Why we need to protect Alberta's Castle wildlands

Today I got an update from my friends in Alberta about a protest underway to save critical wildlands in the Castle area of southwest Alberta. Despite the frigid winter temperatures, 50 or so friends of the Castle have banded together in a last ditch effort to stop logging in some of the best habitat remaining for grizzly bears in this portion of the province. Their protest is being held under strict rules for non violent disobedience. Protesters are literally standing in front of the logging equipment that any day could cut into and destroy this small island of vital habitat for bears and other species.

One of the leaders of the protest is an old friend Mike Judd, who many years ago did a roadshow in my habitat around the Greater Yellowstone on the effects of natural gas development in the high elevation ecosystems surrounding Waterton/ Glacier Peace Park. He was a bit like the Spirit of Christmas Future in Dicken’s  A Christmas Carol, showing the consequences of unbridled energy development in fragile high mountain country. He provided a warning to us in Yellowstone about the devastating effects of gas developers if unleashed across the landscape – a warning that motivated many of us to work to prevent important parts of Wyoming’s Bridger Teton forest from suffering a similar fate.

Mike may have aged some, but he has not lost his passion. He has taught me much about what it means to be dedicated to a landscape. He grew up in the Castle, where he conducted an outfitting business and even picked up the Blackfoot language, in an effort to better understand connections to the land and culture where he lived.

There is no reason to log the Castle, and there are important reasons why we in the US should want to save it. The Castle is a vital part of the Glacier/Waterton ecosystem, one of the strongholds for grizzly bears in the lower 48 states. We in the US need bears in the adjacent lands in Canada to maintain bears south of the border – a border that looks from the air like a thin swath cut through an otherwise wild forest.  It means a few strides for bears and other wildlife to cross, but it means many differences for wildlife and habitat management. We share the same ecosystem, and we need to work together to keep the whole healthy: neither country can maintain this ecosystem by itself.  

A little more than a year ago, the Alberta government declared that the grizzly bear in the province was threatened under Alberta’s Wildlife Act. You would think that would bring about added protections and a precautionary approach to managing the province’s remaining bears. But no. At least, not yet.

That is why we are trying to mount a groundswell to tell the premier of Alberta that logging should be prohibited and that the area should be designated as a Wildland park. It is not too late to save the Castle. Please take action by going here.

It is high time that the Alberta government change course and save this magnificent place, which is vital not just to Albertans, but to all of us who care about irreplaceable stretch of country that is the heart of the wild Rockies. No more than ever, we need to extend hands across the border to save species that do not carry passports. 

For additional background you can also visit: http://www.sierraclub.ca/en/castle-special-place/action-alert/stop-castle-special-place-logging-and-drilling