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A "jump out" - how animals escape when caught inside the road's wildlife fence. -- Photo courtesy of Alberta Environment and Parks

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For the third year in a row, in September I spent 2 days at the Canadian Rockies Outdoor Learning centre teaching trail building to ~50 Grade 7 Leadership students from the Banff Public School.

It is fun, and neat, and interesting to get the students to start thinking about trails and trail design; how trails are constructed differently for cyclist, equestrians, cross country skiers, hikers and snowshoers. It is entertaining to get them working with tools like Macleods and rakes, and see them actually get dirty. It’s rewarding to have them start to understand the effort that goes into the pathways that they wander, and to get them to understand there are no such things as “trail repair fairies”.

But that’s not why I’m there.

The students come to the centre in Bow Valley Provincial Park as part of a 2-day retreat on leadership. In addition to trail building, they do sessions on mindfulness, care for others and engagement. The latter three tie pretty obviously to the concept of leadership. But how does trail building tie to that?

In truth, I’m not sure it does, but gladly, I’m not there to try and connect those dots. What I am there to show is that people who volunteer are Leaders, because “putting up your hand” to help when there is a need is Leadership. I use the practical example of The Friends of Kananaskis, our 1,500-person strong membership base, our entirely volunteer Board, and our nearly 200 individual volunteers who "put up their hand" every year to help K-Country. I show them what Friends members do when we "put up our hands" (move dirt, mostly), and that they – even at the ripe young age of 10 or 11 – are entirely capable of doing the kind of work we do. I help them realize that they have capabilities, and all it takes to be a Leader is to “put up your hand”.

While moving dirt, I deliberately show them that teamwork makes for successful work, and that Leaders build effective teams that work together and build on the skills and abilities of all the team’s members. I help them see that while not all team members contribute equally, all team members can contribute. I then pivot that to helping them realize that the best Leaders engage everyone to the extent the want to be engaged, then help them to build skills and get better at what they do.

Each one of you reading this is a Leader (whether you think of yourself that way or not). I know this because each one of you has made the conscious choice to give back, to help out, and to do so in your own way. Some of you come work on trails. Some of you donate money to us. Some of you choose to get educated about Kananaskis and support it in your own ways. But each one of you has recognized a need in the community and put your hand up. Each one of you has taken some of your precious “could be doing lots of other things” time and said, “I will make a difference” by doing Friends work. Sure, I’m betting what you’re volunteering for ties to your passions for hiking, mountain biking, or whatever else gets you onto the trails – and I help the kids understand that connecting volunteering with your passion is key to making your contribution fulfilling for you.

I teach that being a Leader is “putting up your hand” to do something you care about (even if it’s hard, or gets you dirty), and that everybody cares about something. I demonstrate that there is no upper and almost no lower age limit to “putting up your hand”.

I’m pretty sure that “building trails” isn’t leadership, but “volunteering to build trails” is. Thank you all for your leadership, and thanks for choosing the Friends of Kananaskis as the team for whom you “put up your hand”.

 

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Welcome Back, Kayla!

I'm pleased to announce the Kayla Simpson has agreed to join the Friends Advisory Council!

Kayla joined the Board in May of 2013, and served over 6 years until leaving the Board in June of this year. Among her numerous contributions, Kayla served as our prime HR lead for both the Board and the HR Subcommittee. I would like to say HR matters aren't big in our organization, but there are many aspects of staff contracting, compensation, and workplace health and safety that are, and they seem to take up a lot of time. The Board is exceptionally pleased that we can still call on Kayla in her role on the Advisory Council.

In 2014, the Friends Board of Directors formed the Advisory Council as a way of enabling experts on K-Country, significant volunteers and others who wish to help the Friends, to fulfill the Friends' Mission — without serving on the Board. Advisory Council members provide valued input to the Board and provide guidance on Society direction.

