Andrey Chernykh
How would this work? To start, the program must be a complex of pedestrian trails, picnic areas, conservation zones, lookout features, pavilions, and gardens. The International Peace Garden located on Turtle Mountain straddling the border between Manitoba and North Dakota, and the Peace Arch Park shared between Douglas, British Columbia and Blaine, Washington are precedents that outline how such a border zone is accessed — people from both sides can enter these parks without officially crossing through to the other side. Coordinated visitation and stewardship to make the border landscape ecologically healthier and more accessible, enhances security along the border, reducing expenditure on surveillance technology and staff. A multi-use border trail that runs east-west weaving in an out of the cutline is an uninterrupted parkland used both for pleasure and patrol. Rest nodes, pavilions and gardens: tourist destinations? additional revenue for border municipalities? maintenance centres for the border itself? While the border is under federal jurisdiction, an expanded border zone engages state and provincial interests. Tied by strong branding and a bilateral agreement between the US and Canada, this park would potentially reinforce better cross-border collaboration and cooperation among IBC, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US State Park Service, Provincial Parks, Parks Canada, and various conservation agencies on both sides. Does it become a UNESCO site — a model for reducing conflict and for the demilitarisation of conflicting territories? A border park is an opportunity to reaffirm the role of the park in the twenty-first century as a powerful mechanism capable of integrating various systems for the benefit of people and the earth. Time for us to walk the border in our minds and dream of how it should be. As said at the beginning, it is a long, undefended border. lnstead of sliding further into increased surveillance and para-militarisation, might we think of cooperation, co- responsibility and our identical geography, environment and ecological potential?
We’ve been sharing the border inadvertently for so long, it is time to become deliberate. O
all images courtesy of Andreas Rutkauskas
Chief Mountain port of entry Monument No. 276, Waterton Lakes, Alberta
on site review 38: borders, lines, breaks and breaches 13
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