Summary

• In early May, BC Parks announced Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park will be restricted to members of the Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua nations from June 20-27 and Sept. 8-30. 
• Líl̓wat Nation has since released its own statement with different closure dates, saying the trust with the province has been broken. 
• Since 2018, the two First Nations have been working with BC Parks on visitor management and the temporary closures — called reconnection periods — have been implemented since 2023. However, negotiations broke down last year over a dispute over the 2025 closure length.

Once again, one of B.C.’s most popular parks is implementing temporary closures this summer — and no one is happy about it.

Since 2023, Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park has closed for brief reconnection periods, when entry is restricted to members of Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua First Nations, whose unceded territories encompass the park. During these periods, members can harvest traditional medicines, participate in cultural events and ceremonies and enjoy a part of their territory that is often too crowded with visitors for them to access at all, trampled and strewn with trash by the end of peak season. Since 2018, the two nations have worked with BC Parks on a joint strategy for managing visitors.

Last year, things went off the rails. Backlash over the temporary closures spiked as politicians — including BC Conservative leadership candidate Caroline Elliott and OneBC leader Dallas Brodie — used the closures to argue Indigenous Rights had gone too far. On X, Brodie claimed that park access across the province may someday be “dependent upon your racial status.”

Then came a dispute over the length of the final 2025 reconnection period. The nations planned for two months, from late August to the end of October, but BC Parks went with about half that time, between the Labour Day weekend and Oct. 3. The decision sparked protests from members and supporters of the two nations and allies. 

Which brings us to May 7, when BC Parks announced the closure dates for this year: one week in June, which includes National Indigenous Peoples’ Day on June 21, and from Sept. 8 until the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. Neither nation was part of the announcement. They have not met with BC Parks as a working group since last fall’s dispute, according to the Ministry of Environment and Parks, which said it “has been working to try and re-engage” the nations ever since.

On May 27, almost three weeks after the BC Parks announcement, Líl̓wat Nation released a statement calling on the B.C. government to implement its desired reconnection period for the fall, spanning Aug. 23 to Oct. 5. That’s roughly three weeks longer than the province’s stated closure, and the nation made it clear the unilateral announcement by the province “has further undermined an already fractured relationship.”

In an emailed statement, Líl̓wat Nation said this year’s letter has also been signed by N’Quatqua First Nation, “reflecting continued alignment between the two nations on the importance of the closure periods and the broader management concerns at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes.” 

The planned reconnection period has once again unleashed “an unspeakable amount of online racism,” Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote said in the legislature on May 19. Valeriote, whose West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding includes Pipi7íyekw, added the ministry’s lack of consultation with the First Nations, as well as the public disagreement over closure dates, may fuel the growing misinformation and mistrust surrounding Indigenous Rights in B.C. 

During question period, he asked Minister of Environment and Parks Tamara Davidson: “How is this collaboration? It seems that the government is either blaming the nations or waving the problem away instead of doing the actual work to alleviate the confusion in the minister’s estimation. Have the Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua Nations become collateral damage in the toxic reconciliation dialogue we’re experiencing?”

Major spike in visitors at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes

Just three provincial parks in B.C. require visitors to reserve a free day-use pass in advance during busy months — Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes, Garibaldi Park and Golden Ears Park, all located within driving distance of Vancouver. Though there are more than a thousand parks in the province, these three and a handful of others become magnets for visitors. 

According to BC Parks, provincial parks on the south coast have seen a 52 per cent increase in visitor traffic since 2010 — and in Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes, visits increased by 222 per cent between 2010 and 2019. 

“The overtourism leading up to the day-pass system was pretty significant. … I don’t think people fully appreciate what it’s like to have 200,000 people tramping through a relatively small park,” Valeriote told The Narwhal.

The stampede put a strain on the park, which can be accessed only through a single out-and-back route: trails were packed, cars spilled out of the parking lot, trash cans overflowed. Temporary closures were implemented to ensure rights-holding First Nations could access their territory, as well as give the land itself an opportunity to rest.

