The BC Parks Foundation has shared the assessment of the success of the Wells Gray Naturalist Program during the summer of 2024.
Wells Gray Park naturalists this past summer were Bennett Pereira and Brynn Weigelt. Bennett returned to the position for the second summer in a row.
Roland and Anne Neave, owners of Wells Gray Tours and Wells Gray Gateway Guesthouse, are dedicated to continuing education about, and protecting the environment in, Wells Gray Park.
Roland Neave is the author of Exploring Wells Gray and has donated proceeds from his book to specific improvement projects, education and the naturalist program within the park.
Neave shared recent BC Parks data following this summer's Naturalists Program with the Clearwater Times.
“The combination of daytime interpretive walks and evening talks at the Clearwater Lake Nature House, and their portable information booth produced 7,377 chats with park visitors, up 30 percent from 2023," Neave said.
The BC Parks Foundation supports the Park Naturalist Program, also called the Park Ambassador Program. About 20 provincial parks had naturalist programs in 2024, presented by 12 teams of two people, mostly university students. Some small provincial parks are paired with others nearby such as Rathtrevor Beach and Englishman River Falls on Vancouver Island.
“The naturalists conducted 47 programs between mid-June and the end of August. Walks were offered on the Lakeshore Trail at Clearwater Lake, the Gatling Gorge Trail, Trophy Meadows Trail, Bailey's Chute Trail, and Ray Farm Trail, ranging from one hour to four hours in length. The evening talks at the Nature House were presented three nights a week and covered many topics about the park. The naturalists also walked through the Clearwater Lake and Falls Creek campgrounds most evenings to promote their talks and answer questions from visitors. They were dedicated throughout the summer,” explained Neave.
All funding for these programs comes from individual and corporate donations to the BC Parks Foundation which is a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recognized charitable organization.
“The Wells Gray Park Naturalist Program has been funded for the past two summers in 2023 and 2024 by my wife, Anne and me," Neave said. "We have committed once again to supporting the program for the summer of 2025.”
Roland and Anne made the decision to donate 160 acres within Wells Gray Park to Thompson Rivers University in 2014, as a location for student research projects in biology, ecology and geography. TRU named the property in honour of this special donation, and it is now known officially as the Neave Family Wetlands.
The TRU Research and Education Centre in the wetlands opened in 2021, thanks to additional donations and volunteer work during the building of this important learning centre and the Neave family donated most of the furnishings for the building. The family also created an endowment in perpetuity so students will never be charged for the use of the building. The facility is always busy with a full complement of student research taking place there.
“Wells Gray Park is still our favourite place to be and we feel there is no place on earth like it,”said Neave.
Exploring Wells Gray can be purchased on Amazon, at bookstores, and at many Visitor Info Centres. Proceeds from the sales of the book go toward educational and sustainability projects within Wells Gray Park.
You can learn more about Wells Gray Park by visiting these websites:
https://wellsgray.ca/
http://www.wellsgraytours.com/
https://bcparks.ca/wells-gray-park/
