Where: Jasper National Park is home to woodland caribou, grizzlies and wolverine.

Jasper is the largest and most northerly of the Four Mountain National Parks, which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Founded in 1907, Jasper is home to vulnerable species such as woodland caribou, wolverine, grizzly bear, wolf and cougar. Development in the neighboring provinces of British Columbia and Alberta increasingly affects these species.

The wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.

– Nancy Newhall

WHERE : Jasper National Park

Wild and magnificent, at almost 11,000 square kilometres Jasper National Park rolls across the main ranges and front ranges of Canada’s Rocky Mountains, from the Columbia Icefield in the south to the Resthaven Glacier in the north. The park’s northwestern boundary skirts the lower slopes of British Columbia’s Mount Robson, highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.

Rivers with evocative names such as Sunwapta, Whirlpool, Astoria, Maligne, Rocky, Snaring, Miette, Fiddle and Snake Indian tumble down from peaks and glaciers, carving their way to the Athabasca, which runs northeast through Alberta to Lake Athabasca. The Slave River continues to Great Slave Lake, and then, via the Mackenzie River, Jasper waters reach the Arctic Ocean.

Alpine meadows, rock and ice make up more than 40% of the park. The subalpine ecoregion, with its thick coniferous forests and heavy winter snowfalls, covers another 50%.

The Athabasca River valley bottom – or montane ecoregion – is less than 7% of the park. Yet it is the most important habitat for elk, deer, moose, bighorn sheep and their predators. Warm chinook winds in winter keep the snow thin here. Several wolf packs include the valley in their territories, and cougars take advantage of good hunting cover. Lynx and several species of the weasel family prey on snowshoe hares and squirrels. In spring, grizzlies come down to the valley to feed on emerging vegetation. Buffaloberries provide excellent feeding for black bears in summer.

While the park itself is protected under the Canada National Parks Act, it is very vulnerable to development along its borders. Logging, mining and motorized recreation, as well as heli-hiking and heli-skiing, are increasingly infringing on the neighboring wilderness areas, which provide important seasonal habitat for many of the park animals, including Jasper’s three species at risk - the woodland caribou, grizzly bear and wolverine. The foothills of Alberta, so important to park grizzlies in spring, early summer and fall, are becoming a vast network of seismic exploration lines, allowing access by hunters, trappers, poachers and ATVs.

This same area is also under threat from the huge Cheviot open pit coal mine. Less than three kilometres from the park’s eastern boundary it will finally destroy more than 28 sq km of wildlife habitat and will create a death trap for Jasper's grizzlies as they try to reach high-quality feeding areas outside the park in spring, summer and fall. The Cheviot mine was opposed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Even the proponent’s carnivore expert concluded that the cumulative effects of the mine, added to other industrial activity in the region, would finally result in the extirpation of grizzlies, wolverines, cougars, wolves and fishers from the region.

If Alberta and British Columbia want to continue to benefit from the tourism dollars that the national parks attract to Western Canada, they should establish buffer zones on either side of this World Heritage Site. The vast majority – 85% – of visitors come to the national parks to see wildlife. If it is no longer there, they will go elsewhere.