The nations’ proposed 2025 closure dates reflected “the time required for our communities to reconnect with the land, conduct ceremonies, gather food and medicines, and allow Pipi7íyekw the rest it needs to heal,” according to an August statement. “The province’s refusal to honour these dates undermines both reconciliation and the health of the land and people.”

History is repeating itself in 2026, with another disagreement over dates. 

In a statement sent to The Narwhal on May 27, the Ministry of Environment and Parks said it’s aware of the discrepancy between its 2026 dates and those given by Líl̓wat Nation. “The province reached out to the Líl̓wat Nation and N’Quatqua First Nations starting in February, reiterating a desire to identify long-term solutions that provide predictability and support the needs of all park users,” it said. According to the statement, the length of the 2026 closure dates align with “a commitment the province made in 2023 for 30 days of closures” — though in 2024 and 2025, the park was closed for nearly twice as many days. 

Parks Minister Davidson declined an interview with The Narwhal, but said by email the government values its relationship with both nations and hopes “to return to the table to collaborate on long-term solutions that provide predictability and support the needs of all park users.”

When asked if the province has a plan in place for protests or blockades that might arise over the disputed closure dates — as they did in 2025 — Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Spencer Chandra Herbert did not answer directly, but said the province supported peaceful protest but not blockades.

Green MLA concerned about the politicization of parks closures

Valeriote told The Narwhal he worries the ministry’s unilateral communications, contradicted by Líl̓wat, will exacerbate growing tensions in B.C. over Indigenous Rights and reconciliation. 

The claim that the closures are race-based — rather than rights-based — has been deployed frequently.

“I won’t mince words: the Conservatives and OneBC are using this as a political wedge issue,” Valeriote said. “It’s fully opportunistic. They’re talking about … ‘We no longer have access to our public land.’ It’s pure fear mongering, and it’s irresponsible,” he said. “But in our political system, they’re taking advantage of an opportunity. That’s unfortunately how this political system works.”

Valeriote alluded to the recent tension over the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA, which spiked in the wake of a court decision affirming that Cowichan Nation holds Aboriginal Title over a former village site in Richmond, B.C., which is now privately owned land. Despite Cowichan asserting repeatedly that they do not intend to seek claim to private land, the ruling has sparked panic among some property owners, with politicians rushing to reassure them — or amplify their fears. 

“They’re using [parks] to argue that Indigenous people are getting too good of a deal, and we should all be scared and, you know, private land ownership is playing into that.”

Misinformation is circulating, and not only about the closure dates, but who exactly is being kept out. B.C. politics reporter Rob Shaw posted on X that the BC Parks closure is “to allow First Nations to practice cultural and conservation traditions.” In fact, while there are 203 First Nations in B.C. — and residents of the province who are members of other First Nations across the country — only Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua members can access the parks during those periods.

Do B.C. and the First Nations see the park the same way?

In her emailed statement, Davidson emphasized balancing “predictable access” and visitor experience with reconciliation. “As one of BC Parks’ busiest destinations, welcoming thousands of visitors each year, we have a responsibility to carefully manage visitation in [the] park so people can have the most enjoyable experience.” When asked in the legislature on May 28 if trust had been broken with the First Nations, Davidson said, “I think we’d have to go back to Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua to ask them. But for our part, we’re working together and we’re trying to build that relationship back up again.” (In their August 2025 statement, the nations wrote, “We have lost trust in working with BC Parks.”)

But Líl̓wat’s statement makes it clear the First Nation sees the park differently, writing that reconnection periods are required “so our people can harvest, hold ceremony, teach our children on the land and carry out our stewardship responsibilities in Pipi7íyekw.”

In other words, a park is not just for enjoyment; it’s also a responsibility and a relationship. And that responsibility requires acknowledging that predictability is an increasingly unrealistic goal as climate change wreaks havoc on the planet, including Canadian parks. In recent years, parks across the country have closed after being damaged and destroyed by storms and floods. Many parks — including Jasper in Alberta, and Nopiming in Manitoba — have closed after being scorched by wildfire.

