Breaking Ground Creating a Greener, Healthier City May 2nd- 4th ,2002 , , Canada

Conference Proceedings TABLE OF CONTENTS

Public Forum: Future Visions For A Green Calgary 3

Dr. Mike Quinn, Green Infrastructure: A Vision For A Greener Calgary 3

Dr. Len Hills, The Last 20,000 Years In The Calgary Area 5

Danah Duke, Connections In Urban Landscapes 7

Elisabeth Beaubien, Alberta Plantwatch: Join Us To Track Bloom Times! 8 PUBLIC FORUM: FUTURE VISIONS FOR A GREEN CALGARY JOHN DUTTON THEATRE, W.R. CASTELL LIBRARY CENTRAL BRANCH THURSDAY, MAY 2ND, 2002 7:00 – 9:15PM

PROGRAM 7:00 Where is your favourite green place? GIS Mapping 7:30 Welcome and Introductions Evergreen & Parks Foundation, Calgary 7:30 Why green infrastructure? Dr. Michael Quinn, University of Calgary 8:00 The challenge: Changing environments. Panel discussion and audience response 9:00 The opportunity: A greening vision. TBA, University of Calgary

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: A VISION FOR A GREENER CALGARY Dr. Mike Quinn – Professor of Environmental Science Dr. Mike Quinn grew up in Calgary, spending most of his youth enjoying outdoor pursuits in the Rockies including fly-fishing and watching wildlife especially birds. Mike holds a B.Sc. in forest science, an M.Sc. in forestry and wildlife (ornithology) and a PhD in environmental studies. With extensive experience in faculty positions across Canada, Mike is currently an assistant professor of environmental science and planning in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary and is also the Director of the Miistakis Institute for the Rockies. Mike’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of ecosystem management, protected areas management, community-based natural resource management and urban ecology.

In just over a century, Calgary has grown to be a city of nearly a million people occupying a land area of more than 700 km2. This “footprint” on the landscape is even more significant if one considers the resources that flow from outside of the city to fuel our wants and needs for water, energy, food and other resources. One of the ways to work towards a vision for a greener Calgary is to re-think the infrastructures that support our city. Most people generally think of power lines, sewer lines, water mains, roadways, etc. when they hear the word “infrastructure”. These human-built forms of infrastructure can be classified as “gray infrastructure” and are really only part of the picture. The city is also supported by an ecological infrastructure. The emerging field of “green infrastructure” takes a more holistic view of the systems that support cities and recasts cities as ecosystems. An ecosystem view of city form and function allows for a re-visioning of infrastructure in a way that combines the “green” and “gray” elements into sets of interrelationships that provide the life support to people and the other life forms with which we share our environment.

The term “green infrastructure” is used in at least three different ways: 1) to refer to a “greening” of gray infrastructure, 2) to describe the protection of existing green space – especially linear systems or “greenways”, and 3) to capture an emerging practice of inter-twining the green and the gray elements into functional urban/built ecologies. Green infrastructure can be characterized systems with elements that are: distributed and clustered, renewable and low- impact, utilize appropriate matching and cascading, and multi-purpose and integrated. A central goal of green infrastructure approach is to lower the overall subsidization that we make to the function of urban ecosystems. The rest of the presentation will focus on a few examples of green infrastructure thinking around water, wildlife and energy issues.

The natural water cycle is highly disrupted by urbanization. Rather than the interception, percolation and gradual release of precipitation that characterizes undisturbed systems, cities tend to collect water on hard surfaces and pipe it over-efficiently to discharge sites – usually streams and rivers. This practice disrupts the receiving aquatic ecosystems by making them “flashy” and irregular as well as by delivering pulses of deleterious surface run-off. The lack of water that results in upland soils creates a need for irrigation and further disrupts the system. A significant focus of green infrastructure is to capture, retain, treat, utilize and gradually release precipitation. The use of treatment wetlands is an excellent example of how a greener infrastructure can more closely approximate a natural hydrological cycle as well as create a multitude of ecological, social and economic benefits. There are also new techniques to treat sewage through biological treatment systems called “living machines”. These greenhouse systems utilize a flow of water to be treated through a series of basins that biologically purify the water. Individuals can make a simple but highly significant contribution to creating greener infrastructure through the use of rain barrels.

