a lt e r n a t i v e + l o c a l + i n d e p e n d e n t //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
thejasperlocal.com
saturday, august 15, 2015 // issue 55
CHAD DAY PROSPECTS FOR TROUT IN THE FEW PIECES OF POCKET WATER OFFERED BY THE TUMBLING MALIGNE RIVER. THE MALIGNE HOLDS RAINBOW AND BROOK TROUT, IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND THEM. // BOB COVEY
East gate through-lane being considered. Maybe. JASPER NATIONAL PARK IS CONSIDERING PUTTING IN A THROUGH-LANE AT THE EAST GATE FOR RESIDENTS AND PASS-HOLDERS.
“Parks Canada is considering its options,” an email from Gates Supervisor Joe Polisuk read. On Saturday, August 1, drivers reported waiting up to 90 minutes at the east entrance to Jasper National Park. The lineup stretched past the Overlander Lodge, three kilometres away. According to Polisuk, the line-up was primarily caused by an “exceptionally large volume of traffic all arriving at the same time.” “As well there were a large amount of park passes purchased (as opposed to through traffic), which takes more time,” Polisuk said in an email. Polisuk’s email went on to state that in 2011 Parks Canada installed a third gate at the east entrance, which allowed for an improved level of customer service.
“This gate is operated at peak times such as long weekends.” When this gate is open, according to Polisuk, a Parks Canada employee is present on the highway to direct traffic, allowing the secondary lane to operate similar to a through-lane. However, if it’s too busy, it’s not safe for that employee to be on the highway, he said. “Once the line-up reaches a certain length, it is no longer safe for employees to work on the highway directing vehicles to the appropriate lane.” The Jasper Local’s request for an interview with Polisuk to obtain more details was denied. On July 2, Conservative MP Jim Eglinski announced that Parks Canada would receive $212 million for infrastructure improvements in Jasper National Park, with the majority of that money going to road improvements. Polisuk said a through-lane at east gate of Jasper National Park has not been costed. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
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editorial //
page A2 // the jasper local // issue 55 // saturday, August 15, 2015
Local Vocal BRRRR! IS IT COLD IN HERE? The weather’s been balmy lately but I for one have noticed a distinct chill coming from our friends at Parks Canada. There’s normally a pretty good draft blowing my way at the best of times but recently it’s like I’m one of those dudes who tells his girlfriend he doesn’t need a coat to take the Jasper SkyTram and 30 minutes later has his arms tucked into his t-shirt. What’s with the sleet? The real nip at my nose came as we were trying to put together this issue. I simply couldn’t get anyone from Parks to take a phone call or meet for an interview. Were it regarding sassy bear activity on the south boundary, through-gates on the east highway or trail improvement strategies on the Whistlers’ Bench, other than through robotic-sounding emails forwarded to me by PR personnel, there was no spokesperson, specialist or supervisor that could speak. No matter how benign my questions, how innocent my inquiry, the agency was on lockdown. Humans unavailable. Dismayed, I protested to the communications officer, who, to my surprise, was refreshingly candid about the cool temps. Had the content of her message not been so depressing, I would have been thrilled to imagine the freedom she must have felt to tell it like it is: “In a federal election, departments and agencies must curtail their communications activities,” she wrote. “For example, in situations where interviews would normally be provided, written responses are often more appropriate to limit the profile of a department or agency in the media. Thank you for your understanding.” Umm…err…you’re welcome? The thing is, I don’t understand! Sure, I get where the order is coming from, but I don’t really comprehend the logic. Does a culture of secrecy not engender mistrust? Does closing off communication not fan the flames of paranoia? Does a top-down, hierarchical power structure not promote powerlessness? What happened to serving the public interest? There is a chill in the air, and it’s coming from the east. I’m not saying we have to hug to get warm, Parks Canada, but it would help if we could at least acknowledge that we’re in the same micro-climate. We can do a better job of regulating the local temperature. October 19 will be here soon enough, and it’ll be plenty bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com chilly then.
We regret the error //
In the August 1 edition we mistakenly cut our Letters section short. Our sincere apologies to letter writer Monika Schaefer for the blunder. We hope you’ll write back soon!
Barricade this!
