 78 parks across the province; 68% (approx) of these reservations were made through the Discover Camping website and 32% ( approx) were processed through the call centre.