Another element of considering green infrastructure is through the provision of urban wildlife habitat. The right mixes of food, water, shelter and space can provide native species with critical habitat requirements. The provision of wildlife habitat structure is also conducive to more livable urban environments for people.

Green infrastructure is also concerned with greater energy efficiency. This includes consideration of energy production as well as the more complete use of energy that comes to us on the grid. The technology to utilize micro- generation techniques, a greater reliance on renewable energy forms and more creativity around sharing energy are some of the current focuses of green infrastructure. A good example of multiple benefits arising from greener energy infrastructure is the EnviroSmart Streetlights that are currently being installed in Calgary. The new lights will save the City approximately $2 million/year in energy costs and will result in significantly less light pollution and trespass.

Green infrastructure makes sense economically, socially and environmentally. The movement towards making our cities more efficient ecosystems is one that will radically change how we built and retrofit our urban form. In fact, it has been suggested that green infrastructure will be responsible for the most significant changes we have seen in urban form since the invention of the city. THE LAST 20,000 YEARS IN THE CALGARY AREA Dr. Len Hills Dr. Len Hills received his Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia in 1960, his Masters of Science from UBC in 1962, and his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1965.He worked as an exploration paleontologist for Shell Canada from 1965-1966 and joined the Geology department at the University of Calgary as an professor in 1966 and retired in 1996. During this time, Dr. Len Hills served as the president for Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, editor of Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, Arctic and several CSPG Memoirs, fellow of the Arctic Institute of NA and a honourary Member Canadian Society of Petroleum Geology. Dr. Hills work has focused on the geology of the Canadian Arctic but has encompassed all provinces and territories in Canada.

The events of the last 20,000 years in the Calgary area included the Classical Wisconsinan Glaciation which resulted in ice advancing from the northeast (Laurentide Ice) and ice from the west (Cordilleran Ice). The Laurentide ice extended slightly west of the city whereas the Cordilleran ice had reached Calgary and had started to retreat by the time the Laurentide Ice had reached the area. These two ice sheets have left their mark on the area in the presence of landforms including hummocky and ground moraine, melt water channels and buried valleys.

During the melting back of the two ice sheets, a glacial lake developed in front of the Laurentide Ice. This lake extended west from Calgary to Morley. Drainage from the lake was to the south via a series of outlets such as the one followed by Sarcee Trail. Additionally, melt water flowed southwest via Big Hill Springs Valley into River at Cochrane where it produced a large delta (Hockey arena is on the top of the delta). About 40 m of lake sediments partially infilled the valley. (The University is built on these sediments.)

With further retreat, Glacial Lake Calgary drained and the reestablished its channel. As it cut down, it left a series of prominent terraces along the Bow River particularly on the south side, east of Cochrane, Alberta which reflect successively lower outlets.

The lowest prominent terrace at bout 10 m is different in that it represents a period of aggradation as opposed to downcutting. The initial post glacial phase of river incision cut down to its present level, then about 12,000 years ago the river started to aggrade. Aggradation continued until about 6,000 years ago then it again started to incise into these sediments reaching is present level ca 2,000 years ago.

Terrace sediments that are overtopped by flood waters are extremely important in the behavior of a river during periods of flooding. Firstly once the river overtops its banks it spreads out, surface velocities are checked and silt and sand is deposited on the terrace. Flood waters will flow over it but also penetrate into the sediment. These waters are extremely important in the water balance of a river in that they return to the river as springs throughout the year affecting, water temperature (cooler in summer, warmer in winter) maintaining flow throughout the year and water hardness. In the winter, groundwater contributes proportionally more water than surface and in our area is enriched in calcium carbonate so that the chemistry changes throughout the year in a cyclic fashion (softer in summer, harder in winter).

With the building of cities on flood plains the necessity of having flood control arises resulting in the construction of dams which can be used to control floods and even out water flow year round. However, ponded and surface waters warm quickly and do not provide the temperature regulation associated with springs. Nor is there a flood cycle which is important to riverine vegetation (i.e. Plains Cottonwood).

The 10 m terraces along the Bow River and other rivers, including the St. Mary River, in Alberta have yielded a rich paleo fauna. The earliest of these faunas are from the St. Mary Reservoir. However, all the species mentioned have been recovered from widespread areas. The earliest of these faunas include woolly and columbian mammoth mammuthus primigenius, M columbi) horse (Equis conversidens) camels (camelops hiesternis) Bison (Bison b. antiqius) Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and the helmeted muskoxen (Bootherum bombifrons). The earliest dates in Alberta for these range between 11,300 and 11,000. Along with this fauna we have evidence of man based on the presence of Clovis points and other artifacts.