I came to Jasper three years ago from the Czech Republic to mountain bike in Canada and found a great biking community. People here love their bikes and their national park and all of the trails in it, however, I believe Parks Canada presents bikers in a poor light. Parks Canada is spending money and manpower to cut down healthy trees in order to barricade the trails, instead of taking care of them. But there are only a few stunts and features on trails in the park and all of them are located on remote or hidden trails. Secondly, anybody saying that a couple of those wooden bridges, skinnies and jumps have an impact on nature must be really silly. And please don’t talk about the safety issues of man-made obstacles. On one hand you have local bikers with the JPCA and JTA who are willing to sacrifice their free time to come out and fix and maintain trails
and on the other hand you have Parks Canada who are actually paid to do this job yet you rarely see any of them working on trails, except closing and barricading them. The same Parks Canada which is open to building accommodations on the shore of Maligne Lake in the middle of wilderness, the same Parks Canada which helped build an ugly metal and glass monstrosity near the Athabasca glacier, where dozens of diesel buses are driving back and forth, are saying that a small number of local bikers are destroying nature and irritating wildlife? Seriously? In the end it seems it’s all about the money. There’s no money from bikers, so screw them. After three epic seasons, I have to leave this beautiful bikers’ haven. I’m afraid that oneday when I come back it will be a very different Jasper than the one I fell in love with. Dave Ciza, Jasper
The Jasper Local //
Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper 780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0
Published on the 1st and 15th of each month Editor / Publisher
Bob Covey..........................................................................................bob@thejasperlocal.com
Art Director
Nicole Gaboury.. .....................................................................nicole@thejasperlocal.com
Advertising + sales
rachel bailey.............................................................................rachel@thejasperlocal.com
cartoonist
deke......................................................................................................deke@thejasperlocal.com guest designer for this issue: LiN Oosterhoff
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@thejasperlocal
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Local events//
saturday, August 15, 2015 // issue 55 // the jasper local// page A3
LOCKED IN: CANADA’S BEST CYCLIST, 34-YEAR-OLD RYDER HESJEDAL, IS CONFIRMED FOR THE TOUR OF ALBERTA, WHICH TAKES PLACE SEPTEMBER 4 AND 5 IN JASPER. “I CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS YEAR’S EXCITING ROUTE WITH THE MOUNTAIN FINISHES IN JASPER, WHICH SUIT MY STRENGTHS,” HE SAID. VOLUNTEERS FOR THE TOUR OF ALBERTA ARE STILL BEING SOUGHT. VISIT TOUROFALBERTA.CA TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED.// PHOTO COURTESY TEAM CANNONDALE-GARMIN
Author implores Canadians to speak truth to power Kevin Barrett doesn’t care if you think he’s a conspiracy theorist. He doesn’t care if you think he’s a loonie, or a nut, or if you roll your eyes when you hear the word “truther.”
If he cared about all that, he wouldn’t have staked his career on exposing the official story about 9/11. He would have simply put his head down like a good academic and shut his mouth. Instead, he pursued his research, finding gaping holes in the U.S. government’s official version of the events on September 11, 2001. As such, rather than earning tenure, he earned a “Scarlett T.” Rather than accepting an offer for a cushy post-doc at the University of California, Barrett joined the Scholars For 9/11, making him the subject of a witch hunt. Rather than bow to pressure from 61 Wisconsin legislators who signed a petition to remove him from the university where he taught, he wrote a book called Truth Jihad. And so, no, Kevin Barrett doesn’t care much if you think he’s a tinfoil hat-wearing, inside job-professing wacko. What Barrett cares about is
swimming against the current of the mainstream media, it’s not always easy to communicate his ideas. He admits that even if “I think it’s the most important people aren’t totally comfortable issue of the 21st century,” with the official stories, it is still he said about the Truth difficult to convince them that Movement. “Anyone interested they are being lied to by their in participating responsibly in democratic governance needs to governments. But there are smoking guns investigate this issue.” in almost every false flag Barrett, along with Canadian operation, he said, be it the author and professor Anthony planned demolition of World Hall, spoke to a Jasper Trade Centre building number audience on August 14 about seven, or in the Charlie Hebdo his new anthology We Are Not case, a recently-released video Charlie Hebdo: Free Thinkers contradicting the mainstream Question the French 9/11. In it, media’s claim that a French Barrett and 20 other leading national guard was shot in public intellectuals argue that the head. the murderous shooting spree engaging with anyone who’s interested in questioning the powers that be.
at a French satirical newspaper office in January was not the work of Muslim extremists, as reported. He and Hall make the case that the Paris attacks— as well as the October 2014 Ottawa shooting—were “false flag” operations: set-up jobs to further the persecution of Islam and to justify enhanced national security legislation such as Canada’s recently passed Bill C-51.
“You show people two minutes worth of video…it makes it obvious, so that nobody except those with their head deeply in the sand could deny it.”
“The only way war mongers can convince ordinary people to participate in war is by creating mass deceptions with lies,” he said. “If you want people to go to war just tell them they’re being attacked.”
