Sierra Home | Previous Page

The Castle Wilderness is located in the southwest corner of Alberta between Waterton Lakes National Park and Crownest Pass. It encompasses an area of just over 1000 km2.  This area, much of which was once part of Waterton Lakes National Park, is home to a diverse ecosystem.  The biodiversity of this area is second only to Waterton National Park in all of Alberta. Update - November 2006  Although the Alberta Government has been in the expected doldrums between outgoing Premier Ralph Klein and a new Premier, the proposed park has been inching forward. After informal discussions with some of his constituents during the summer, Sustainable Resource Development Minister, David Coutts has just been reported by the Prairie Post as having referred the park proposal onto the Minister responsible for parks, Denis Ducharme. Coutts is also the local MLA and as Minister is currently responsible for the public lands of the proposed park. This comes on the heels of a very productive meeting of proponents for the park with Ducharme and a representative of Coutts' department. Both Ministers also toured the proposed park by air this past summer. For more information: http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/biodiversity/wilderness/campaign.shtml?x=309 Contact Dianne Pachal, Alberta WILD Director - Sierra Club of Canada  Phone/Fax: (403) 234-7368  http://www.sierraclub.ca/wilderness Background Located in the Castle Wilderness are more than 120 provincially rare plant species. This is approximately three times as many provincially rare plant species as found in Banff National Park, which encompasses almost nine times the area of the Castle.   More than 50 different species of mammals including grizzly and black bears, cougars and wolves can be found in the Castle Wilderness.  The region is of critical importance in the summer and winter for moose, elk, white-tailed and mule dear, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats.  Over 100 breeding species of birds are found in the Castle, while another 60 species use the area as a migratory route.   The Castle Wilderness plays a key role in protection of Southern Alberta's watershed. The West and South Castle Valleys see very high levels of precipitation.  The Castle has 26 major tributary streams; these are the headwaters for the Oldman River system.  These headwaters are home to 34 high elevation lakes and one of the best trout sport fisheries in Alberta.   Old growth forest, which consists mainly of Engelman Spruce, sub-alpine fur, and whitebark pine, can still be found in the Castle Wilderness.  Due to logging pressure this area has lost over 50% of it's old growth forest since the 1930's. Now only 10 percent of the Castle Wilderness is covered in old growth forest.   Without legislated protection for the Castle Wilderness biologists predict the populations of large carnivores (e.g. grizzly bears) will eventually become regionally extinct due to increased habitat degradation and human caused mortalities.  Clearly the Castle Wilderness is an important corridor between protected areas to the North and to the South.   Both the Peigan and Kutenai First Nations have used the Castle for food gathering and spiritual purpose for over 2000 years.  To date, the people of the Peigan First Nation are still using a number of spiritual sites located within the Castle Wilderness.   Alberta's Natural Resource Conservation Board has acknowledged the degradation of the Castle Wilderness, in its decision report of 1993.  The Board recommended to the Alberta Provincial Cabinet that 739km2 of the Castle Wilderness be established as a Wildland Protected Area.  The Alberta government ignored the boards' recommendation.   Recent publicity of the plight of the Castle Wilderness has reached an international audience.  A campaign to help save the Castle Wilderness has started in Germany.  As well Reinhold Messner, the first person to summit Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen and a member of the European Parliament since 1999, gave his support to protecting the Castle Wilderness.