Mountain Nature and Culture Podcast

This podcast explores the natural and human history of the Canadian Rockies as well as its attractions and culture. We'll look at the ecology and wildlife, as well as the plants and birds that make the Canadian Rockies home. Looking back through our history, we'll share the stories behind the scenery. This is the place for all things Rockies.

089 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 07/02/2021

088 Bringing nature closer when you can't go far. 04/22/2020

087 Ice Battleships and Alberta's Connection to WWII's Battle of the Atlantic. 03/15/2020

086 Dangers of the Insect Apocalypse 02/26/2020

085 Looking at the 25th anniversary of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone 02/11/2020

084 Feeding Birds Ethically and Effectively 01/24/2020

083 The Real Story Behind the Movie The Revenant 01/14/2020

082 We're one of the top 15 podcasts on Ecology, and grizzlies digging up the high country 12/21/2019

081 Overtourism in Canada's Mountain National Parks 06/13/2019

080 Conserving caribou by blaming carnivores and ancient human footprints lead the way to a new coastal migration theory 05/30/2019

079 season of the crocus, earlier blooming is stressing bird populations and early berries for bears may not be a good thing. 04/25/2019

078 Examining a new Fire Management Plan for Banff, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks and Game of Thrones connections in western Canada 04/17/2019

077 Wolverines in the mountain west, and tick season is upon us 04/10/2019

076 New report shows Canada warming up twice as fast as most of the world, a look a the biggest, the cuddliest, and the most frightening T. Rex's, and the day the world ended for the dinosaurs. 04/04/2019

075 Grizzly bears emerge from their winter dens, and Montana's Glacier National Park is losing its glaciers 04/01/2019

074 Keepiing Alberta Rat Free, and how adding one non-native fish to Yellowstone caused a food web to collapse 03/21/2019

073 Scientific mysteries around ancient pictographs in Grotto Canyon, and how winters with lower snowpacks will effect local wildlife. 03/13/2019

072 Saying goodbye to the father of Global warming, Canmore's Nuclear Bunker, New Train Service to the Mountains, and watching for the bears to emerge 03/07/2019

071 Smoke melts glaciers, and winter wildlife survival strategies 02/27/2019

070 Polar bears and climate change denial, Alberta's mountains see the highest temperature increases, and did European contact in the New World cause the Little Ice Age 02/19/2019

069 Looking at why elk keep their antlers througout the winter, and forest fires in California and British Columbia 11/25/2018

068 Fire ecology in western Canada with fire expert Cliff White. 09/10/2018

068 Fire ecology in western Canada with fire expert Cliff White. This is a special episode that I wanted to get out right away. It's an important talk about the fire situation in western Canada, but more importantly, what we can do in townsites like Banff, Canmore, and Jasper…and with that said, let's get to it. This presentation was organized through the Rockies Institute and featured Cliff White who worked for almost 4 decades with Banff National Park. He started as a park warden but rose through the ranks to positions including vegetation fire management specialist, manager of ecosystem research and restoration, as well as three years as the National Fire Management Officer. Cliff knows forest fires. He understands the ecology surrounding fire ecology and has dedicated his career to working with government to help to bring wildfire back to the landscape while at the same time helping communities to better protect themselves from fires that threaten homes and properties. In this program, he details the fire history of the Rockies while also showing how the lack of fire has altered the ecology for the worse. His message focuses not only on how the return of fire is critical to the landscapes of western North America, but also how communities can play a role in protecting their perimeter from the potential for Fort MacMurray style fires. In the next episode, I'll be talking a lot more about fire. This year has created a situation where the mountain west has been defined by the threat of fire. Unfortunately, it is a bill that has been long due. The fires we've been experiencing have long been inevitable and I'll look at British Columbia and how the fires of 2003 helped to provide a prescription for a better future but unfortunately, little was done towards accomplishing those goals. In the presentation, the Rockies Institutes Laura Lynes introduces the Institute and is followed by Karen Barkely, a program manager with the Rockies Institute who introduces Cliff. This program is one that all residents of the Bow Valley and wider mountain landscape should listen to. I hope you enjoy it. /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/7026321

067 Mapping the Expansion of Coyotes, Reintroduced Bison Test Their Boundaries, and Time to Stop Making Rock Sculptures 08/29/2018

067 Mapping the Expansion of Coyotes, Reintroduced Bison Test Their Boundaries, and Time to Stop Making Rock Sculptures Mapping the Expansion of Coyote Range across the Continent In the mountain west, we simply accept the presence of coyotes on the landscape. They're simply a part of the mountain environment that we call home. For many places though, that isn't the case. Coyotes are one of the continent's most successful predators and have always been one of the first carnivores to explore potential new habitats. But just how native are they too much of their current range? If we were to look back...waaaaay back, would we find them in the same places we encounter them today? What can we learn from their range expansions that can help us predict where they might move in the future? In a report published in the Journal Zookeys in May of 2018, biologists James Hody and Roland Kayes looked to scientifically quantify both the historic range of the coyote over the past 10,000 years, but also to look at how the influence of civilization has aided them in dramatically increasing their range. Reintroduced Banff Bison Decide to Move Towards the Prairies Last episode I crowed triumphantly at the release of Banff's new bison herd from its paddock into its 1,200 sq km release zone. This was a very exciting time that was also filled with some trepidation. Bison have not roamed free on this landscape for some 130 years, and now, here they were, able to make their own choices of how to explore their new home. It was always a possibility that some may decide to push the boundaries once they were released from the paddock. I also talked about how the bison headed off in the wrong direction that parks staff had hoped and were literally headed off at the pass and encouraged to move further into their release zone where officials hope they will stay. The goal is to use a variety of techniques to guide them until they truly settle into their new landscape. This involves a combination of baiting them to get them to move into areas with rich food rewards while also using aversive conditioning to discourage them from heading towards the open prairies where support for the release is still quite low. These massive animals have been penned up for their entire lives, either in their Banff Park pen or in Elk Island National Park in the case of the original 16 reintroduced to the park. Once the gates opened up, one direction would seem as good as any other…"I wonder what's over there…or there…or there?" In the August 9 edition of the Rocky Mountain Outlook, we learned that one of the big bulls had decided to go on a walkabout and had bolted eastward towards the prairies. It was always a risk that some of the bulls might assert their dominance and begin to head in unwanted directions. This was complicated by the fact that they had no legal protected status once they left the protection of Banff National Park and stepped onto provincial lands. This first bull was followed by a second, and unfortunately, on Aug 16 Parks were forced to Euthanize one of the two bulls when it moved into much more high-risk landscapes within provincial lands. According to a release, they stated that they: "made the difficult decision to euthanize one of the bison bulls who had continued to move eastward toward private grazing lands and was posing a risk to public safety and to the safety of livestock." Park officials ask visitors to stop making rock sculptures or Inukshuks Ever since the Vancouver Winter Olympics adopted the Inukshuk as its logo, it seems that every time visitors see a bunch of rocks, they can't help themselves. They need to pile them up into either poor renditions of Inuit rock sculpture, or they simply make a tall pile trying to balance as many stones as possible in one spot. The problem has gotten out of control in the past few years as Instagrammers began to invade the mountain wilderness. Suddenly no wild place is immune. Take a long day-hike or multi-day backpack trip and these stone piles are there to greet you and remove any feeling of wilderness you might have been enjoying up until that point. Recently Kevin Gedling, the Partnering and Engagement Officer in Jasper National Park, has asked people to stop building these geological eyesores. For more details on the episode and detailed show notes, please visit the page at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep067 /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/6980330

