B.C. Parks campsites open for reservations starting today

Reservations for B.C.'s campsites are now open for 2017.

The earlier Jan. 2 opening dayis one of several changes to the province's reservation system this year.

The guidelines, announced last November, are intended to prevent campers from cheating the system by booking early and then cancellingextra days. Some of the changes are as follows:

• The mid-March"opening day" for reservations has been replaced with a four-month "rolling" window. (ie: On Jan. 2, campers can only book with arrival dates on or before May 2).
• To prevent reselling of sites, reservations must be made under one or two names that can'tbe changed.
• Reservations will beinvalid unless one of thethosenames stays for the duration of the booking.
• Discover Camping call centre hours extended to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.

In the past, campers would snag sites for in-demand dates like long weekends by booking a longer slot that ended with the busy days, then cancelingthe earlier days they didn't want.

To prevent this, customers are no longer allowed to change their arrival date within the first week after a campsite opens up for bookings.

Also, the maximum stay during peak season has been cut from two weeks down to one week at five of of the province's busiest sites:

• PorteauCove near Vancouver.
• Loveland Bay near Campbell River.
• Mount Fernie.
• Marthe Creek near Revelstoke.
• Ellison near Vernon.