AUGUST 2015 Getting Out There: From California’s Sierras to Alberta’s Rockies From Coyote Lake to the Badlands Editor: CONTENTS Ian Urquhart AUGUST 2015 • VOL. 23, NO. 4 Graphic Design: Doug Wournell B Des, ANSCAD Printing: Features Association News Colour printing and process by Topline Printing 4 4,200 Kilometres to Go: The First 20 Turning 50 Never Felt So Good Leg on a Journey on the Pacific Crest Trail Wilderness Watch 6 Outward Bound: Give Your Teen A Rocky Mountain High 24 Updates 9 Connecting Persons with a Disability to Nature: Introducing Coyote Lake Lodge Events 12 A Wild Dilemma: Alberta’s Feral Horse Strategy 30 Summer/Fall Events 15 A Sea of Grass: The 2015 Northern ALBERTA WILDERNESS Prairie Conservation Network ASSOCIATION Meeting “Defending Wild Alberta through 18 Conservation Corner Awareness and Action” Bones, Bats, and Birds: Under the Alberta Wilderness Association is Spell of the Badlands a charitable non-government organization dedicated to the Cover Photo completion of a protected areas Alberta’s newest fully protect- donation, call 403-283-2025 or ed provincial park – Antelope contribute online at Hill – graces the August cover. AlbertaWilderness.ca. This park wouldn’t exist with- Wild Lands Advocate is published bi- out the generosity of Gottlob monthly, 6 times a year, by Alberta Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt donated Wilderness Association. The opinions 380 hectares of native grass- expressed by the authors in this lands to make protection of publication are not necessarily those this Environmentally Signifi- of AWA. The editor reserves the right cant Area possible. to edit, reject or withdraw articles PHOTO: © C. WALLIS and letters submitted. Please direct questions and comments to: Featured Artist: Jacquelyn Blight 403-283-2025 • [email protected] Towering Rocky Mountains; vast, seemingly endless prairie; undulating, dynamic Subscriptions to the WLA are $30 per foothills; this spectacular Alberta scenery was, and still is, Jackie’s inspiration. As year. To subscribe, call 403-283-2025 a youngster she incorporated natural objects she found into crafts and artworks. or see AlbertaWilderness.ca. Throughout the years her art works included folk art, specialty furniture finishes, faux finishes, and trompe l’oeil murals. Jackie developed an ability to create textures and finishes with multiple colors and multiple translucent layers of color. She taught these art forms and finishes for many years in Calgary and Black Diamond. Throughout her lifetime Jackie has also been an avid photographer, capturing the beauty and uniqueness of her natural surroundings. She creates beautiful photo encaustics by fusing and layering photography, encaustics, (hot wax and hot colored wax), oil sticks, and pastels. The use of these materials together with digital manipulation at times creates a type of realistic impressionism and brings out nuances of light and detail the viewer rarely notices in real life. She hopes her photo encaustics will ignite or reignite in the viewer a passion and appreciation of nature, the vast and the minute. Box 6398, Station D, Her encaustics are now showing at The Stop in Black Diamond, Alberta. See Jackie’s Calgary, Alberta T2P 2E1 other artworks at jacquelynblight.ca or contact her at [email protected] 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 [email protected] and functions through member and donor support. Tax-deductible donations may be made to AWA at Box 6398 Station D, Calgary, AB T2P 2E1. Ph: 403-283-2025 Fax: 403-270-2743 E-mail: [email protected] www.AlbertaWilderness.ca ISSN 1192-6287 Will We Let a Devil Roam the Castle? Fist-pump, then furrowed brow – that’s so. The province plans to honour existing the door to hunting in another provincial how I reacted to the provincial government’s commitments in both Castle parks. park. Hunting will be allowed in the new September 4, 2015 announcement that the Will new oil and gas leases be granted in provincial park. Unlike the case in Cypress Castle would be added to Alberta’s provincial these parks? You bet. Sure there won’t be any Hills there’s no ecological justification for and wildland parks system. So many people – new surface access allowed but it also likely this decision. It’s absurd. James Tweedie, Judy Huntley, Dave Sheppard means the brakes will be applied to efforts Those who write for this magazine and and Gordon Petersen come immediately to to close and restore existing access routes in work for AWA on behalf of wild landscapes mind – have campaigned tirelessly for years the parks. in Alberta have time and again documented to extend