066 Finally, free roaming bison in Banff, and bear safety during buffaloberry season. 08/04/2018

066 Finally, free roaming bison in Banff, and bear safety during buffaloberry season. Parks Canada has just announced that it has opened the gates and finally allowed its growing herd of wild bison out of their enclosure and, for the first time, letting them wander somewhat freely within the park, at least within a 1,200 sq km release zone. The release has happened a little later than planned. The calving season was delayed and while last year saw its first birth on Earth Day, this year calving only began on July 15. In a recent article in , Banff's Resource Conservation Manager was quoted as saying: “We’ve been expecting calves this spring, but it’s certainly been a little later than we saw last year, but because these are young cows, we also anticipated the calving dates might be stretched out over a longer period this year. “The first two calves were born July 15 and the last of the three was born on the 19th.” As of July 23, Park staff were hoping to see as many as 6 more additional calves. All of that changed on August 1st when Parks Canada staff opened the gate to allow the growing herd to leave the enclosure and begin to explore their 1,200 sq. km soft-release zone. Almost immediately, the bison zigged when the Park's staff wanted them to zag. According to the : "The bison reportedly headed toward Scotch Camp, but were stopped on the Snow Creek Summit before being herded back towards the upper Panther River Valley." Park staff realized they would need to guide the bison during the early part of their release. They don't want them to move east towards the plains because they have no legal status there. All of that changed on August 1st when Parks Canada staff opened the gate to allow the growing herd to leave the enclosure and begin to explore their 1,200 sq. km soft-release zone. Almost immediately, the bison zigged when the Park's staff wanted them to zag. According to the : "The bison reportedly headed toward Scotch Camp, but were stopped on the Snow Creek Summit before being herded back towards the upper Panther River Valley." Park staff realized they would need to guide the bison during the early part of their release. They don't want them to move east towards the plains because they have no legal status there. Bears, Buffaloberry, and Bikes Well, it's already happened this year! On Saturday, July 21 a mountain biker collided at high speed with a black bear at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Just last week, I warned that the buffaloberry season was upon us and that we need to begin to be extra vigilant. According to a story in the , Alberta Environment and Parks human-wildlife conflict specialist Jay Honeyman stated: "They were coming downhill at a fairly good clip and came over a rise and there was the bear…He literally hit and flattened the bear and got knocked off his bike." Luckily, the rider had bear spray on his person and he got ready to deploy it, but the stunned bear took off before he needed to spray it. He also saw a second bear that also ran away from the commotion. Here are 10 tips for staying safe while riding and hiking during buffaloberry season: Make lots of noise. Since bears are not paying attention to what's happening around them while they're busy mowing down their berry feast, it's important that we make lots and lots of noise; and not all noise is created equal. The best sound is the sound of your voice. Bears know that humans mean danger and if they know you're coming before you arrive, then they'll usually move away from the trail until you pass. You probably won't even know they were there. Bear bells are just marketing hype and they won't keep you safe. Just throw them in the garbage. You're more likely to be killed by your hiking companions for the sheer irritation they provide. Remember that sound may not travel as fast as you do. Much like the sound of an approaching train, it isn't always as evident when the train is approaching. The bear may not hear you if you're flying down the hill. Slow down, and if possible, stop before the descent and give a loud "Hey bear" before you slowly go down the hill. Learn to recognize buffaloberry. If you learn one plant in the mountains, make it buffaloberry. If the trail is lined with these tasty morsels, then the chance of meeting a bear goes up dramatically. If the trail is berry free, it doesn't mean there won't be a bear, but the odds at this time of year will have the bear focusing on berry-rich sites. Make sure you have bear spray and know how to use it. It's also critical that the spray is on your person and not on your bike. This recent encounter really brings this to the forefront. The rider collided with the bear and was ejected from his bike. Had the spray been on the forks or handlebars of the bike, he would have been separated from it just when he needed it most. The same goes with spray on or in your pack. Encounters happen fast and without warning. Have it on your body and you'll have it when you need it. You also want to practice so you don't have to think about how to deploy it when the time comes. Head to the high country. While this tip may not apply to mountain bikers, it definitely is a good one for hikers. Since the berries happen at lower elevations, this is a good time to go high. While the berries are more common in the valley bottom, they can extend into the subalpine as well. This is a great time to bag those peaks and passes. Trails like the Centennial Ridge Trail (the highest trail in the Canadian Rockies), Ha Ling (check the trail report as they are doing trail maintenance), and scrambles like the East End of Rundle are perfect choices. Keep in mind that the approaches will likely be at a lower elevation so keep an eye on the foliage and if buffaloberries are present, make a ton of noise. Watch for droppings. When bears are mowing down massive quantities of berries, let's just say, it keeps them regular. Watch for dark red piles of former buffaloberries. If it looks fresh, then it's likely the bear may still be in the area. Look for moving bushes. Very large bears can completely disappear behind a buffaloberry bush. Sometimes the easiest way to spot the bear is to not look for the bear. Look for something that doesn't belong - like one bush moving when none of the others are. On a still day, this can often be a sure sign that something is hanging out behind the bush. Keep dogs on leash; or better yet, leave them at home. I know you want to hike with your dog, but every encounter with wildlife has a worse outcome when a dog is involved. They are likely to be perceived as a threat by a bear and now you are also perceived as a threat. Take Fido to the off-leash area and give him a good run there. Be aware though that the margins of the Grassi Lakes off-leash area are also a great habitat for buffaloberries so watch if he's playing too close to this area. Leave your earbuds at home. One of the most dangerous things you can do in bear country is to wear earbuds when walking on trails - even within the townsite boundaries. When you wear earbuds, you're not aware of the sounds around you. You are not paying attention to what's happening around you. Earbuds put you at a much higher risk of a negative encounter, and you won't even hear it approaching. When you're out in nature, pay attention to nature, and stay safe. Respect closures. During buffaloberry season, it's much easier to manage people than bears. Unfortunately, in the recent past, locals and tourists alike have violated closures with the mistaken belief that they don't apply to them. Alberta Environment and Parks, Parks Canada, and the Towns of Canmore and Banff take these closures very seriously. If you're caught you will be charged! Don't put a bear's life at risk simply because you were too lazy to walk around the closure. Always remember that you are also a risk by ignoring closure signs. For the full show notes for this episode, visit www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep066 /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/6886990

065 The buffaloberries are back, and a new report on Coexisting with Wildlife in the Bow Valley 07/22/2018

064 The story of Crowfoot wraps up, and new decisions on development in the Bow Valley 07/12/2018

063 New Reviews, Crowfoot gets to know the Mounties, and the secret lives of the Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid 06/28/2018