“It was inspiring to see that, to realize that there is this process with all these movements where the more resistance they get the more necessary they are,” he said.
Barrett admits that when
Having recently visited Atlanta, Georgia, where Dr. Martin Luther King’s memorial pays tribute to the civil rights work that helped changed the world in the 1960s, Barrett was inspired to continue moving the truth agenda forward.
bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
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Local science //
page B1 // the jasper local // issue 55 // saturday, August 15, 2015
Researchers are hoping that Caribou movements in the Tonquin Valley will help indicate where ancient hunters’ tools might be discovered. // supplied
Caribou offer clues to ancient artifacts Researchers are exploring ice patches in Jasper’s Tonquin Valley for signs of ancient caribou hunters’ tools. Todd Kristensen with Alberta’s Archaeology Survey is leading a team on a five-day exploration of alpine snow patches in the Tonquin Valley and adjacent Mount Robson Park. Using caribou movement data, and by relying on recent discoveries of ancient wooden shafts just over the Jasper National Park border, Kristensen hopes to uncover any significant artifacts which may give clues as to who was using the area and what they were doing there. “We’re trying to figure out where people were hunting caribou by going to the areas the caribou target,” Kristensen said. In the last two decades, significant archaeological discoveries have been made in the Yukon and Northwest Territories by examining the areas where caribou historically congregate. There, frozen in the ice, scientists found notched spears, dart shafts with
feathers still attached and other immaculate-
unique intersection between what research-
ly-preserved tools. The key to locating the
ers believe were western cultures from B.C.’s
rich repositories, scientists discovered, was
interior plateau and the Columbia River
looking in the places where caribou would
Basin, and the plains and foothills-based
seek refuge from predators and insects—the
groups in what’s now Alberta. More likely,
high alpine.
rather than shedding light on who used the
“The preservation was phenomenal. These
area, the discovery of tools would provide
discoveries spurred a big program,” Kris-
some insight on how the area was used.
tensen said.
“If people were coming up to the alpine
But Jasper was never on the archaeolo-
areas to hunt game they might not need to
gists’ radar—until 2009, when Parks Canada
hunt buffalo,” Kristensen said.
alerted Kristensen to the discovery of two
Now, Kristensen’s team is trying to trace
wooden shafts high above treeline at Barbi-
those ancient foodsteps. They’re basing their
can Pass, just beyond Jasper National Park’s
study area not only on the discovery of the
western border. At the time, the location of
ancient tools, but also on Parks Canada’s re-
the artifacts was simply noted, however, in
cent radio collar data for caribou. If the Ton-
2014 Jasper’s cultural resource specialist,
quin Valley herd is anything like the caribou
Mike Dillon, was able to get the samples car-
of the Northwest Territories, as Kristensen
bon dated. Results indicated the shafts were
hopes, they’ll travel to the same alpine snow
2,500 and 500-years-old, respectively.
patches as their ancestors—whether or not
“It was implying that people might have
those snow patches even exist anymore.
been using these areas for 2,000 years in
“Even with no snow the caribou would bed
between,” Kristensen said.
down near these ancestral resting spots, it’s
But who were these ancient people? Kris-
got to be something genetic,” Kristensen
tensen admits he is still learning about the
said. But if the lack of snow is bad for caribou staying cool, it’s horrible for preserving 2,000-year-old wooden spears. All over North America, Kristensen said, the race is on to make archaeological discoveries before climate change unlocks the glacial ice and exposes the delicate artifacts to the alpine air. “We’re facing the reality of maybe 10 years of ice patch work before some of these archives are gone forever,” Kristensen said. “Some have been cased in ice for thousands of years. We’ve got a pretty narrow window to record some pretty unique stuff.” The Archaeology Survey of Alberta asks that if climbers or hikers discover any unusual wood above treeline that they leave it in place and report their findings to Parks Canada. Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com
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Local trails//
saturday, August 15, 2015 // issue 55 //the jasper local// page B2
Trail re-route an opportunity for excellence One of Jasper’s most popular trails is undergoing a radical transformation. Water Tower, which starts high on the Pyramid Bench, descends a steep staircase of rocky ruts, twists and turns through an ancient forest before opening up into a grassy hummock above Cottonwood Slough, is undergoing a makeover. “It’s not your straight-down pinner anymore,” trails volunteer Cam Vos said in between raking rocks and mashing mosquitos on Wednesday, August 12. Up until two weeks previous, the bottom part of the multi-use trail was indeed a “straight-down pinner.” Riders plunged precariously into the intersection of trails 6 and 6a—an area frequented by horse riders for its close proximity to Jasper Park Riding Stables. Eventually, a July 8 accident involving a cyclist and four high school students on horseback
“Where else do you see a trail like this in Jasper?” - Keith Libech prompted the Jasper Trail Alliance to reconfigure the trail with the aim of reducing the chance of future conflicts. “We need to slow people down,” said JTA member Viet Tieu.