There is no certainty when it comes to our future access or enjoyment of nature. And the likelihood that parks will be around for anyone to enjoy is diminished when stewardship is treated as less important than on-demand access. The province knows this — despite the repeated emphasis on widespread access, only 500 daily passes are available, often booked up within moments of reservations opening.

“We see [a park] as a kind of piece of infrastructure, like a building, that’s supposed to be able to handle constant traffic and constant stress,” Valeriote told The Narwhal. “And I appreciate the Indigenous way of looking at it: it’s cyclical, and it’s a cultural asset that isn’t just about monetizing or utilizing 365 days a year. Sometimes it does need time to rest and reset,” he said. “I think the small amount of solitude that the Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua Nations can get in that cultural place is worth inconveniencing locals or tourists for a relatively few days a year.” 

Líl̓wat has asked the ministry to respond by Tuesday, June 2, and urged it to align the closure dates with those identified by the First Nation. 

“Reconciliation must be matched by action,” Líl̓wat Nation’s Chief Dean Nelson said in the statement. “If the province is serious about building a relationship based on mutual respect, it must start by respecting our reconnection periods.”

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The first lake at the famous Joffre Lakes Park is quiet and empty. Usually, the viewpoints are clamouring with people. But on this cool spring morning, Lhpat (Maxine Bruce) stands alone at the shore, holding her drum. No cameras, no crowds.

When she sings, her voice and the beat of the drum travel uninterrupted across the calm water. A bird is perched on a branch behind her, and its trills also cut through the still air. Between silent trees, only the songs of Lhpat and the bird can be heard.

A few years ago, this peaceful moment couldn’t have happened. The area’s original name is Pipi7íyekw in Ucwalmícwts, the language spoken by the Líl̓wat (Lil’wat) and N’Quatqua nations. For generations, their people have been in relationship with the area, gathering plants and practicing ceremony. But ever since the park got Instagram-famous around 2018, community members have barely been able to access the area. The parking lot fills up and the paths are packed.

British Columbia and the nations are implementing periodic closures to allow the park to rest from the feet and noise — and allow the nations to care for the area, harvest and connect. For three weeks over April and May, two weeks in June and one month in early autumn, the park was closed to everyone except members of Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua.

During the spring closure, the nations set up a sweat lodge in the parking lot. In the fall closure, between Sep. 2 and Oct. 3, people are busy picking berries, mushrooms, swamp tea and other medicines. They call these closures reconnection periods.

“Nature needs a rest,” Lhpat explains. “Mother Earth loves us every day … Every day, we need to love Mother Earth too, and give back.”

Because of the park’s popularity, a day pass system was implemented in 2022 to deal with overcrowded trails. But the free passes are gone within minutes of being posted at 7:00 a.m. two days in advance, and aspiring park-goers are frustrated. Sometimes, people try to sneak in while the park is closed, or without passes during opening hours. During the reconnection period, some have asked for special permission to enter the park anyway; others have gone online to vent their frustration about the nations’ members exercising their rights.

The nations are frustrated too — not only because of the challenges they’ve experienced while executing their co-management agreement with B.C., but also because of the hate and misinformation that has been directed at them online.

Amid the combative discourse, some of it led by B.C. politicians, the nations’ intentions can get lost in the conversation.

“B.C. sees this as recreation,” Casey Gonzalez, director of k̓wezúsmin̓ (title and rights) for Líl̓wat, says at Pipi7íyekw. “We see this as medicine, as cultural.”

Líl̓wat didn’t make the decision to allow photographer Paige Taylor White and me into the park during the reconnection periods lightly. But with so much disinformation and hate swirling online, community members wanted to show people directly why the closures matter. With the fall closure ending this Friday, Oct. 3, they wanted people to see the space at rest.

‘Heaven on Earth’

“It’s peaceful up here,” Terry Jameson says, looking out at the third and final lake on the hike. It’s his first time here.

The water is turquoise under the sun. He and his wife, Lightning Rose Jameson, are thinking of renewing their vows at Pipi7íyekw because the turquoise matches their wedding colours.