063 New Reviews, Crowfoot gets to know the Mounties, and the secret lives of the Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid A New Review of the Podcast Before I reprise the story of Crowfoot, I wanted to give a shout out to an iTunes listener with the screen name Jul121314 in the U.S. for the kind review. The review is titled "Great Storytelling". They continue saying: "Love listening to the stories - current and historical. I love the Canadian Rockies and this podcast gives me a much deeper understanding. " Thank you so much. Those that know me will tell you that I'm always trying to find the "story" hidden within a subject. Science and history are full of fascinating stories, and my goal with this show is to make sure that you always have a great story to enjoy. Crowfoot and Treaty 7 In last week's episode, I introduced you to the Blackfoot Chief Crowfoot. He was born at a time when the Blackfoot ruled the plains from Cypress Hills to the Continental Divide and from Montana to the North Saskatchewan River. If you haven't listened to that episode, you can enjoy it at . When I wrapped the episode, the Northwest Mounted Police had marched westward to chase away whiskey traders that had invaded Canadian territory from Montana. Crowfoot was happy the government would remove the whiskey that had ravaged his people, but he still wanted to better understand the role of the Mounties on Blackfoot territory. Once the Mounties were settled into their camp at Fort MacLeod, Colonel Macleod requested a meeting with the leaders of the Blackfoot Nation. When the meeting finally took place, and the leaders of the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan were gathered, Crowfoot asked Macleod to help the people understand the role of the police in their territory. By the time Crowfoot left Fort Macleod, he felt a strong affinity to the Colonel. Both understood the importance of peaceful relations and Crowfoot had already seen how the police were able to put an end to the trade of whiskey to his people. Crowfoot also felt Macleod was a man of his word. It was a precarious time for the nations of the Confederacy, and trust was critical if they were to move forward. Crowfoot saw this as a sign that the old ways had to change. He began to discourage his followers from raiding enemy camps to steal horses. The era of intertribal warfare would need to end. On the short term, the fortunes of the nations of the Blackfoot improved. With the expulsion of the whiskey trade, the Blackfoot Nation began to rebound. Rather than booze, they once again began to trade for horses and other goods necessary for their people. Despite this short-term feeling of complacency, Crowfoot saw disheartening changes within their territory. What had started as a trickle, was gradually becoming a flood of white men into Blackfoot territory. At the same time, the once plentiful buffalo were beginning to decline. For a nation so culturally tied to the previously endless herds of bison, Crowfoot imagined a time when the buffalo may no longer roam the plains. As incomprehensible as it would have been to him a few years earlier, Crowfoot worried for the future of his people. Reverend MacDougall, Crowfoots long-trusted friend explained that other First Nations had signed treaties with the Canadian government and that these treaties would ensure the rights of the Blackfoot by spelling out their claims to what must have felt like an endlessly shrinking landscape. It's likely that Crowfoot could not have any real concept of what a treaty would mean for his people, as well as what they would be giving up. What he did know was that more whites came every year and along with them fewer buffalo were available to hunt. It was only a matter of time before once endless herds were a memory and he knew there needed to be some agreement with the government of the whites. There was ample reason to be sceptical of any treaty with the government. The southern members of the Blackfoot Nation signed a treaty with the American government in 1855. It wasn't long before it became obvious it wasn't worth the paper it was written upon. Monies due were never on time, the quality of the promised supplies continually dropped over time, and more settlers meant the government continually insisted on changing terms of agreements already signed. When gold was discovered in Montana in the 1860s, the trickle of white settlers became a torrent. This led the Bloods and Piegan to defend their territory prompting Americans to send in the cavalry. The "Blackfoot War" as the dispute became known was finally settled when the Cavalry slaughtered 173 Piegan in an undefended camp. Most of the victims were women and children. When the Mounties arrived in the west, several of the Chiefs that would be asked to sign the Canadian Treaty were also signatories of the disastrous American one as well. Late in 1875, Crowfoot called a council of chiefs to discuss the possibility of a treaty with the Canadians. Along with all five head chiefs representing the three tribes, an additional 10 minor chiefs took part. They created a petition which was presented at the newly built Fort Calgary. They complained that white settlers were homesteading without restriction, usually in the best hunting grounds, and that incursions were increasingly common with Cree and mixed-blood Metis that were also hunting buffalo in their territory. Since no Indian Commissioner had been sent to them, they insisted that one: "visit us this summer at the Hand Hills and [state] the time of his arrival there, so we could meet with him and hold a Council for putting a [stop] to the invasion of our country, till our Treaty be made with the government." South of the border, a treaty with the Sioux, like the Blackfoot Treaty of 1855, had been signed in 1868, giving them hunting rights along the North Platte River and east of the Bighorn Mountains. Whites were to be excluded as long as there was good hunting for the Sioux. Well, all of that quickly fell apart when gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874. Prospectors flooded Sioux lands, and despite the pleas of the Sioux that the government honour the treaty, they were instead met with soldiers of the United States Cavalry. When the Sioux rebelled, the cavalry led by General George Crook, descended upon a large gathering of Cheyenne and Sioux along the Powder River. The carnage forced many to surrender and return to their reservation, but it also radicalized many who moved west to gather their strength for the coming conflict. Central to this was the great Sioux chief Sitting Bull. He sought to build a broad alliance, among both friend and enemy, to fight a common foe. Emissaries were sent to neighbouring tribes to seek allies in the coming conflict. One of these messengers was sent to the camp of Crowfoot. He offered a gift of tobacco, as well as horses, mules, and should they defeat the Americans, white women slaves. They also promised that once the Cavalry were defeated, they would ride north to rid the plains of the white men. The police were few and the people of the plains were many. Crowfoot needed little time to turn down offers of war with the whites, particularly with the Sioux who had long been their enemies. His message was met with a threat. The Sioux were strong and had a plan to destroy the soldiers; then they would come for the Blackfoot along with the police. As is often the case, timing is everything. When the news of the threat arrived in Crowfoot's camp, Inspector Cecil Denny happened to be present. Crowfoot shared with him the entire story. Denny promised the protection of the police to the Blackfoot, and Crowfoot offered 2000 warriors should the Sioux march north. The year was 1876 and Crowfoot stated: "we all see that the day is coming when the buffalo will all be killed, And we shall have nothing more to live on… Then you'll come into our camp and see the poor Blackfoot starving. I know that the heart of the capital white soldier will be sorry for us, and they will tell the great mother who will not let her children starve. We are getting shut in. The Crees are coming into our country from the north, and the white men from the south and east, and they are all destroying our means of living; but still, although we plainly see these days coming, we will not join the Sioux against the whites, but will depend upon you to help us." This speech impressed Denny who sent a copy to Queen Victoria who personally responded to the chief to thank him for his loyalty. While this was playing out in Canada, Sitting Bull had already routed General George Armstrong Custer at the Little Bighorn in Montana. However, rather than following up on their threats, the Sioux realized their time in American territory was finished and they fled north into the Cypress Hills within Canadian territory. Sitting Bull, who had threatened to wipe the Mounties from the landscape, instead assured these same Mounties that he would break no laws in Canada. Again, Sitting Bull sent gifts of tobacco to Crowfoot's camp. This time the message was one of peace and friendship. The chief refused to smoke the tobacco until he understood Sitting Bull's true intentions. To his surprise, a party of Sioux, including Sitting Bull himself arrived at his camp. They both pledged peace and smoked the tobacco. The following year, the Canadian Government arranged to negotiate a treaty with the Blackfoot. Colonel James Macleod and Lieutenant Governor David Laird were appointed as commissioners charged with negotiating a treaty with the nations of the Confederacy. The presence of Sitting Bull in Canadian territory helped hasten the urgency of cementing a positive arrangement with such a powerful nation. At the same time, cattle were beginning to make their presence known on the plains and many envious eyes were looking westward towards the plentiful grasslands of Alberta, or what would eventually be Alberta. To complicate matters, in 1872 the government had promised a railroad link to British Columbia to connect it with the rest of the nation. This meant that a ribbon of steel would have to cross the country; the territory of the Blackfoot lay smack dab along the future line. As the various groups of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Sarcee, and Stoney nations gathered, Commissioner Laird summarized the changing conditions on the plains: “in a very few years, the buffalo will probably be all destroyed, and for this reason, the queen wishes to help you to live in the future in some other way. She wishes you to allow her white children to come and live on your land and raise cattle, and should you agree to this she will assist you to raise cattle and grain, and thus give you the means of living when the buffalo are no more. She will also pay you and your children money every year, which you can spend as you please.” His speech essentially asked them to share their hunting grounds in return for some land, cows, potatoes, ammunition and a whopping $5.00 per year. In return, they would be signing a treaty that would essentially strip them of their rightful ownership of their traditional territories; territories won through generations of war, blood, and sacrifice. Laird had little empathy for these first nations and often belittled claims that, to the Blackfeet, were not trivial matters. One of the Blood Chiefs, Medicine Calf had already signed one treaty - with the Americans. He saw that treaty continually broken and the terms ignored. He spoke: “the Great Mother sent you to this country, and we hope she will be good to us for many years… The Americans gave at first large bags of flour, sugar, and many blankets; the next year was only half the quantity, and the following year grew less and less, and now they give only a handful of flour." When he asked about compensation for firewood used by the police and settlers, Laird responded: “Why, you Indians ought to pay us for sending these traders in fire water away and giving you security and peace, rather than we pay you for the timber used.”… The negotiations were hard and contentious. The many leaders of the various nations all had different ideas of what would be necessary to sign a treaty. According to one story, a white man spread a line of dollars on a table and informed Crowfoot that this was the currency by which the white man traded…not skins. Crowfoot took a handful of clay, made a ball, and placed it in the fire. He then looked to the white man and said: “Now put your money on the fire and see if it will last as long as the clay.” When the white man responded that his money will burn, Crowfoot retorted: "Oh your money is not as good as our land, is it? The wind will blow it away; the fire will burn it; water will rot it. Nothing will destroy our land. You don’t make a very good trade.” The chief handed the white man a handful of sand and asked him to count the number of grains of sand. When the white man admitted that he couldn't possibly count every grain, Crowfoot replied: “Very well, our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not perish as long as the sun shines and the water flows, and through all the years it will give life to men and animals, and therefore we cannot sell the land. It was put there by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not really belong to us. You can count your money and burn it with a nod of a buffalo’s head, but only the Great Spirit can count the grains of sand and the blades of grass on these plains. As a present, we will give you anything you can take with you, but we cannot give you the land.” Crowfoot showed that he truly understood the idea of ownership, but it is debatable as to whether he truly comprehended what the loss of all their land would mean to the Blackfoot. As negotiations continued to drag on, there were rumours that the northern Piegan were pondering massacring the government representatives. Crowfoot was against any violence towards the commission. The situation began to improve when the remainder of the leaders of the Blood tribe finally arrived at the treaty site. As the last of the great chiefs of the Confederacy arrived, even though the negotiations were difficult, the presence of the entire nation in one place helped raise spirits. Crowfoot consulted a medicine man for whom he had great respect. When asked if he should sign a treaty, the response was: “I want to hold you back because I am at the edge of the bank. My life is at its end. I hold you back because your life henceforth will be different from what it has been. Buffalo makes your body strong. What you will eat from this money will have your people buried all over these hills. You will be tied down, you will not wander the plains; the whites will take your land and fill it. You won’t have your own free will; the whites will lead you by a halter. That’s why I say don’t sign. But my life is old, so sign if you want to. Go ahead and make the treaty.”… In the end, the various chiefs trusted Crowfoot to make the final decision as to whether they should sign. Finally, Crowfoot rose to speak: “While I speak, be kind and patient. I have to speak for my people, who are numerous, and who rely upon me to follow that course which in the future will tend to their good. The plains are large and wide. We are the children of the plains. It is our home, and the buffalo has been our food always. I hope you look upon the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Sarcees as your children now, and that you will be indulgent and charitable to them. They all expect me to speak now for them, and I trust the Great Spirit will put into their breasts to be a good people into the minds of the men, women and children, and their future generations... The advice given me and my people has proved to be very good. If the police had not come to the country, where would we all be now? Bad men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few, indeed, of us would have been left today. The police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protected from the frosts in winter. I wish them all good, and trust that all our hearts will increase in goodness from this time forward. I am satisfied. I will sign the treaty.” With Crowfoot's words, the other chiefs also made their mark upon the treaty. The next order of business was to decide where their reserves would be located. Crowfoot believed that a single large reserve would help to keep their nation strong and strengthen their negotiating power with the whites. When there was no resistance he selected a long strip of land four miles wide extending some 320 km east into buffalo country. While the whites wanted the Blackfoot to take up farming, Crowfoot could not see his people surviving by "scratching the land" to grow food. He picked rich hunting grounds, but poor land for farming. Crowfoot was the first to sign. He expressed the concerns many of the Blackfoot had: “Great Father! Take pity on me with regard to my country, with regard to the mountains, the hills and the valleys; with regard to the prairies, the forest and the waters; with regard to all the animals that inhabit them, and do not take them from myself and my children forever.” After Crowfoot, all the other chiefs, true to their word to him, also made their mark on the treaty. A missionary that was present at the signing, Father Scollen, was later asked if he thought the Blackfoot understood the magnitude of the document they had signed. He replied: “Did these Indians, or do they now, understand the real nature of the treaty made between the Government and themselves in 1877? My answer to this question is unhesitatingly negative… Crowfoot, who beyond a doubt, is considered the leading chief of the plains, did not seem to have a faint notion of the meaning of the treaty… All the other chiefs followed Crowfoot, and the substance of their speeches was that they agreed with him in all that he said…” How could they understand the implications of the treaty? Interpreters whose job it was to explain the terms had no words that would help the chiefs truly understand the concept of giving up vast territories to be settled on tiny plots of land. The Blackfoot would soon learn what signing this treaty meant. For generations, they had relied on winter snows to force the bison towards their winter hunting grounds in the foothills. This year the snows didn't come. Instead, winter fires on the prairies forced the bison to stay north of the Cypress Hills. The Blackfoot, as they had always done, had no choice but to follow the herds. Soon they found themselves on the edge of their territory and within spitting distance of their traditional enemies the Crees, Assiniboines, and Sioux. The winter was very difficult and starvation was a regular visitor to the camps. Sitting Bull once again visited Crowfoots camp and, while Crowfoot had no issues with the great chief, he advised that the Sioux stay away from their camps in such stressful times. He was worried that he would not be able to control his warriors. While spring brought a few buffalo back to the plains, Crowfoot could see that the future would no longer see them as master of territories occupied by vast numbers of buffalo. The bison were fewer and fewer and the many competing nations were all desperate for the same few animals. Crowfoot also learned that his friend Red Crow, chief of the Bloods, had decided, against the advice of Crowfoot, that he wanted a reserve farther south. This meant the joint reserve Crowfoot hoped for would not happen, and the single voice they might have with the government would now be partitioned. Crowfoot felt betrayed by his friend Colonel Macleod who had approved the request by Red Crow. He knew that this would weaken the power of the Blackfoot and was sure there was treachery on the part of the commission.... /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/6756158

