Heather Wright/The Independent

Environmentalists are applauding a proposed management plan which will see one of three campgrounds at Pinery Provincial Park eventually close.

The park which currently has 1,070 spaces, is working on a new management plan. The details of the plan are on the Environment Registry of Ontario, with public comments closing today (Aug. 17).

Pinery Park is one of the largest remaining, intact coastal dune systems on the Great Lakes, according to the management plan. That that includes over 50 species considered rare in Ontario or Canada. It’s also considered a habitat for rare species like the eastern hognose snake, the prairie warbler and the Karner blue and Olympia marble butterflies.

“The goal of Pinery Provincial Park is to protect an extensive, provincially significant, freshwater dune system with associated representative floral, faunal and cultural features and to provide high quality educational and recreational experiences,” according to the plan.

Those dunes, found in the Burley campground area, are being damaged as campers make their own way to the beach instead of using existing trails. That’s “trampling” an extremely rare area of wet meadows in the dunes which is “very uncommon in North America.” The interdunal wet meadows are only found between Grand Bend and Kettle Point in Canada.

The proposed management plan calls for the “restoration of campsite areas and associated infrastructure, conversion of 4 km of roadway to single-lane multi-use trail.”

Decommissioning the Burley camping area would eliminate 302 campsites which are open in July and August. About 79 per cent of Pinery’s 25 square-kilometre land mass would be protected from camping if the proposal is approved.

Tony Morris, Conservation Policy and Campaigns Director, for Ontario Nature, says the conservation group supports the plan.

Morris says Pinery is a smaller park, compared to the others in the province, “but it is incredibly important because it’s home to ecologically significant and sensitive features like globally rare freshwater dune ecosystems and the oak savannas, which are home to hundreds of species.

“Recreational uses like camping need to be managed appropriately so that you know that those park ecological features can be maintained,” Morris says adding the main goal of all provincial parks is to maintain important habitats.

“My understanding is the campsites that are to close are in like highly-sensitive dune habitat areas, and those areas in particular are home to multiple species at risk. It’s entirely warranted that you would close that to camping to protect those features.”

Pinery Park has seen a steady increase in visitors over the last six years. According to Ontario Parks statistics, over 823,000 people visited Pinery in 2025. That was up nearly 12 per cent over 2024 when over 736,000 came to the Grand Bend-area park.

And it’s up dramatically in the last six years – 68 per cent from 2020 when about 490,000 came through the park and 25 per cent from 2021 when 612,573 visited after the pandemic shutdowns lifted.

All those people, Morris says, are making a big impact.

“Dune ecosystems, in particular, are incredibly sensitive and fragile to impacts, and the amended management plan that the Ontario Parks is consulting on says specifically that one of the significant features of Pinery is unauthorised trail creation on the dunes, which is contributing to erosion and trampling of sensitive vegetation,” Morris tells The Independent

“When people don’t follow the rules and don’t respect the natural areas, unfortunately, sometimes it falls on Ontario Parks to have to close areas off to prevent further damage.”

Morris says Ontario Nature is filing a letter of support for the plan to the Environment Registry of Ontario today.

After the comments are compiled, the ministry will post a decision on the ERO.

It’s not clear when Pinery Park officials would begin decommissioning the campsite area.

OTHER ITEMS IN THE MANAGEMENT PLAN

• the possibility of a fish ladder in the Old Ausable Chanel Area in the park to improve the habitat of the provincially-significant wetland area
• continuing to manage hyper-abundant species, like the white-tailed deer, with the help of outside organizations. In the past local Indigenous communities have been part of the effort to control the deer population.
• continuing to remove the white pine trees planted when the park was founded but which are not normally found in Oak Savanna habitats
• the protection of Red Cedar, Dwarf Oak, and Interdunal Cedar complex communities by using fire management if necessary or removing recreation infrastructure
• Trailer sanitation station upgrading to enhance visitor services