By 10,000 this fauna had disappeared except for the caribou and was replaced by Bison occidentalis and eventually Bison bison (plains bison) and elk (Cervus canadensis).

This was followed by white explorers, hunters, trappers, cattlemen, farmers, coal miners and most recently, by the petroleum industry. This has all had its impact on the land in terms of resource extraction (gravels along rivers which lowers terrace levels and can result in groundwater flooded basements, etc.)

The foregoing makes no mention of the changes that took place in the plant communities which had to be established before we could have the animals. Many of the plants like the early mammals, came from the south but species such as Douglas Fir a conspicuous element at Edworthy Park, crossed over the Bow Summit and entered Alberta about 6,000 to 6,500 years ago.

The change from the early to late faunas provides an interesting study in itself. The earliest inhabitants arrived from the south whereas the latest arrived from the north. Several hypotheses have been proposed for the extinction of the earlier faunas including man as the exterminator or climate change. The truth probably is a combination, a population stressed by a rapidly changing environment being confronted by the new predator – man. CONNECTIONS IN URBAN LANDSCAPES Danah Duke Danah is a graduate of the Ecology and Environmental Biology Masters Program of the University of Alberta. Her masters research focused on wildlife corridors in . Her research aimed to identify the habitat characteristics important for wildlife as they travel through corridors in human dominated landscapes. Danah has been involved in wildlife research in the Central Rockies since 1994 and specifically with wildife connectivity and corridor issues since 1995. Danah is currently the Executive Coordinator of the Miistakis Institute for the Rockies where her experience and interests allow her to focus on the facilitation of ecosystem management and research in the Rocky Mountains.

Wildlife corridors play important ecological roles in urban and suburban environments. A wildlife corridor simply connects two pieces of previously connected habitat. By providing connections for both wildlife movement and habitat use, corridors reduce negative impacts such as reduced population viability and reduced genetic variability that are imposed on isolated wildlife populations. While corridors are human constructs and are defined by what is left on the landscape, this does not mean that what is left on the landscape constitutes a functional corridor. All too often any piece of remaining land is designated a corridor with little thought to which species will be utilizing the corridor and what the habitat/corridor requirements are for that species. And while there may be pieces of land connecting areas around human development, without the necessary habitat characteristics, wildlife will not use the corridor.

Important corridor characteristics can be grouped by different guilds of species including insects/reptiles and amphibians, birds, small mammals, medium mammals and large mammals, which allows land managers to consider individual species where little specific information on corridor requirements exist. Important corridor characteristics include: o width/ length shape o presence of barriers o slope o corridor composition (includes diversity, vegetation type and arrangement) o human activity o buffers While the City of Calgary is a growing, expanding city, there are many opportunities to maintain and enhance wildlife movements through the use of wildlife corridors. Many corridors exist that link habitat patches along greenways and river systems. It is important to identify fracture zones within these connections to apply restoration and mitigation efforts. One of the most important things needed to maintain connectivity within and around the City of Calgary is to identify important connections and habitat patches prior to human development so effort can be focused on maintenance of existing connections instead of on the creation of new connections. ALBERTA PLANTWATCH: JOIN US TO TRACK BLOOM TIMES! Elisabeth Beaubien Elisabeth received her BSc Honours Biology from Carleton University Ottawa and her MSc Botany (Plant Ecology) from the University of Alberta in 1991. Elisabeth has worked since 1991 as a (self-employed) research scientist at the University of Alberta's Devonian Botanic Garden. She has coordinated two volunteer networks who report wildflower blooming dates. Firstly, the Alberta Wildflower Survey which started in 1987(now renamed Alberta Plantwatch), and secondly, Plantwatch (international program which gathers bloom dates via Internet) 1995 to present.For Elisabeth, flowers have been a great interest since her early years. She has enjoyed teaching about alpine plants in the mountain parks since1980. Currently she teaches courses for (the Jasper Institute), and Yoho National Park. Past president of the Alberta Native Plant Council, she started the Edmonton Plant Study Group in Edmonton in about 1989. Elisabeth has also helped organize an alpine reclamation weekend for the beautiful Cardinal Divide east of Jasper Park for 7 years.

