The original plan included a highway extending throughout the length of the park, and by 1950 a gravel road was completed from Tracadie to Covehead Harbour. This was paved in 1956. A causeway was built between Brackley Point and Rustico Island at this time, and in 1957 a pile and trestle bridge was constructed over Covehead Harbour Inlet; (this bridge was severely damaged by ahurricane in December, 1963 and was rebuilt in 1964-65). A plan to join Rustico Island with Rustico by causeway and bridge had to be abandoned, for ecologic and economic reasons, after a considerable stretch of causeway, since washed away, had been completed.

Stanhope Campground, the second largest in the park, was begun in 1939, and by 1962 had accommodation for 158 tents and 14 trailers, with a water system, electrical installations for trailers, and sanitary buildings. The Stanhope picnic area was moved north of the Gulf Shore Road in 1955 and an additional picnic area created at the north end of Stanhope Lane. Recently the number of tents in the camp- ground was reduced to 104, and a general improvement project is planned for the campground in the near future.

All the main beaches in the park have a lifeguard service, with observation towers, dories and surfboards at each supervised beach, together with roped-in safety enclosures in the water. Water safety demonstrations and lifeguard competitions are put on each summer.

Beaches, dunes and cliffs in the park are subject to erosion by wind and sea, and damage from people use; Parks Canada carries on erosion control by means of duckboards and bridges over the dunes, brush fences and piling, sandbags and seawalls, and the installation of wire cages filled with fieldstone on the cliffs. This last attempt at cliff preservation has backfired somewhat —— the Stanhope main beach, with cliff protection, now forms a headland because of erosion of the unprotected cliffs on each side.

Over the years, Parks Canada has acquired further land by purchase from owners, inland from the original park boundary, taking in most of the old Hudson property on both sides of Stanhope Lane, and extending as far south as the Stanhope East Road along most of its length. Various educational and interpretive programs have been set up in the park. The Nature Trail makes a very stimu- lating walk for those interested in botany, woodland ecology and pioneer farm life; it is complemented by the Reeds and Rushes Trail in and around Long Pond. It is planned to make the latter trail accessible/to wheel chair visitors in the near future. Hiking trails in the summer and cross-country ski and snowshoe‘trails in the winter give visitors a chance to enjoy the park lands. There is an outdoor winter educational program for Grades 4, 5, and 6 of Island schools; in the summer there are from 10 to 15 events each week for tourists

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