“It feels really amazing,” she says. “I honestly feel like this is a heaven on Earth, for sure — and this is only our backyard, you know? I’ve been here before, but this is my first time making it to the third lake and … I’m just happy.”

They are exploring the area in September, the last closure of the year. Líl̓wat members are running into each other excitedly, laughing and chatting, in between quiet stretches of having the trail to themselves.

Crowds have deterred Jessie-Lynne Joe from visiting before — it’s her first time, too. Now she wants to come back.

“I’m pretty happy that I made it,” she says.

Hearing about the crowds and seeing the traffic the rest of the year, “it’s kind of intimidating to even think of coming,” community member Lisa Peters says after finishing the hike.

“I feel really good I was here on our territory and with family.”

Instagram fame put pressure on ecosystem and community services

After it got online-famous, Joffre Lakes stayed busy. The trail became hectic, with people parking illegally along the highway and spilling onto the road.

“It was ridiculous,” Lightning Rose says. “The traffic was blocking the road pretty much.”

Gonzalez, whose ancestral name is Pasít, saw an Instagram video of someone taking the classic photo everyone wants — standing on a log at the second lake — before panning behind to the line-up of people waiting to take a near-identical picture.

“That doesn’t look like fun in nature,” she says.

In 2018, Líl̓wat, N’Quatqua and B.C. signed an agreement to co-manage the park. It was a joint priority, since annual visits more than tripled between 2010 and 2019.

After COVID-19 hit and many urban residents went looking for uncrowded areas, the nearby forest road became overrun with campers, Lhpat and Gonzalez say, and the affordability and housing crises in the years since have kept people living out there.

The small community became anxious about what the influx of people could mean for its limited emergency and medical services. Now, there were people camping long-term — not always legally — and showing up ill-equipped for the hike or sneaking in when no staff were around.

It’s not just Joffre Lakes. People have breached safety closures in other areas as well. When a road was closed in Líl̓wat territory due to landslide risk, Gonzalez says people brought a cutting torch and plywood to run their ATVs over the gate.

The Joffre closures bring privacy to Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua folks who have to go off the trail to pick berries, but don’t want hundreds of strangers “thinking they can do the same,” Gonzalez says.

The nations are concerned about the trail, which has begun to widen, spilling further into the ecosystem. They’re also worried about wildlife being driven out of the area and busier roads further limiting animals’ movements.

B.C. and the nations introduced the first closures in 2023.

The visitor use management strategy aims to improve visitor experience by reducing crowds, protecting the area from being overworked and giving nation members access.

“These reconnection periods are not to exclude people from Pipi7íyekw,” Gonzalez says. “They’re for Pipi7íyekw to regenerate and heal.”

‘Our communities need this’

The spring closure was aligned with Declaration Day, a celebration in May shared by Líl̓wat, N’Quatqua and the nine other St’át’imc communities that commemorates when their chiefs signed a declaration in 1911 asserting their sovereignty. Feather runners and horseback riders go from nation to nation, spreading the word about which nation is going to host the celebration that year. Gonzalez explains they imagined the runners being able to fulfill their journey without being surrounded by so many cars, and people able to stop at the lakes while travelling between communities.

Gonzalez says the park brings important spiritual and mental health benefits, especially for young people facing mental health and addiction issues due to interwoven socioeconomic factors. She says giving them time and space in important cultural places brings feelings of empowerment.

“For us to be up here … It lifts the hearts of the people,” Lhpat says.

There was one economic trade-off — less business at the nation’s gas station during the closures. Gonzalez says Líl̓wat leadership is considering how to counteract that effect. But the closures bring benefits that are harder to quantify than numbers.

“Our communities need this,” Gonzalez says. “Our communities are suffering hugely by the toxic drug crisis, by mental health. It all leads back to colonization, and our communities really need to reconnect with the land and our teachings.”

Many aspiring visitors want to be an ‘exception’ to the rules

During the closure in June, a group of people came out of the trees at Joffre Lakes Park, heading to their car — but they were not from the community.

“We did have a group of sneaker-inners,” BC Parks ranger Alexandra Beech tells us. “We had nation members show up, and I made [the group] apologize.”

