Wild Lands Advocate Vol.14, No.2, April 2006
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April 2006 • Vol.14, No.2 Vol.14, April 2006 • AWA Panther River valley, March 2006 – (S. Bray) THE QUIET URBANIZATION OF THE BACKCOUNTRY / 4 ALBERTA ENERGY HIJACKS RUMSEY AGAIN / 14 WILLMORE’S FIRE PLAN PROMISING / 17 SWIFT FOX BREEDING PROGRAM IN PERIL / 25 Editorial Board: Shirley Bray, Ph.D. C AprilONTENTS 2006 • VOL.14, NO. 2 Andy Marshall Joyce Hildebrand OUT FRONT Printing by: 4 THE QUIET URBANIZATION OF THE 23 FINDING WAYS TO LIVE WITH Colour printing and process is BACKCOUNTRY: PART 3 WOLVES IN CATTLE COUNTRY sponsored by Topline Printing 10 SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF 25 SWIFT FOX BREEDING PROGRAM AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES IN PERIL 28 LAND SWAPPING MAY HELP SAVE ALBERTA WILDERNESS WATCH VALUABLE BOREAL FORESTS Graphic Design: 14 BULLY TACTICS AND CARELESS PROFILE Ball Creative PROMISES: ALBERTA ENERGY HIJACKS RUMSEY AGAIN 29 ARTIST: IAN SHELDON Wild Lands Advocate is 17 WILLMORE’S FIRE PLAN published bimonthly, 6 times PROMISING BUT NEEDS MASTER LETTERS TO THE EDITOR a year, by Alberta Wilderness MANAGEMENT PLAN AS Association. The opinions FOUNDATION 30 ANDY RUSSELL WILDLAND PARK expressed by the authors 19 RADIO PROGRAM FEATURES in this publication are not ANDY RUSSELL EVENTS necessarily those of AWA. The editors reserve the right 20 GRIZZLY HUNT SUSPENSION FIRST to edit, reject or withdraw STEP TOWARD RECOVERY 31 SUMMER HIKES PROGRAM articles and letters submitted. 21 REQUEST TO REVOKE CARIBOU 31 PEKISKO RANGELAND BUS TOUR MOUNTAINS PARK STATUS 32 ALBERTA WILDERNESS Please direct questions DISGRACEFUL BACKPACKING TRIPS and comments to: 22 QUESTIONS CONTINUE TO Shirley Bray SURROUND LITTLE SMOKY Phone: (403) 270-2736 WOLF KILL Fax: (403) 270-2743 [email protected] © Ian Sheldon Box 6398, Station D, Calgary, Alberta T2P 2E1 Ph: (403) 283-2025 Toll-free 1-866-313-0713 www.albertawilderness.ca AWA respects the privacy of members. Lists are not sold or traded in any manner. AWA is a federally registered charity and functions through member and donor support. Tax-deductible donations may be made to AWA at Box 6398 Station e-mail: [email protected] D, Calgary, AB T2P 2E1. Ph:(403)283-2025 Fax:(403) 270-2743 E-mail: [email protected] www.albertawilderness.ca SUPPORT ALBERTA WHAT WERE WILDERNESS THEY THINKING? BECOME A LIFETIME AWA MEMBER $25 SINGLE $30 FAMILY SUBSCRIBE TO WILD LANDS ADVOCATE $30 SUPPORTER Although AWA and many others don’t think Trident Exploration should be drilling for coalbed methane in the Rumsey Natural Area at all, the company WILDERNESS CIRCLE $2500+ has been pretty conscientious about minimizing their impact so far. So what PHILANTHROPIST $1000 was Trident thinking when they outlined a plan to camouflage their well sites SUSTAINER $500 in Rumsey with life-sized photos of rocks and vegetation around them? They ASSOCIATE $100 are also experimenting, says spokesperson Glynn Davis, with Styrofoam SUPPORTER $50 mockups of rock outcroppings that could be placed over the top of well heads. OTHER $ “If you were walking along an adjacent hill and you looked over, all WILDERNESS PARTNERS you would see is a strand of S. Bray Donate on a monthly basis through direct debit cottonwoods, a rock outcrop or credit card payment. or something that would be I would like to donate $_______ monthly. compatible to the area,” Davis Here is my credit card number OR my voided told the Red Deer Advocate. cheque for bank withdrawal. Monthly donations Compatible? One of our are processed on the 1st of the month. members said (sarcastically) (minimum of $5 month) she is thinking of phoning Davis and offering him some WILDERNESS LEGACY CIRCLE leftover Styrofoam in her Make lasting planned gifts by designating your shed. She can’t get rid of it for bequest directly to AWA or AWA’s Wilderness environmental reasons. They and Wildlife Trust Fund managed by the just don’t get it, she says. The real Rumsey. Calgary Foundation. Please call for details. Why is the company even thinking of littering our protected areas with polluting fake scenery? Why would we want the Disney-fication of our precious wild spaces? The last I PAYMENT INFORMATION heard, Trident was thinking of merely painting well heads for camouflage, although the seasonality of colours was an issue. If the government lets this go CHEQUE VISA M/C ahead, we’ll know that some sort of collective madness has taken over. Someone should also let Trident know that cottonwoods don’t grow in AMOUNT $ Rumsey and that the area is overlain with a thick layer of glacial till, so there are no outcroppings of bedrock. Maybe they are trying to increase biodiversity CARD # by adding species. I don’t know whether to be surprised or disappointed that they didn’t think of adding plastic bison. EXPIRY DATE: Contrasting with Trident’s misguided attempt at