genuine, meaningful protection Will off-highway vehicles and snowmobiles the destruction that resource exploitation, to this special place. When the parks were be allowed in both parks? Absolutely. They cattle grazing, and OHV use do. If the above announced Gordon told Global News how will be allowed not only on designated provisions stand they will suck much of the important a fully-protected Castle was to trails in both parks but also in whatever a promise out of the decision to turn these the health of Waterton National Park and “designated area” amounts to. Not even special lands into parks. the Crown of the Continent lands. So, after the previous government allowed OHVs in There may still be time to ensure the the fist pump, I thanked Premier Notley and provincial parks (well, with the notorious promise of early September is realized. We Minister Shannon Phillips for what I thought exception of Lakeland). are in the midst of a (unnecessarily brief) they had done. How about cows? Will Bessie and Molly 30-day consultation period. We have until The furrowed brow? It’s because of the (our cover girls for the June issue) get October 5, 2015 to make our concerns heard. details. Don’t believe for one second that the to stretch out in the Castle alpine after Please…care enough about this special place announcement necessarily guarantees the munching and trampling some of that to tell the government what needs to be done level of protection we’ve sought. The province area’s biodiversity? You bet. Existing grazing to “fully protect” it. No petroleum, no cattle, simply doesn’t tell the truth when its news leases in both parks go unchallenged. Our no OHVs, no hunting. Use the online form release trumpets: “Province to fully protect friend ecological integrity might be even (http://www.albertaparks.ca/consult), send Castle area.” Sorry…but simply turning the more offended by the province’s statement an email to [email protected], Minister Castle into two Alberta parks doesn’t come that new grazing will be allowed in the Shannon Phillips ([email protected]), anywhere close to fully protecting this area. Castle parks (“subject to grazing suitability and Premier Notley ([email protected]). Look at the list of activities the province says assessment” – whatever that means). Do it to ensure that fully protecting this area it will allow in the Wildland Park and the Did you know that, under previous is more than just a spin doctor’s headline; Provincial Park. That list makes it abundantly governments, hunting was prohibited as do it to finish well the work of James, clear that the government’s promise of full a rule in Alberta’s provincial parks (the Judy, Gordon, and the other enthusiasts of protection is an illusion. only exception to this was the elk cull in protecting the Castle. Is exploiting oil and gas consistent with Cypress Hills Provincial Park)? The Notley -Ian Urquhart, Editor full protection of the Castle? Apparently government’s Castle announcement opens 4,200 Kilometres to Go: The First Leg on a Journey on the Pacific Crest Trail By David Hockey he Pacific Crest Trail is a scenic thing I am always up for. Personally, it’s one ther along the trail the trees gave way to the trail created by the U.S. Con- of the most attractive aspects of hiking the high alpine and who better to occupy that T gress in 1968. It stretches more Pacific Crest Trail. Most people hiking the area than the marmots. They were cute, than 4,200 kilometres through California, trail will try to average 30 km a day in order friendly, curious, and everywhere. I had Oregon, and Washington from Mexico to to make it to the Canadian border before never experienced so many at once. In fact, Canada. This national scenic trail is tout- the snow ends their journey. Especially in the day we camped below Mt. Whitney I ed as “one of the best trail experiences on the desert, when the distances between wa- counted over 50 of them scurrying around earth” and as I made the decision to hike ter sources can be long, it is crucial to make the grassy plateau. a good portion of it in the spring of 2014 good timing. Hiking in the desert comes By the time you reach the Sierras your I couldn’t help but hope that it would live with the challenge of heat, sand and wind. feet should have toughened and your legs up to its reputation. One of my favourite A typical morning starts off at 5:30 and should be ready for the daily elevation parts of hiking is the wildlife along the way; 5°C. As the day progresses the heat builds gains. Each day entailed a long climb up certainly by the time I completed the 1,800 to over 40° and the winds pick up.