062 The Life of Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfoot, and bears along the train tracks 06/18/2018

062 The Life of Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfoot, and bears along the train tracks Crowfoot The First Nations of the plains were a diverse and powerful collection of Tribes that were often at war with one another. Wars over territory, the best hunting areas, the theft of horses, and many other grievances kept the borders of various nations constantly in flux. One of the most powerful groups were the Blackfoot Confederacy of southern Alberta and northern Montana. The Confederacy was formed by three nations, the Siksika or Blackfoot, Piikani or Piegan, and the Kainai or Blood Nation. The Piegans are further separated into their Canadian and American counterparts with the Northern Piegan or Pikani and the Southern Piegan known as Piikuni. Later, they allied with the Tsuut'ina or Sarcee nation of Alberta, and the Atsina or Gros Ventre's from Montana. Early life on the plains was centred around the bison. European contact across the American West changed the life of the Plains Indian dramatically. As horses and guns made their first appearances in the 17th and 18th centuries, those nations with larger quantities of each could alter the balance of power between tribes. The Blackfoot Confederacy became masters of the horse and gun and used this to control large areas of southern Alberta and northern Montana. Their territory stretched from the North Saskatchewan River to the Yellowstone in Montana. East to west, they occupied areas from the Great Sand Hills in Saskatchewan to the Continental Divide. Their alliance became incredibly powerful, but they were often at war with the First Nations that surrounded their lands. The Blackfeet also controlled the trade of guns to their enemies on the British Columbia side of the Continental Divide. Back in Episode 53, I shared the stories of David Thompson trading with the Kootenay or Ktunaxa in British Columbia and running for his life when the Piegans discovered he was violating their prohibition of trading guns. You can listen to that story at . Into this landscape was born one of the most influential leaders of the Blackfeet, a man that would later take the name of Crowfoot and who would be one of their greatest leaders at a time when they needed him most. Hugh Dempsey, in his book Crowfoot, offers an intimate glimpse into the world of this amazing leader. The year was 1830. The buffalo were still plentiful on the plains, and while smallpox had decimated the Cree of eastern Saskatchewan, it was still unknown to the Blackfoot Nation. In a tipi somewhere in the Piegan nation, a Woman known as "Attacked Towards Home", the wife of Piegan warrior "Packs a Knife", gave birth to a healthy little boy they named "Shot Close." In these First Nations, a child may have several names throughout their life as major events prompted a new identity. Shot Close was simply the childhood name of Crowfoot. Names in Blackfoot culture were transient affairs. They changed with maturity, experience, and significant accomplishments. They were family possessions and had value. Great names could only be claimed by someone achieving something worthy of claiming the name. At this time, white men were of little concern to the Confederacy. They avoided the territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, especially since David Thompson had narrowly escaped after trading with the Kootenay on the west side of the Divide. Additionally, a member of Lewis and Clark's expedition had killed a Blackfoot and so this also led them to exclude white men from their territory. At the same time, the Blackfoot did want the guns and horses that trade with the whites provided. And unlike most of the other native groups, the fact that the Blackfoot had plentiful bison meat to trade meant that the whites didn't try to coax them into trapping as had been done to many other nations. Crowfoot's father died when he was still an infant after joining a raid on the Crow Nation of Montana. Crowfoot was raised by his mother and his grandfather, "Scabby Bull." Crowfoot learned the history of his people and the skills needed to be a great warrior. After a long period of mourning, Crowfoot's mother Attacked Towards Home married a Blackfoot known as "Many Names". Crowfoot, his younger brother and grandfather all joined their mother and they left the Piegan to became a part of the Blackfoot Nation. With a new nation, Crowfoot was given a new Blackfoot name, "Bear Ghost." Soon after Crowfoot's family arrived in the Blackfoot camp, the nation was introduced to the ravages of diphtheria. Crowfoot was just 6 years old, and this terrible disease spread from child to child throughout the camp, taking many of the youngest, but somehow Crowfoot and his brother survived. Diptheria was followed by the Blackfoot's first experience with smallpox in 1837. The disease arrived on a steamer owned by the American Fur Company. First, it ravaged the Mandan, almost wiping them out, then it spread to the Assiniboine, and finally to the Blackfoot after a member of the nation was allowed to board the diseased steamer. Smallpox hit the Blackfoot camp in a way never witnessed by them before. Before long, white traders noticed a lack of Blackfoot at Fort McKenzie on the Upper Missouri River. Chief Trader, Alexander Cuthbertson went to look for them. Dempsey shared: "After travelling for a few days, he found a camp of about sixty lodges from the Piegan tribe. There was no sound and as he approached, a horrible stench permeated the air. When he came to the first tipi, he saw the grim results of the white man's disease. 'Hundreds of decaying forms of human beings, horses and dogs lay scattered everywhere among the lodges,' he recorded. 'Two old women, too feeble to travel, were the sole living occupants of the village.'" The Blackfoot had been a proud people who had fought for the right to hunt buffalo for generations. In the course of a single year, some two-thirds of the nation, or six-thousand people, perished from this deadly plague. That's like the population of Calgary dropping from 1.2 million people to just 400,000 people in a single year. For the Blackfoot, it was a population apocalypse from which they never fully recovered. Sure, those that survived and recovered continued on. Somehow the people close to Crowfoot survived, but they were one of few families left directly untouched by this pestilence. In time, as Crowfoot grew into a young man, he was drawn to be a part of a war party heading out to challenge one of their enemies. With this raid, he earned the right to claim a man's name, and he immediately the name of his father: "Packs a Knife". It took him little time to demonstrate his bravery in battle. To the nations of the Blackfoot Confederacy, brave acts were retold around the campfire. Counting coup was one of the greatest signs of bravery in many First Nations. It involved heading out into battle and instead of trying to kill your enemy, you simply try to touch them or their defences and then escape alive. In the case of Crowfoot, the Blackfoot attacked a camp of Crow Indians along the Yellowstone River in Montana. In the camp, they recognized a Piegan tipi by its markings and realized that it had been captured in battle. In Dempsey's account, the Blood Chief leading the raid said: "See that painted lodge? Whoever gets to it and strikes it will be the future leader of his people in hunting and in war." Crowfoot took this challenge to heart and when they attacked, he ran straight towards the camp, straight past numerous Crow warriors who fired at him. One of the balls hit his arm and, despite stumbling, he continued on. He managed to touch the tipi before anyone else, and in doing so, gained great prestige among the warriors. With this achievement, he chose a new name. "Crow Indian's Big Foot", which was later shortened to Crowfoot. This was indeed a great name. Only one man had previously used it. As Dempsey put it: "According to tribal tradition, only one person had previously held this honoured name. He was a relative of Many Names, perhaps an uncle or older brother, who had been a victim of treachery two years before the young Crowfoot was born. The first Crowfoot had been a brave man whose exploits had made him a chief. One day he and his companions in a war party found a camp which recently had been abandoned by the Crows. Prowling into the clearing, the Blackfeet saw a large footprint in the mud near the edge of a stream. Curiously, each of the other Indians placed his own foot within the imprint, but in each case his foot was too small. Then the chief tried. To the amazement and delight of his comrades, his foot fitted perfectly in the large imprint made by the unknown Crow Indian. Because of this incident, he took the name Crow Indian's Big Foot." In 1828 though, as the original Crowfoot travelled to a peace summit with the Shoshone, he was ambushed and killed. His bravery as a man, when coupled with the deceitful way in which he was killed, left a name that could only be claimed by a great man. During his lifetime, Crowfoot was a part of nineteen battles and was wounded 6 different times. He showed his bravery, but more importantly his leadership. To lead raids, you need to muster followers and he always had plenty of men willing to follow him into battle. In one battle, Crowfoot was shot in the back, and while he recovered, it was a wound that stayed with him throughout his life as the ball was never removed. Crowfoot gained a reputation as a formidable warrior. During the 1840's, it seemed that there were enemies in every direction. As Dempsey put it: "To the north were the Crees, to the east the Assiniboins [sic], to the south the Crows, and across the mountains the Kutenais [sic], the Shoshonis, Nez Perces, Flatheads, and the Pend d'Oreilles. Other battles were fought from time to time with the Sioux, Ojibwas, and mixed-blood buffalo hunters." The Blackfoot were wealthy and controlled some of the best Buffalo