Many Albertans look forward to the first prairie crocus flowers in early spring and enjoy the beautiful scent of the lilacs at the beginning of summer. We all notice the vivid colors and fragrant scents of Alberta wildflowers, but how many of us have noticed a trend towards their earlier flowering?

Spring is coming sooner and flowers are blooming earlier. Aspen poplar is blooming almost a month earlier than it did at the beginning of the century. This is most likely due to climate change, since especially western Canada is experiencing a warming trend. Winter and spring temperatures have been getting warmer. Though spring 2002 was very cold and thus had very late flowering!

Who is tracking this change in bloom time? People just like you are! People across Alberta, Canada, the United States, and internationally are recording the dates that certain flowers bloom. The “Alberta Wildflower Survey” began at the University of Alberta in 1987, with observers reporting by mail on up to 15 different native plant species. Then the internet-based Plantwatch program began in 1995. These are phenology (study of the seasonal timing of life cycle events) programs, in which observers are the “eyes of science,” tracking the green wave of spring moving north.

Data collected from Plantwatch is used in many walks of life. The valuable seasonality information can help farmers and foresters to correctly time operations such as planting, fertilizing, crop protection and harvest. It is also useful in wildlife management (e.g. in early springs more deer fawns are successful), human health (pollen warnings for allergy-sufferers) and tourism (best times to photograph flowers or animals, or to go fly-fishing).

This is an exciting year, as the plant phenology program is expanding in many ways, with coordinators in each province and territory. Check out the new web site provided by the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network Coordinating Office (EMAN-CO) of Environment Canada (www.plantwatch.ca).

The Alberta Wildflower Survey is now called “Alberta Plantwatch.” Each province and territory runs a Plantwatch program and has chosen plant species that are suitable to their region. The Alberta Plantwatch species are listed below. The plants useful for spring phenology studies are perennial, spring-flowering, easy to identify and broadly distributed. They have a short bloom period and do not have confusing “look-alike” species or subspecies. All species are native, which means that they occurred in North America long before European settlement, except the introduced species marked with an asterisk (*). Species in bold are also observed in other provinces and territories. Aspen poplar (Populus tremuloides) Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana) Prairie crocus (Anemone patens) Wolf Willow (Elaeagnus commutata) Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) Common Purple Lilac* (Syringa vulgaris) Tamarack (Larix laricina) Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) Dandelion* (Taraxacum officinale) Northern Bedstraw (Galium boreale) Early Blue Violet (Viola adunca) Twinflower (Linnaea borealis) Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) Labrador Tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum) Golden Bean (Thermopsis rhombifolia) Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana/vesca) Purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) Saskatoon (Amelanchier alnifolia) White Dryad (Dryas integrifolia/octopetala) Star-flowered Solomon’s Seal (Maianthemum stellatum)

Observation methods have been simplified. Observers now report on first and mid bloom times. For non-woody herbs, first bloom is now defined as when the first flowers open in the plants under observation. For trees and shrubs, first bloom is when the first flowers have opened (or pollen is being shed) in three different places on the observed plant. Mid bloom is when 50% of flower buds have now opened.

For leaf-out of aspen poplar, lilac and larch, please report the dates when, in at least three different places on the tree, the first leaves have emerged and unfolded completely. (See the Plantwatch Guidebook and additional information sheets for full descriptions.) It is not necessary to try to report on many of these 21 species! Even one bloom date from one plant is useful.

Alberta Plantwatch has a web site (www.devonian.ualberta.ca/pwatch) with details on the program, including descriptions and full-colour photos of plant species. As this site is being updated, some information on the program and its species are not yet available. We hope to have the web site completed over the summer. The Alberta web site will be linked to the national Plantwatch web site (www.plantwatch.ca), which now has descriptions of almost all the Alberta species, where you can register and report your data online in “real time.” Upon entering data, your bloom dates will be mapped for viewing, instantly. A “location finder” will help you to determine your plant’s location in latitude and longitude by clicking on a series of maps.

A “Plantwatch: Canada in Bloom” guidebook, produced by the Canadian Nature Federation (CNF) contains information on plants observed in various regions of Canada (see the national website above).

Please join us in tracking bloom times in Alberta! For more information contact Elisabeth (see below). Have a great spring!