1. North of the Ghost River, next to the Ghost River Wilderness Area, and north of Lake Minnewanka. The northernmost bit of this parcel abuts Banff Park;
2. South of the Ghost River abutting Banff Park and the Ghost River Wilderness Area. Portions 1 & 2 would be contiguous but for the Ghost River corridor running between them;
3. The upper reaches of the South Ghost River, abutting both Banff Park and Bow Valley Wildland Park;
4. The upper reaches of Canyon Creek west of Powderface Trail abutting Elbow Sheep Wildland Park, pictured at right;
5. The Forgetmenot Ridge area southeast of the Little Elbow area, including the Big Elbow Campground;
6. The east flanks of Mt. Cornwall, Glasgow, Outlaw & Banded Peak southwest of the Little Elbow area and abutting Elbow-Sheep Wildland Park;
7. West of Junction Fire Lookout, abutting both Elbow Sheep and Bluerock Wildland parks.;
8. A block of peaks in the Highwood range including Patterson’s Peak, Mt. Head & Holy Cross Mountain abutting Elbow Sheep Wildland Park;
9. A REALLY long and thin strip on the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide south of the Highwood Pass. It starts at Odlum Ridge and runs south to Mt. Grass (which is almost due east of Claresholm). This strip is over 40 km long, from Township 13 in the south, north to Township 17, and it varies from 5 km wide to spots as little as 200 m wide (on the slopes of Mt. Holcroft). On the north it borders Elbow Sheep Wildland Park.
10. The Cataract Creek valley (plus a little bit east) from Cataract Creek Campground north almost to Hwy 541 at the abandoned Sentinel Day Use Area. The view up the valley from the campground is seen to the right;
11. Parcels 11 through 16 are five separate blobs south of K-Country. They are grouped together south of Hwy 532 and southeast of Plateau Mountain. They butt up against the Willow Creek Public Land Use Zone and stretch almost to Bob Creek Wildland Park.

• Parcel 5 protects one of the deepest caves in Alberta, Forgetmenot Pot. More information on the Pot can be found on page 103 in the book Caves of the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains. Forgetmenot Ridge, which is the ridge in the centre in the photo at right as seen from Forgetmenot Pond, is in Parcel 5 and also has periglacial features similar to Plateau Mountain;
• Parcel 8 put into protection a spot where in the 1960’s, a road was pushed through to a gypsum mine high on the slopes of Patterson’s Peak, preventing there from ever being a mine. You can see a picture of that ridiculous road near the bottom of Bob Spirko’s post about climbing one of the nearby peaks here;
• Parcel 9 protects a phenomenal series of lakes under the peaks of the Divide: Carnarvon, Lake of the Horns and Loomis. Stories I’m seeing this summer suggest they’re not being protected all that well, however, as there is significant human damage by random campers at Carnarvon.

• A part of Little Elbow, Nihahi Creek, Big Elbow, the north start of Threepoint Mountain, a bit of the Wildhorse trail, Upper Threepoint Creek, a bit of Sullivan Pass; the ends of Head Creek, Loomis Lake, Bishop Creek, McPhail Creek, Carnarvon Lake, Baril Creek; bits of the Great Divide Trail including over Fording River pass

The Flowers of K-Country: Arnica
11th in a series by Derek Ryder, IGA Interpretive Guide

I freely admit, I am not the flower person in my family. That honour goes to my partner, Karen, who is forever stopping on trails to take pictures of every flower she sees. Her diligent and patient teaching has introduced me to some of K-Country’s pretty spectacular flowers, both big and small, and in this series, I will be sharing her fabulous images of some of them.

Arnica are confusing. First, they are perennial that does not bloom every year, but every second year. There are at least 31 subspecies in North America and Europe, 3 of which are common in K-Country, and they interbreed. One reference manual I have says you need dissection and magnification to tell the subspecies apart. So while you could see Alpine Arnica, Heart Leaf Arnica or Spear Leaf Arnica here, I’m going to keep it simple and just call them Arnica and pretend I can identify the differences in leaf size and shape.

They bloom almost all the way through summer; I have seen them in bloom as early as May and I saw them blooming at Black Prince and Chester Lake area this week. The big, showy yellow flowers are obvious and easily identified. While I like them best when the petals are flat, they naturally curl a bit.

They prefer to grow in forests rather than meadows, and some prefer damp evergreen forests, while others like drier aspen forests. If you find a shorter one in a high alpine meadow, typically above 2,100 m, with a fuzzier stem like those in the picture to the right, it’s probably the Alpine subspecies. Down lower, it’s most likely Heart Leaf, whose leaf actually is heart shaped.

While Arnica can be poisonous if ingested, several North American Indigenous peoples used Arnica as a poultice for swelling and bruises, and you can, too. Several companies make Arnica gels and creams for relief of bruises and inflammation. The Arnica in those formulations is normally one of the types found in Europe.