hunting grounds. They also had access to European trade goods and plenty of horses. The Cree and Assiniboine usually had few horses and the Crow, along with the nations on the far side of the mountains, usually had few guns. Access to both horses and guns made the Blackfoot the most powerful nation on the plains. As missionaries made their way onto the plain, Crowfoot didn't oppose them bringing their message to his people, although he never paid much attention to it. This tolerance for the whites helped to strengthen his reputation with them. He took every person, native or white, at their word. If you are true to your word then you had little to fear from Crowfoot. During the 1850s there were three principal chiefs of the Blackfoot, each with a large number of followers. Crowfoot was led by Three Suns. The others were Old Sun and Old Swan. Time took their toll on these great men and gradually they passed away. As each man's rule ended, they were succeeded by others. First, in 1858, Old Swan died and soon after, Old Sun also passed away. They were both replaced by much more warlike chiefs who saw white traders as enemies. The forts of the prairies began to see more and more attacks from the Blackfoot. The Chief Factor of Fort Edmonton wrote in 1861: "…the Blackfoot have been un-bearable [sic] for the last 3-years or more, always getting worse and worse destroying our crops, stealing our horses, and doing everything they could to annoy us, in order to provide a quarrel so as to kill us. They now threaten openly to kill whites, half breeds, or Crees wherever they find them and to burn Edmonton Fort…". When Three Suns died, Crowfoot succeeded him. Unlike the two other high chiefs, he had built relationships with the traders and knew that his people needed the trade goods that the whites provided. To Crowfoot, as long as you are true to your word, you had nothing to fear. Crowfoot did not care what colour you were. If you were a benefit to his people, you were a friend. You didn't want to be his enemy. Crowfoot was fearless in battle but wise in his council, and these traits made him beloved by his people and respected by white traders. Crowfoot became so welcome at white trading posts, that he was treated as though he was the principal chief, regardless of his actual rank in the tribal hierarchy. Over time, Crowfoot amassed a large herd of horses, making him a man of means among his people. At the same time, he was a man who was "one of the people". He was generous with his wealth and was always willing to help those in need. This would be critical when smallpox once again visited his people in 1869. In an almost identical story to the outbreak that hit Crowfoot's camp when he was just seven years old, the disease arrived with an American steamer. The boat docked at the mouth of the Milk River and a Piegan crept aboard. As a Montana newspaper wrote: "to purloin a blanket from the couch of one of the smallpox patients, while the steamboat discharged its freight at the mouth of that turbid stream…the dreaded disease broke out among the copper-colored [sic] devils, and spreading like wildfire from tepee to tepee and from camp to camp, has made a great havoc in their strength and numbers - sending them to perdition in quicker time than bullets and bad bread could do the work. " Once again, smallpox ravaged the camps of the Blackfoot. The death toll was unimaginable. As bands split up in a futile attempt to outrun the trail of death that followed them, one after another they fell to the dread disease. Trading forts closed their doors to keep out the pestilence and neighbouring tribes were warned to stay far away lest they be routed as well. The death toll began to wane the following spring and the three tribes of the Confederacy began to tally their losses. Hugh Dempsey described the devastation: "The Piegans, who were the most severely affected, counted more than a thousand dead, the Bloods and Blackfeet over six hundred each, and the tiny tribe of fifty Sarcee lodges was reduced to only twelve." Somehow, Crowfoot once again escaped the disease. But he lost a quarter of his camp. The Blackfoot were never the same. Their undisputed rain on the plains had been dealt a mortal blow. In time, perhaps they could recover, but time was not a luxury they were afforded. The plains were changing, white settlers were moving in and their ability to stem the tide of incursions into their territory were never the same. In the following years, while some Blackfoot continued to wage war on their enemies, Crowfoot tried to remain a largely peaceful man. One of Crowfoot's sons died when out on a raiding party, but his wife Cutting Woman told him that she had met a young man that looked almost just like their lost son. While he was a few years older than their boy, as soon as Crowfoot met him, it was obvious that the similarities were remarkable. Crowfoot had suffered so much loss in his life that he invited the young man named Poundmaker to visit his camp. While Poundmaker was a Cree, he became Crowfoot's adopted son. As was the way on the plains, before long the Blackfoot and the Crees were at war again. Eventually Poundmaker had to return to his people but before he left, Crowfoot gave him horses and gifts, but more importantly, he shared the importance of wisdom. On the plains, so many wars were caused by tempers and emotion when wisdom could have brought peace instead. Crowfoot always seemed able to see beyond the emotion and look towards what was best for his people. In 1867, the nation of Canada was created. Up until this time, the plains had been under the purview of the Hudson's Bay Company whose forts had provided the only semblance of white rule to the west. By 1869, negotiations were in place to turn over these western lands, formerly known as Rupert's Land, to the fledgling nation of Canada. As the fur traders vacated the territory, it left a vacuum in terms of British control over the west. Well, nature abhors a vacuum, and whiskey traders in Montana began to cast envious glances northward. The state had prohibited the sale of alcohol and so, if there was nobody there to patrol Canada's prairies, then they would take advantage of the opportunity. Forts with names like Fort Whoop-Up began to open and sell whiskey to the members of the Blood tribe within who's territory it was built. Now when I say "whiskey", there was a bit of whiskey in those barrels, along with turpentine, strychnine, red ink, and red pepper. Within a short time, the fort had grossed $50,000 and more posts began to open in other areas. Infamous forts like Slide Out, Standoff, and Robber's Roost spread the liquor to Blackfoot country. Along with whiskey, they also offered repeating rifles for trade. As alcohol spread through the camps, fights between both friend and foe broke out. Even Crowfoot was not immune to the draw of whiskey. He visited forts at Blackfoot Crossing as well as Spitzee Post on the banks of the Highwood River. The missionaries that witnessed the illicit whiskey trade urged the fledgling government of Canada to do something…and so they did…they created the Northwest Mounted Police, the pre-cursor of the mighty Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The march west of the Mounties is a story I'll share in another episode, but suffice it to say that the word of these red-coated policeman riding westward travelled far in advance of the columns. When Reverand John McDougall met with Crowfoot to tell him of the impending arrival of the Mounties, he assured them that, although they would be building forts in Blackfoot territory, the Mounties were here to protect them from the whiskey. He also assured Crowfoot that white-man's justice would treat all people fairly, regardless of whether they were Indian or white. Crowfoot replied: "my brother, your words make me glad. I listen to them not only with my ears, but with my heart also. In the coming of the long knives, with their fire water and their quick-shooting guns, we are weak, and our people have been woefully slain and impoverished. You say this will be stopped. We're glad to have it stopped. We want peace. What you tell us about this strong power which will govern with good law and treat the Indians the same as the white man makes us glad to hear. My brother, I believe you, and am thankful." Crowfoot had earned enough respect that the other chiefs supported his words. The first red-coats arrived in the fall of 1874. Colonel James Macleod was in charge and Crowfoot developed a strong relationship with him. Prior to meeting Macleod, Crowfoot sent his foster brother, Three Bulls to test the truth of Rev. MacDougall that the policemen were here to help them. Three Bulls told Macleod of the whiskey trading post at Pine Coulee, and then led the police to the fort. The traders were arrested and from the first time Crowfoot met Macleod, he saw in him an ally. It was at this time that Crowfoot the warrior had to transition to Crowfoot the politician and peacemaker. The presence of the police meant that the debauchery associated with the whiskey trade quickly waned and the powerful Blackfoot began to grow in numbers again. Instead of whiskey, valuable buffalo hides were traded for horses and within two years the Blackfoot had purchased more than 2,000. Yet all was not rosy on the horizon. Crowfoot saw that with the police, more white men were moving onto their lands and, at the same time, the buffalo were becoming more and more scarce. When Crowfoot spoke to Rev. MacDougall, he was told that First Nations in other parts of the country had treaties that set down the rights of the tribes and the lands that belonged to them. Crowfoot could not understand the implications of what a treaty might mean, but he did appreciate the fact that some form of accommodation would be made for them. He could also see how rapidly things were changing and that the lives of the Blackfoot would never be as they once were. Next week, I'll look at how the expansion of white... /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/6715275