window dressing is a new high-speed internet service installation by Pat Dwyer that now sits atop a NAME: ridge at the southern end of the Livingstone Range. Described by one of our members as R2D2’s ugly father, the strange looking device sits askew, with ADDRESS: its propane tank, at the end of a newly blazed access road. I hope Alberta’s tourism people are taking note. CITY/PROV: Shirley Bray POSTAL CODE: WLA Editor PHONE: D. McIntyre E-MAIL: SIGNATURE: Send payments to: Tourist hot spot? P.O. Box 6398, Station D Calgary, AB T2P 2E1 or donate online @ www.albertawilderness.ca 1-866-313-0713 THE QUIET URBANIZATION OF THE BACKCOUNTRY: PART 3 By Shirley Bray and Vivian Pharis side. The wildness preserved on the worry of those who fought hard for the Walking through the slushy snow north side in the Panther Forest Land FLUZ is that the same thinking that has along the Panther River on a warm Use Zone (FLUZ) is no accident. As allowed development on the south side spring day, we can see the lasting described in Part 2 of this series, the will allow increasing development on effects of last year’s great flood in the fight to eliminate motorized use and the north side. vigorous erosion of the southern bank. Ironically, the establishment of It’s a reminder that we must be cautious the FLUZ on the north side in 1985 about where and what we build in this S. Bray may have led to the development of valley. It is one of the concerns that the current lease site at PRA. Amos brought people out to two open houses and Heather Neufeld had a 10-acre hosted by Panther River Adventures lease on the north side of the river, (PRA) owner Terry Safron to view his where the Dormer River runs into the proposal to expand his current lease to Panther, that allowed them 10 cabins, the west on just over 7.5 acres. although they built only one. They Both the current lease and were deeply involved in the fight for the proposed expansion lie on the The southern bank of the Panther River the FLUZ and agreed with a request floodplain along the south side of the adjacent to the proposed expansion shows by Forestry to trade their lease on the river. A thin strip of land runs between erosion from the river. north side for one on the south side at the river and the decades-old Panther the site of PRA, where they eventually Road, which started as little more than restore a more natural order to what had built a lodge and some cabins. They O a trail running west from the Forestry become a state of increasing anarchy subsequently sold the lease and it has UT F Trunk Road up the Panther Valley. in the area has left an indelible mark in been resold several times. RONT Shell later improved it to a good quality people’s memories. None of those people who fought gravel road to access their well sites But the increasing urbanization for the FLUZ wants to repeat that along the south side of the valley: there on the south side, with base camps struggle, but neither are they willing is a fair amount of oil and gas activity turning into four-season tourism resorts to give up their victory. So they are in the valley these days. and now pursuing industrial clients as starting to raise questions about There are four miscellaneous well, does seem accidental, the result further development in the valley, on lease sites for commercial recreation of expediency and lack of long-term either side of the river. PRA is not along the road, at least three lying on planning or foresight. The greatest the first to expand its lease, but it is WLA April 2006 • Vol.14, Vol.14, April 2006 • WLA the floodplain between the road and the river. Panther River Adventures is furthest up the valley, positioned on a sort of peninsula where the river sweeps down the valley and then makes a tight curve around a corner between the wooded south bank and the cliff on the north side where bighorn sheep come for the natural mineral lick. No.2 The road used to follow the river closely before this curve until it was washed out. It was repositioned further upslope and the old road was reclaimed. Now that lesson seems to have been 4 forgotten; the current expansion plans propose to reuse part of the reclaimed road to access the site, and permanent foundations are planned. The river cuts through this valley between the increasingly urbanized A: Panther River; B: Sheep Cliffs; C: Panther River Adventures; southern side and the still wild northern D: Area of Proposed Expansion; E: Old Reclaimed Road; F: Panther Road the first to propose such a high level Other than riparian specialists ground because frost heaves can break of development, most notably with from Edmonton, it is uncertain who the lines, yet underground glycol lines permanent foundations, and to push will be called in to evaluate the site crisscross the property, providing established backcountry rules in the environmentally or how thorough their heating to existing facilities.