The B.C. government introduced legislation today that will add more than 550,000 hectares to the province's parks and protected areas system, Environment Minister Terry Lake announced today.

A Vancouver-based guitar manufacturer is donating $3,000 to BC Parks to purchase and plant 1,000 seedlings in a Lillooet area park to help restore 23,000 hectares of land damaged in the 2009 Kelly Creek wildfire.

BC Parks is accepting applications for its innovative youth leadership program Get Outside BC. Piloted in 2011, Get Outside BC was the first of its kind in Canada. Forty youth aged 14-18 from across the province will be selected to participate in this year's summer program.

A world-class rock-climbing destination and provincial park soon will be bigger, thanks to a land transfer to BC Parks from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and TLC, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, Environment Minister Terry Lake announced.

Environment Minister Terry Lake says Discover Camping saw a 41 per cent increase over 2011 when BC Parks opened for reservations on March 15. In the first hour, more than 2,100 reservations were made. This represents approximately 35 a minute.

The Natural Resource Compliance Act, introduced in fall 2011, is now in effect, making it easier for compliance and enforcement officers to hold offenders accountable for violating natural resource legislation.

After a flood-related closure last summer, nearby Gwillim Lake Provincial Park is scheduled to reopen in time for the May 2012 long weekend.