061 Sulphur Storms, Mismatched Colours, and Famous Filming Locations 05/30/2018

061 Sulphur Storms, Mismatched Colours, and Famous Filming Locations Sulphur Storms This past week has marked the start of pollen season in the mountain west. The white spruce, in particular, released vast amounts of yellowish-green pollen, coating every car, patio set, pond, and puddle. The railings alongside trails and even the surfaces of leaves have been covered in this fine powder. On my car, places I previously touched were dusted in a manner similar to fingerprint dust, leaving a yellowish outline of my fingerprint. Spruce are part of the Pine Family of trees, and all the members of this group reproduce in a similar fashion. Rather than using insects to pollinate the female flowers, they have evolved to use the wind. When a plant relies on something as random as a mountain breeze, it better produce a lot of pollen, and this past week we saw massive sulphur storms with clouds of yellowish pollen streaming from the trees and, in some cases, entire forests were blurred in a yellowish fog as the pollen spread its way across the landscape. Members of the pine family in the central Rockies include the white and Engelmann spruce, lodgepole, limber, and whitebark pines, Douglas-fir, subalpine fir, and the alpine larch. Every tree contains both the male and female cones with each taking a different role in the reproductive process. Male cones form on the lower branches while the female cones grow higher up. The male pollen cones grow at the base of the current year's new shoots in early spring, which in this part of the mountains is usually around the latter part of May. Different species produce different numbers of male cones, with a range between 15 and 140. Once the pollen has been dispersed by the wind, the male cones fall off the tree. Each male cone is a smooth, oval structure that contains dozens of spore-producing bodies called microsporophylls. When the cone is ripe, it releases tremendous numbers of tiny pollen spores. Each of these spores sport two tiny wings called sacci that help it stay airborne. When the sky turns yellow with this pollen, it's often referred to as a sulphur shower. Conversely, female cones grow very slowly and usually take several years to mature. This leaves cones in differing stages of maturation on the same branch with newer cones forming towards the tips. A first-year cone is soft and small, usually just a centimetre or two in size. Its main job is to collect the pollen and fertilize the cone. Second-year cones are much larger in size, more woody, but still green in colour. By the third year, the cones are hard and have turned brown and now contain fully-formed seeds ready for germination. Female cones are also much larger than their short-lived male counterparts. The cones form in either pairs or clusters along the branch and they vary dramatically in size. Lodgepole pine cones are only around 5 cm long, while the cones of limber pine can exceed 20 cm in length. Each cone is made up of alternating bracts and ovule-bearing scales. These scales accept the pollen and transform into winged seeds as the cone matures. Wind pollination is an ancient strategy and was utilized by the earliest of plants. It was the go-to strategy used by plants some 125 million years before flowering plants began to conscript insects to transport their pollen to other flowers. Even this was still 50 million years before the Cretaceous, the age of the dinosaurs, arrived. Almost all land-based non-flowering plants employ wind as their primary method of passing pollen from male cones to the ovaries hidden with the ovules of female cones. The randomness of wind as a transport mechanism means that if a grain of pollen lands on just the right spot, the female ovule needs to have some way to catch it before it blows away, They do this with a pollen droplet. This is a sugar-rich droplet exuded from the top of the ovule with the sole purpose of giving pollen grains a sticky surface to land on. For the pollen to maximize its airborne flight, it has to be extremely light. To do this, it's heavily dehydrated before it's released. When it lands, it needs water and nutrition in the form of sugars and proteins to help it develop further in preparation for pollination. The droplet offers just what a dehydrated pollen grain needs. There is some evidence that prior to the development of flowering plants that some insects adapted to seeking out these sugary pollen droplets. It may have been this attraction that prompted further diversification in plants to develop nectar-producing flowers. Some of the more ancient plant families, like the pines, continued to rely on wind for their pollination despite the success of insect-pollinated flowers. As you marvel at the amazing clouds of pollen released this year, while at the same time cursing the fact that every outdoor surface is covered with it, know that it is part of an age-old strategy that maintains the world's most ancient trees. Mismatching Colours Whenever any bright-eyed university student begins to study ecology, they're quickly introduced to the pepper moths of Manchester, England. These common moths can be found in two different forms, a lighter more salt and pepper-coloured variety as well as a sooty, almost black variety. Prior to the industrial revolution, the darker variety was unknown. It was only first described until 1811. A dark moth on a light tree meant that it was far more likely to be spotted by hungry birds and so they are estimated to have represented only 0.01% of the population. These light moths almost exclusively occupied their range in 1760 when England's industrial revolution first began to darken the skies with the soot from endless coal fires. Increasingly, in industrial towns like Manchester, surfaces of buildings and trees began to reflect this sooty character and gradually darkened in colour. By 1811 when the first dark variety of pepper moth was discovered, Manchester was beginning to look pretty dismal and dark with coal dust staining many of the trees. Coincidentally, pepper moths used those same trees to hide from predators. For centuries, the light-coloured pepper moths could perch on the bark of trees and effectively disappear into the patterns of the tree's bark. As these same trees became increasingly darkened by coal dust, the moths began to lose their camouflage. Prey that can't hide, attracts predators and the light-coloured moths increasingly became the meals of hungry birds. That was when something very interesting happened. A dark, sooty variety first made its appearance. Its dark appearance gave it a distinct advantage over the lighter variety, and by the end of the 1800s, industrial towns like Manchester and London were dominated by these dark varieties. By 1895 the dark variety had risen from 0.01% of the population in 1760 to 98%, eclipsing the more vulnerable light pepper moth variety. Why am I wandering down this ecological memory lane? Because the same situation is happening around us right now, not due to soot pollution, but rather human-caused changes to the climate. The mountain west is home to a large number of animals that take advantage of the seasonal changes by turning white to help them vanish into winter landscapes. These seasonal colour changes occur in a number of animals and birds including the willow and white-tailed ptarmigan; least, long-tailed and short-tailed weasel; and the snowshoe hare. These adaptations to the annual cycle of winter snows and summer foliage have evolved to maximize their camouflage throughout the year. Predator and prey alike have evolved similar strategies to help them to stay hidden. While weasels are voracious predators, they're also on the menus of other, larger predators. The same pressures that forced snowshoe hares and ptarmigan to change colours, also affect them. Changing your colour to take advantage of seasonal camouflage only works when the camouflage matches the season. Since historic weather trends varied only slightly from one year to the next, the timing of colour change for most of these diverse species was largely tied to the length of daylight in spring and fall. While in the past it may mean that a snowshoe hare, ptarmigan, or weasel might have a short period of mismatched colour, the majority of their season was ideally suited to the prevailing background colours. Brown weasels and hares, along with mottled ptarmigan, simply disappear in the summer landscapes of the Rockies while white animals offer similar protection in snow-covered landscapes. Many times I've been scared to death while cross-country skiing when a covey of ptarmigan, also called an "invisibleness" of ptarmigan, suddenly flush at your feet. These tiny grouse-like birds allow themselves to be completely buried by snow for warmth, only flushing when you're almost on top of them. A quiet cross-country ski is suddenly interrupted by an explosion of feathers. Changing climates is wreaking havoc on many of these animals. A white ptarmigan against a snowless alpine meadow is just as dangerous as brown snowshoe hare against a snowy forest. If your colouration is in stark contrast to your environment, you are also far more visible to potential predators. Climate change is causing many challenges to plants, animals, and birds in the north country. Warming climates can cause mismatches in reproduction schedules, emergence from winter hibernation, migration, and even connection to key food sources. If a bird's migration is timed to allow it to nest just as certain insects emerge in the spring - and then those insects emerge several weeks earlier - than the bird's reproductive success is put at jeopardy. So many of nature's key events are timed to historically predictable connected events. Animals give birth when the maximum amount of food should be available. Birds migrate at the right time to take advantage of seasonal foods in their winter and summer ranges. Animals emerge from hibernation when new foods should be available to help them regain