RAKING IT IN // WARREN VAN ASTEN, VIET TIEU AND DARREN LANGLEY WERE AMONG A DOZEN TRAIL VOLUNTEERS WHO PITCHED THEIR TIME AND ENERGY TO HELP RE-ROUTE A DANGEROUS SECTION OF WATER TOWER. // BOB COVEY
more fun,” Langley figured. Today, what used to be bush and brambles is a buffed track with rock rolls, whoop-de-doos and gaps—should a cyclist so choose to ride them. “Where else to you see a trail like this in Jasper?” said Keith Libech, who has been a volunteer group leader all summer. “Times are changing.”
But besides addressing safety concerns, the re-route is also an opportunity to create something new. Enter certified trail builder Darren Langley. In 2010, Langley learned how to create sustainable, multi-use trails at Capilano University in Sechelt, B.C. Now, with the blessing of Parks Canada, Langley’s been helping the JTA incorporate berms, banks and other modern trail features into the new section of trail.
The dozen or so recruits that the JTA has been attracting every Wednesday night seem to agree. From nine-year-old Seth Johannsson to recently-retired Lloyd Sommers, the consensus was that the raking, the digging, the scraping and the sculpting was already worth it.
“If you’re getting rid of one part of the trail the new part should be
Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com
“I want to make cycling in Jasper better,” said 15-year-old Sam Howe. “I might as well do something about it.”
Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com
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page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 55 // saturday, August 15, 2015
LOCAL FEATURE // MOCCASIN JOE
780.883.0773
swilson.jasper@gmail.com
Grizzly Nigh and
Grizzly Day AN UNSEEN PRESENCE, ALONE IN BEAR COUNTRY I was heading up the creek when I saw them. I was nearing the top of the valley, by a series of waterfalls, en route to climb a couple of peaks. It was the first day of a six-day trip. Five nights on my own, high in the alpine. I was just beginning to relish the solitude when suddenly a set of fresh tracks appeared in the mud.
Spirit of the grizzly was in the air, in valleys, alongside the gravel flats an before lightning strikes.
To feel the tug I didn’t have to see t wasn’t virtual reality. My chest mus sink right down to my boots. It was cold all at the same time.
Whoever they belonged to was going my way. Earlier in the day, I spotted the same tracks I had seen a couple of weeks ago on my scouting mission to the area. The prints were faded but still recognizable—their presence confirmed they weren’t just dancing reminders in my head. Now these fresh tracks were telling me their owner was still in the neighbourhood. Some of them contained a few silver-tipped hairs–as if I needed clues to whom they belonged to. Damn! You never get away from them. They wander the mountains like they own the place, which of course they do. This was their habitat, this was their terrain, this was grizzly country, the loneliness they roamed through—and I was right in it. I was in a place, the only one left on the continent where we are not top dog, where Homo sapiens bow like the sailor before the waves.
// Brian van tighem
Suddenly this place fe moments before: the the valley sides steep the creek swifter—
Laid out in my tent that night, like pr my ice ax, hiking stick, and a pathetic case. Not that they’d do much good if for defence against the king of the mo keep right on charging with half a he
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feature //
hts
ys
n the meadows, in the woods and nd streams, like static electricity
the owner of those prints. This scles tightened; I felt the wildness frightening yet thrilling. Hot and
elt different than just e mountains bigger, per, the forest darker, —and I was afraid.