It’s not a one-time occurence: people regularly try to sneak in outside the park’s open hours and that’s continued during the reconnection periods.

Again and again, people say they want to be the exception. They say they understand the park is really busy, but think they are a worthy, special case.

I travelled so far to be here. I flew in for this place.

Can I take wedding photos while it’s empty?

Can I just go to the first lake?

We only got five passes online. Can the nation give us permission to bring two more people? (“We don’t issue the day passes,” Gonzalez says.)

Still, Gonzalez says the vast majority of interactions are positive. Many people are interested and want to respect the reconnection periods. But there’s a loud and noticeable minority — mostly “keyboard warriors,” Lhpat says, who are angry about the closures. She believes educating the public can bring “positive change,” but it takes conscious effort that can leave her feeling overwhelmed.

“We need to open our minds and hearts to each other — because we’re going to be here,” she adds.

‘Figuring out what reconciliation actually is’

Lhpat shows us the spot in the parking lot where a sweat lodge was set up earlier this year.

“We paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” she says, referencing Joni Mitchell’s song Big Yellow Taxi. “Every now and then, that song comes out on the radio and, man. It really hits home for me.”

The nation has been working with B.C. since 2018 in a significant effort at collaboration, but the partnership still hasn’t been perfect. The nations were upset this summer when the province chose closure dates without their buy-in, making them a full month shorter than the nations requested. Despite their opposition. B.C. made the call to allow public access over Labour Day weekend.

On a Friday morning in August, the nations held a ceremony and blocked traffic on Highway 99 to bring attention to what they saw as the province’s betrayal of their partnership.

To Gonzalez, BC Parks announcing new closure dates without the nations’ buy-in meant they were holding onto a “back-minded mentality that they are the ultimate decision-makers of our unceded territories,” she says.

In an emailed statement, B.C. told The Narwhal the shorter closure still “allows the park to recover from a busy summer” and time for nation members to carry out cultural practices.

“We acknowledge that the Nations had requested additional closure dates beyond what the province was prepared to agree to,” it said. “Although a final agreement for 2025 was not reached, this year’s closure schedule honoured the approach agreed to for the 2024 season.”

“We have a responsibility to support public access to parks while also respecting First Nations cultural practices and conservation goals,” the ministry continued. “We greatly value our relationship with the Líl̓wat Nation and N’Quatqua, and are committed to a continued collaborative planning process.”

Historically, parks were created without consent from Indigenous Peoples, sometimes forcibly displacing people from their homes, erasing villages and expelling people from their harvesting and hunting areas. These nations are among many that want to ensure true collaborative management for the future.

Legally enshrined Indigenous Rights include the right to access traditional territories and engage in activities such as harvesting, fishing and gathering medicines. Canada’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2021, and B.C.’s own Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in 2019, require the federal and provincial governments to uphold those rights. But also, there were 20.8 million parks visitors across the province from 2013 to 2014; a decade later, that figure had grown by nearly 30 per cent to just over 27 million. Balancing Indigenous Rights to access these places with demand from Canadians and visitors alike is a challenge — and leads to thorny conversations.

“I think there’s also this level of fear and unknown … [and] discomfort while we go through figuring out what reconciliation actually is,” Gonzalez says.

“I’m just as unsure what to say … I feel uncomfortable. But if I don’t say it, then I’m complacent with where we’re at.”

But Gonzalez is not content with where things are at. She wants to see big changes. She wants Indigenous Peoples to be included equally in early planning of all management decisions around parks. She wants Indigenous Peoples to have safe, protected access to their territories that have been disrupted in so many ways.

For her part, Lhpat would like to see a Guardians program launched in Joffre Lakes Park. She’d also like more jobs at BC Parks to be prioritized for nation members.

She wants everyone, non-Indigenous as well, to feel love and responsibility to care for the land, not just use it.

“Look at what we’ve done,” she says, referring to the destruction of ecosystems. “But if we leave it alone for a while, the land will forgive us and recoup itself.”

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.