strength after a long winter sleep. Just like the colour change schedule of animals, if the schedule changes then how flexible are the animals in their response to this change? So many annual cycles are hard-wired into plants and animals that their ability to respond to rapid changes can be very limited. Back in , I talked about a discovery in Alaska where bears were choosing elderberries over salmon for the first time. Historically the berries ripened after the salmon run and offered grizzlies a nutritious food after a long period of feeding on salmon. With warming climates, the berries are now ripening at the same time the salmon are running. The bears have to choose one food and they picked the berries. This means they no longer have the same feeding period over the summer months. No longer do they have a long period of feeding on salmon, followed by time to munch down on elderberries. The foods are now out of sync with the bears historical feeding schedule. When all of these evolutionary behaviours emerged, climates were, more or less, relatively stable. Days with snow varied year after year within a reasonable margin of error. When the climate changes so fast that winter arrives later and later, and spring arrives earlier than unless the animals can respond quick enough they'll find themselves with a contrasting coat that makes them far more visible to their predators. Like the moths in 19th century England, they can't count on their colouration to help hide them from hungry hunters. These colour mismatches have prompted numerous studies to look at how individual species are able to respond to these rapid changes. A looked at their response to fewer snow-covered days each year. It found that since the colour change of hares is most likely connected to the length of day, their vulnerability to shorter winters would be a factor of their flexibility to alter the timing of their autumn and spring moults where they grow a coat of a different colour. Any hare that is white when the landscape is not, has a target on their back. Conversely, a brown hare is in danger against a snowy backdrop. Populations of snowshoe hares, more so than most animals are absolutely tied to their level of predation. Lynx evolved to eat snowshoe hares almost exclusively while many other animals will also take a hare whenever possible. The simple fact that they were born delicious means they're on the menu of any carnivore lucky enough to see past their camouflage. In the mountain west, the population of hares rises and falls in concert with predation from lynx. As the hare population rises, lynx produce more kittens which means they need more hares. As lynx increase their predation on hares, the hare population drops. Fewer hares result in a subsequent drop in lynx numbers. These two animals are connected like few others. For an animal that lives and dies by its ability to hide, having the right match between colour and landscape provides huge advantages to appropriately coloured individuals. This means that, as climate changes, those hares who's pelts allow them to best hide will have the optimum opportunity to survive and, subsequently, pass those adaptations on to their young. This study looked at the hare's ability to vary its colour phase based on changing climate realities. If individual hares are able to adjust to rapidly changing seasonal realities than those changes would be quickly passed on through the population. This study found that the fall moult which turned their coat to white had little flexibility in terms of timing. This meant it was likely hard-wired to its connection to the length of daylight. The spring moult though showed some signs of adaptation with a slight ability to slow or increase colour change based on local conditions. Ptarmigan are in a particularly dangerous situation in the mountain west. Not only are climates warming, but these birds are specialized to live at the very highest elevations. As climates continue to warm, conditions will likely see them forced up higher and higher up the mountain until they literally run out of habitat. Ptarmigan are also experiencing a similar mismatch between seasonal colour. While physiology can take too long to adapt to rapid changes in their environment, out of season white ptarmigan are known to work to soil their feathers after breeding to try to minimize their contrast to the background landscape. Many weasels are experiencing similar challenges. Recent studies of the smallest predator in the country, the least weasel, have found that it's also finding itself moving from predator to prey due to its unexpected visibility caused by lack of snow. Almost all predators are also prey to larger animals and for this diminutive weasel, being visible means potentially being someone's dinner. In a Polish study looking two varieties of least weasel, one that changes colour during the winter and one that doesn’t, it shows that climate change, like the moths of England, is showing rapid changes to populations. In many colour changing animals, there are usually individuals who don't change colour. In northern climates, this usually means that the brown weasels have a lower chance of survival during snowy months. For many weasels, predation from largely, birds of prey, can be the highest cause of mortality in a particular year. Like the moth study in England, this study found that camouflage was the most important factor determining predator detection in weasels. As climate changes and winter snows dwindle, weasels may find that white winter weasels are more heavily predated than weasels that don't change colour. Southern brown populations will likely shift north as white weasels find themselves falling to the talons of hawks. Changing climates are changing everything. The news stories often talk about what WILL happen with changing climates but the changes are happening right before our eyes. Last fall I watched a red fox kill an arctic fox near Churchill Manitoba while working as a polar bear viewing guide. The red fox has migrated north and arctic fox are very vulnerable to invasive predators. Alpine animals like ptarmigan and pikas are being forced higher and higher up the mountains until they simply run out of mountain. This makes them some of our most vulnerable animals. The role of seasonal colour change will evolve over the next 50-100 years. Animals that are out of phase with the season will find themselves increasingly on the menu. Behavioural adaptations, like the ptarmigan soiling its white plumage, may help, but we may also see populations migrating, changing, and disappearing depending on each animals ability to react to unprecedented rates of change. For now, marvel at every sighting of ptarmigan, hare, and weasel. They're dealing with intense climate challenges and only time will tell how they succeed to changes, not of their making. Next up…Hollywood North Hollywood North The mountain west has long been the backdrop behind many successful movies. I get a kick out of the fact that the first silent movie filmed in the Rockies was called Cameron of the Royal Mounted, and Cameron is my last name. In this early film, a Scottish immigrant becomes a member of the Mounties only to be accused of forgery. To clear his name, he had to capture a gang of train robbers and stop a band of rogue natives. Yup, this is about as unlikely a story as you could imagine in Canada. However Hollywood fell in love with the landscape - not to mention the exchange rate on the dollar - and Hollywood has been returning every year since. Movies like Son of Lassie filmed in 1944 and Emperor Waltz in 1948. 1953 was a big year. That year Jimmy Stuart filmed the Far Country, Shelly Winters and Alan Ladd filed a movie called Saskatchewan…in Alberta, Howard Keel and Ann Blyth did a remake of the classic film Rose Marie, and Marilyn Monroe almost died on the Bow Falls in the town of Banff during the filming of The River of No Return. If you watch the movie, the characters portrayed by Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchem are fleeing from a group of renegade natives by taking a raft down the Bow River. While the movie is ostensibly set in the middle of nowhere Montana or Wyoming, it was filmed in and around the communities of Banff and Jasper. One of the pivotal scenes in the movie has them rafting over the Bow Falls while a hail of arrows falls around them from the cliffs above. Since movie effects weren't as advanced as they are today, it's pretty obvious that it's two mannequins on the raft but the effect is still a good one. Even though Marilyn was not actually on the raft, the crew had to do some close-ups of her near the actual falls so they could see the look of terror in her eyes. Unfortunately, while she was posing, she fell and almost did go over the falls. In the end, she was lucky to limp away with just a broken ankle. After this point, the bell staff at the Banff Springs Hotel got to draw lots to see who would get to push Marilyn around in her wheelchair. A quick google search will turn up numerous photos of Marilyn relaxing around the hotel and golf course with her crutches during filming. In one of the other classic films of 1953, Howard Keel and Ann Blyth did a remake of the classic Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald film Rose Marie. One of the biggest tourism myths in the Rockies is that the 1936 film with Eddy and MacDonald was also filmed in this area. At the Maligne Lake Chalet, they even have a canoe nailed to the ceiling with a carved wooden sign claiming to be the original canoe from the movie. Unfortunately, it’s a complete falsehood. Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald never filmed in Canada. Their scenes were filmed in the Lake Tahoe area of Nevada. There were some scenes of Mounties training that were filmed in Canada but none of the major scenes was filmed here. Today, few movies come to Banff and Jasper to film. Scenes like Bow Falls are photographed several million... /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/6648370

