Conservation Halton has announced that they will be closing all of their parks to the public after a spike in hikers on Saturday.
While they report that many hikers respected social distancing, their rangers did have some concerns about crowding in some areas, parking lot capacity, illegal parking and guests hiking where they shouldn’t.
Conservation Halton’s chief administrative officer, Hassaan Basit, says “These are extraordinary times and we are not in a position to use staff resources to manage non-compliance with park rules or control crowding proactively. Our collective response to COVID-19 has to be all or nothing when it comes to social distancing.”
He adds that while most guests have been responsible there have been some who have “demonstrated a complete disregard for the health advice we must all follow. This leaves us with no choice but to close the parks indefinitely. We cannot risk the safety of any member of our staff or the broader community.”
Prior to announcing their close on March 21st, they had reduced their staff in their parks and gatehouses, had cancelled their programs and some parks were closed.
They had also suspended their regular fees and encouraged guests to only pay what they could.
The parks that have closed include Kelso, Mountsberg, Crawford Lake, Rattlesnake Point, Hilton Falls and Robert Edmondson.
All of their sites will be monitored for illegal access and trespassers will be charged.