060 Tricking bumblebees and a renewed focus on ecological integrity in Canada's national parks 05/20/2018

060 Tricking bumblebees and a renewed focus on ecological integrity in Canada's national parks Orchids tricking Bumblebees Wandering trails around the Bow River valley, it seems like every day there are new and exciting changes taking place. The leaves have begun to emerge and the early season blooms are adding a splash of colour to the meadows and forest leaf litter. Today I saw my first Calypso orchids of the season. These tiny, delicate orchids are one of the first forest flowers to emerge in the spring. The forest floor is still a tangle of pine needles with nary a hint of colour, other than the few green leaves and similarly coloured buffaloberry blooms, willow bushes, and bilberry. Calypso, or Fairy Slipper orchids as they are also known, are one of the most beautiful of the mountain orchids. More intricately coloured than the showier Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid, it takes a keen eye to see the amazing detail in the bloom. Each plant produces a single basal leaf close to the ground. In the spring, not long after the snows have melted, a single stem will emerge to produce a single, tiny flower. They rarely reach higher than 20 cm above the ground and the flowers are only around 3 cm across. In some regions, it's nicknamed "Hider-of-the-north" because it's so easy to miss. While there are 4 species globally, there are only two found in the mountain west, Calypso bulbosa var. americana and Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis. On the eastern side of the great divide, you'll only see the americana variety while British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana and Alaska have both. All of the flowers are similar in appearance. The first thing you'll notice on close examination is the typical ladyslipper appearance. Usually, 3 sepals and 3 identical petals rise vertically and to the side of the flower. The actual slipper has a pinkish cover and the pouch is intricately coloured with dark purple streaks. It sports a yellow beard which holds pollen, and a lower lip. In the eastern slopes, the americana variety has a white to pinkish lip while the western occidentalis variety has a lip covered with darker purple spots. Perhaps one of the most remarkable features of the Calypso orchid is that it doesn't provide nectar to the bumblebee queens that seek it out looking for a sugary reward. Instead, they get large amounts of pollen deposited on their body with no actual nectar for their effort. This is not very common in nature. As you can imagine, providing a sugary treat is a huge motivator for bumblebees to come visit. Instead, the Calypso provides bright colouration that says, come over and say hi, and then provides little in return to the bumblebee. Food deception, as this behaviour is known, has seen more intense study during the past few decades. Biologists have come up with a number of theories as to why it occurs. Food-deceptive orchids usually see fewer visits by bees for obvious reasons, but it can also help to ensure cross-pollination by making bees less likely to visit the same plant twice. Two competing theories try to explain how food-deceptive orchids are able to attract pollinators even though they don't offer nectar. The first focuses on the fact that they are often one of only a few bright flowers at this time of year, and this may increase their chances of being visited, despite the lack of nectar. Alternatively, they may still benefit from other nectar-producing flowers nearby. Their blooming period overlaps with a few other pollen producers like willows and some bilberry plants. A 2015 study published in found Calypso pollen on 7% of bumblebee queens captured on willow plants, and 18.2% of those visited more than one flower. Since flowering willows make an area attractive to bumblebee queens, the Calypso likely benefits from their proximity. On a smaller scale, the lack of a diversity of other flowering plants helps the Calypso to attract queens that may have been attracted to the area for willow or bilberry nectar. Why not just provide nectar like other flowering plants? Quite simply, it's expensive. Calypso orchids save resources by not producing nectar. A single visit by a queen can take a lot of pollen and so they don't need too many repeat visits. They still need to attract the queen though. Their bright yellow pollen beard and purple streaked pouch provide a visual attraction. They also have a strong smell similar to the smell of vanilla. Essentially, while the flower doesn't offer a reward, it still takes advantage of bright colours and a strong scent to attract a hungry bumblebee queen. In the end, these tricky flowers are able to attract enough queens to ensure reliable pollination. That brings up another question: why just bumblebees queens. The simple answer is that the queens are the only bumblebees around when the Calypso blooms. As summer begins to draw to a close, a bumblebee colony begins to prepare for the following year by producing a final brood of larvae that will contain several queens along with some males. It's those queens that will find a safe place to hibernate for the winter, usually around 20 cm below the surface. They produce glycol in their blood to keep them from freezing to death. Other than these few queens, the rest of the colony dies at the end of every season. After a 6-month sleep, these groggy queens emerge to look for the very earliest spring flowers. In this area, Calypso are one of these wildflowers, along with willow, buffaloberry, and bilberry that greet their arrival. It's this grogginess and the naivete of these newly emerged queens that is likely why the Calypso is able to fool them into pollinating them. As she gathers strength and experience, she'll get to recognize Calypso and avoid them in the future. The next year, it'll be another naïve new queen and the process begins anew. Her next order of business is to find a den. They're fond of mouse, ground squirrel, or weasel burrows. They'll even take advantage of an empty nest box as well. Once she finds a den, she begins the real job of preparing for a new brood of worker bees. Unlike honeybees that can have thousands of individuals, a bumblebee colony will only have a few hundred. She starts by building a wax honeypot that she fills with nectar. This will offer her a food supply when the weather doesn't cooperate. They don't make hexagonal honeycomb-like honey bees, but instead, she makes waxy cups. Into these, she'll lay 5-15 eggs. These will pupate in about 20 days and emerge as adults after 4-5 weeks. From this point on her foraging days are over. These solely female workers will take over those duties and she'll spend the rest of her life in the den laying and tending to eggs. At the end of summer, the colony begins to produce additional queens along with some males. They leave the nest and look for suitable mates. Once mated, the queens will try to feed on as much pollen as possible in order to store up reserves for the winter. She'll then look for a den to hibernate, waking up just in time for a new crop of Calypso to bloom. Let's Talk Parks Canada Way back in , I dedicated the entire episode to slamming some of the decisions that Parks Canada had made in the previous years that were putting the important ecological integrity of parks at risk. At that time, Parks Canada released the results of an intergovernmental panel that had listened to stakeholders looking into Canadians views on Parks Canada's management of the nation's parks. Simultaneously, they were trying to force feed an $86.4 million dollar bike path from Jasper to the Columbia Icefields - while trails with decades of history were falling into disrepair. To their chagrin, a master of the Freedom of Information Act, Ken Rubin, managed to get all of the original internal documents from Parks Canada's own scientists that reflected the same concerns that many of us had - along with some that I hadn't even considered. To the agencies credit, they didn't deflect the results of the report. They owned. It. Also in their defence, some of the decisions were a reflection of a decade of the Harper government's anti-science, anti-conservation policies. It was a decade of open the floodgates, spend money where it will return the most short-term returns and let the ecology be damned. The Liberals have taken the time to listen to a decade of frustration on how Parks Canada has lost its way. I first came to the Canadian Rockies in 1980 along with my best friend, to hike the 176 km South Boundary Trail running from Nigel Creek in Banff all the way to Medicine Lake in Jasper National Park. Today, routes like the north and south boundary trails are no longer viable backpacking routes. An April 16, 2018 document released by Parks Canada titled Backcountry Fact Sheet for Operators describes the routes as such: "Users of the North and South Boundary trails should consider these more like wilderness routes and expect trees down, with a variety of un-bridged stream and river crossings. Campgrounds are primitive with little if any infrastructure apart from designated areas for cooking, camping and open pits for human waste." When I visited in the 80's, Parks Canada was expanding the facilities at these backcountry sites by providing good toilets, trees for hanging food, and well-designated campsites. It was still a wilderness trail, simply due to the fact that it traversed long distances with little proximity to highways. At the same time, these were also the days of backcountry wardens and we regularly encountered them in the backcountry. In 2018, once you leave the highway, fuggedabout seeing any representative of the Parks Canada Agency. The days of backcountry patrols are long gone. Even the warden cabins are falling into disrepair. Now while the South and North Boundary Trails have always been considered wilderness trails, other trails like the Tonquin Valley Trail in Jasper National Park are not. Back in , I talked about growing complaints about Jasper's most popular backcountry trails becoming virtually impassable due to decades of neglect. Jasper's Fitzhugh Newspaper . It quoted one particular example: "When B.C. resident Philip McDouall set out with three friends to hike the Tonquin Valley Sept. 16, he expected to encounter challenging conditions typical of a backcountry trail. What he didn’t expect to find was appalling trail conditions, dilapidated infrastructure and facilities overflowing with excrement". Of all the trails in Jasper, the Tonquin is one of the most iconic. The article continued: "On top of the appalling trail conditions, he also said many of the campsites are in a state of disrepair with dilapidated cooking areas, broken bear poles and outhouses that were nearly overflowing. At the Clithroe Campsite, in particular, he said the outhouse was so full there was evidence people had been defecating in other areas of the site. 'It was horrible,' said McDouall, 'The way the one chap described it, when you lifted the lid up and sat down you were literally sitting on the last person’s turd'." Why do I dredge up these old stories again? Because this past week the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna published the government's response to the 2017 "Let's Talk Parks Canada" nationwide consultation. The early results of the consultation, which I talk about in was just the first response from the government on the many challenges facing our parks and protected areas, as well as cultural, and aboriginal sites. McKenna, in the government's official response to the consultations published just last week, has reaffirmed Parks Canada's commitment to making the protection of ecological integrity job one. The government has taken a beating over the past few years over the increased development within the parks and the endless focus on bringing more and more cars through the park gates. Most of this was the legacy of the Harper years, but the Liberals are trying to chart a new course. While the words are comforting, we'll need to see whether the words result in action. (I'll add a link to the report in the show notes for this episode). The puts forward three priorities for Parks Canada going forward: To protect and Restore our national parks and historic sites through focussed investments, working with Indigenous peoples, working with provinces and territories, and ensuring ecological integrity is the first priority in decision making. Enable people to further discover and connect with our parks and heritage through innovative ideas that help share these special places with Canadians. Sustain for generations to come the incredible value—both ecological and economic—that our parks and historic sites provide for communities. The value they bring to fighting climate change, protecting species at risk, and shaping our Canadian identity and jobs and economic opportunity for local communities. These are all things that we have been fighting for for the past decade in the mountain west. During the engagement process, the number one concern voiced was simply that the parks were not being protected and that ecological integrity was NOT the first priority. Respondents also voiced concerns over the reduced role of science and scientific funding in the decision-making process. Parks Canada has historically produced some of the most compelling wildlife research in the country and many of the respondents, myself included, reflected this disillusionment. Along with reductions in scientific funding, rigor, and the freedom to publish, respondents lamented the lack of maintenance of existing facilities. I've covered this in the preamble to this story but the challenge remains. Decades of decline leave long lists for renewal. In defence of Parks Canada though, many good things have begun to happen on this front. There have been huge investments in trailhead facilities in Jasper, along with dramatic investments into the Mount Edith Cavell day-use area. While the focus currently seems to be on repairing long-neglected front-country facilities, it's also important that funds are equally invested in even more decrepit backcountry campsites, trails, bridges, and signage. The more backcountry facilities deteriorate, the more damage the use of backcountry trails generate. If trails are experiencing deep rutting or flooding, hikers will bypass these areas leading to widening or braiding of trails. If outhouses are not maintained than hikers will bypass them and backcountry sanitation is also compromised. Parks has also realized that decisions have not been made transparently in the past. Decisions allowing the Glacier Skywalk, and tentatively an $86.4 million dollar bike trail from Jasper to the Columbia Icefields are only two examples. Other decisions allowing expansions to the Lake Louise Ski areas should also be coming into question. The Icefields bike trail should be immediately cancelled and reviews into the Lake Louise Ski Hill Expansion properly assessed. Participants in the study displayed a lack of trust in the transparency of decisions along with the ability of Parks Canada to really put ecological integrity on the top of their priorities. When stated goals simply don't match management decisions, trust gets eroded. Minister McKenna also vowed to focus on both ecological integrity AND to "restore funding to research, ecological monitoring, and public reporting." The past decade has not been easy on Parks Canada and the nation's parks and reserves desperately need stable funding to ensure important research is ongoing. The 30-year study of wildlife movement corridors and highway crossing structures is a great example. The global value of this study is largely based on its long years of study. Good science takes time, and this study shows dramatic changes in wildlife adaptation to crossing structures over time. Without stable funding, science like this would be lost. We need the federal government to be a leader in research, ecosystem and facility restoration, and environmental assessments. These pillars can help to reduce some of the damage caused by a decade of neglect. Traffic management in busy parks was also a key point in the feedback received by Parks Canada. Over the past decade or so, with deteriorating backcountry conditions and increased frontcountry development, some 95% of the traffic visits the same 2% of the park - the paved corridors. As an example, traffic on Banff Townsite roads increased 17% between 2014 and 2017, increasing from 22,600 to 27,500 per day during July and August. This weekend's Victoria Day holiday could see a repeat of last year. On the Sunday of the long weekend, Banff saw 31,600 cars moving in and out of the townsite. The roads are only designed to accommodate 24,000 cars per day. The cars backed up at both entrances to town with delays in some cases stretching as much as 30 minutes. This doesn't even take into account the increased transit service in the mountain parks. Local Roam Transit saw an increase of 25 percent during July and August. While the final numbers are not in, it's expected that some 700,000 riders will have taken advantage of the service. In addition to this, vast numbers used shuttles from Calgary to Banff, Banff to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, and from the Lake Louise overflow campground to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Last summer, ATS Traffic performed magic in terms of keeping vehicles moving, reducing traffic jams, and keeping people from parking for kilometres along busy roadways. While this is laudable, we need to ask ourselves an important question: how many visitors are simply too many? If our focus is on bringing more and more and more people to the shore of Lake Louise, we may reduce traffic snafus, but we are also negatively impacting the visitor experience. Ten years of the Harper government trying to push as many cars as possible through the gates to cash in on the rush didn't factor in the importance of the experience. Tourism is fickle. The experience is critical. Last summer, I was on a multi-day trip and was finishing my day at a hotel in the Village of Lake Louise. My most beautiful lady, Jules was coming to meet me to stay the night and have a nice dinner at the Station Restaurant. She drove from Canmore to the Lake Louise exit. To meet me, she needed to take a left turn off of the exit, but the ATS Traffic staff forced all cars to turn right towards the ski hill. She complied, even though it was the wrong direction. When she had an opportunity, she did a u-turn to head back towards the village. When she got to the village, no vehicles were allowed up the road towards the Chateau. Instead, they were all required to turn right to go towards the Station. She was becoming increasingly frustrated and was on the verge of heading home when she was finally allowed the right of way. Essentially, they were stacking cars off of the highway. The roads don't have the capacity to accommodate so many vehicles trying to go up the hill to the Chateau, so the ATS staff were simply stacking the cars along any road that was available. This prevented cars from backing up into the busy traffic lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway. It was one of the most painful tourism experiences I've witnessed, but safety was the primary concern. When we walked to the restaurant, we chatted with drivers stuck in the various stacking lanes and they expressed major frustration. Many had travelled long distances to see Lake Louise but instead were stuck in Toronto-style traffic. Even if they eventually made it to the lake, along with the thousands of other visitors in their convoy, the experience was not a positive one. As a destination, we can't afford large groups of visitors flocking to sites like Trip Advisor and saying: "don't go to Banff…they've ruined it!". We need to look at hard limits to the number of people that can visit sites like Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. As much as we need to appreciate the revenue that each additional car brings, we also need to think of the... /episode/index/show/mountainnature/id/6612684

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