riestly vestments before Mass, was c two-and-half inch pocket knife. In f Griz paid me a call. Not much good ountains that has been known to ead blown off, jugular spouting like a
BY DAVE HARRAP
wildcat, heart and lungs peppered with lead, and guts spilling out all over the show. A grizzly can run at 30 mph and for sixty seconds after a killing shot. So even supposing that I had a high-powered rifle and got off a lucky shot I could still get nailed by an eight-hundred pound cannonball. As the hunter knows, Griz is one tough hombre, and he’s shooting at an animal that can shoot back. Yet I felt better with my flimsy arsenal beside me, and the tent walls hiding me. There was a moon up, the Big Dipper over Titanic Peak—and somewhere out there a silver-tipped grizzly. I hardly slept. I lay listening to the silence, waiting to catch the soft pad of Moccasin Joe, as the mountain men called grizzlies. I wrestled with the dilemma: was it best to be inside a tent or outside? Inside, you can’t see the bear coming; outside, when you see a bear coming you might wish to be inside the tent. Thoughts and images galloping through my mind, in that hazy, frightening realm that lies between wakefulness and uneasy sleep. Sure, a craven wretch awake with his dreams, yet I can say with a certain swagger: “Yeah, I’ve camped in grizzly country. Actually there’s a magic with it, sleeping among the great bear—like we’re brothers.” // info@thejasperlocal.com
// Dave Harrap
// Brian van tighem
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local conservation //
page B5 // the jasper local // issue 55 // saturday, August 15, 2015
Quirk Creek, a tributary of the Elbow River in the Bow river Basin, has a special place in the Van Tighem family.// Brian Van Tighem
A river runs through them: Father-son duo launch book Two members of a well-known family in the Alberta Rockies are shedding new light on one of the most important—and threatened—watersheds in the country. This fall, author, naturalist and conservationist, Kevin Van Tighem, along with his son, landscape photographer and Jasper resident, Brian Van Tighem, will launch Heart Waters: Sources of the Bow River. The hardcover volume, published by Rocky Mountain Books, introduces readers to the glacier-capped highlands, remote canyons and meandering rivers of the continental divide, a narrow strip of land from which virtually all of the water which sustains the communities, economies and ecosystems downstream, is drawn. “We need to know the landscape better,” Kevin Van Tighem said. “We would treat the headwaters a lot better if we could incorporate them more into a sense of who we are.” The Van Tighems themselves have very much been shaped by the Bow River watershed. Kevin Van Tighem grew up in Calgary, helped get to know the Bow River’s diverse ecology as superintendent of Banff National Park and has long retreated to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where he owns a cabin, for RnR. As well as Jasper, Brian grew up in Waterton National Park and has spent much of his adult life in Canmore. Through the two-year process of creating the images for the book, the freelance photographer was inclined to view the sources of the Bow through a new lens: that which his dad looks through. “The way he sees it is different than how I would
see it,” Brian said. “A gravel bar to me was just a part of the creek. He would explain how a flood would hit the corner, or how the water was being soaked up by the forest and caught by the willows.” Likewise, the father got a new perspective from the son. “Here’s these places I’ve known for 30 or 40 years,” Kevin said. “And Brian was coming to them on his own, with his unique way of seeing the world, and as far as creating the images, just nailing it.” More than a new visual understanding, however, producing the book has been a reminder for both Van Tighems of the intrinsic relationship between water and land. “We think of water as something in streams or lakes and think of the rest as land. We don’t really connect them,” Kevin said. “[But] everything we do on the land ultimately affects what’s going on in streams and lakes.” That holds true for the Bow River watershed (and has particular resonance in the wake of the devastating 2013 floods there), but the same applies to other rivers, be it the North Saskatchewan, the Old Man, or the Athabasca, Van Tighem said. Wherever clear-cutting happens, for example, there is a decrease in the land’s ability to retain water, which leads to a higher risk of floods. Or take illegal off-roading: overlay 4x4ing with a history of logging roads, seismic lines and cattle trails and you end up with thousands of cuts in the ground which funnel the watershed away from the streams and rivers which would normally sustain ecosystems. “If you think of the headwaters as a living, green reservoir, we’ve filled it full of leaks,” he said.
Author Kevin van Tighem’s connection to the watershed began with a fishing rod. He still gets out when he can.// Brian Van Tighem
Exacerbating poor forestry management and wanton disrespect for the land is the fact that the Bow River’s natural flows have declined significantly while Alberta’s population has exploded. “The availability and demand are two diverging lands. We don’t need to wait for a future crisis, the crisis is now,” Kevin said. Rather than doom and gloom, however, Heart Waters is a book of discovery. During the research process, the Van Tighems revisited streams of Kevin’s childhood, including Quirk Creek, a place he had given up on after a gas company put a road nearby, exotic brook trout were out-competing the native west-slope cutthroats and the provincial government greenlighted off-roading. However, thanks to an innovative stream recovery program, when he and Brian returned to the area, they found Quirk Creek’s ecology was thriving. “We were catching 16-inch cutthroats. It was so neat that it was still this beautiful, green, peaceful meadow stream, in spite of the mistakes,” he said. “It was an example of what we can look forward to if we’re determined to solve our mistakes.” The Van Tighems, for certain, are determined. By building awareness of the sensitivity of Alberta’s watersheds and by motivating readers to start experiencing these places on their own, they believe there’s still an opportunity to capture Albertans’ hearts, and their heart waters. “I hope people will look at these places with conscious eyes and an open heart,” Kevin said. Heart Waters: Sources of the Bow River will be available through Rocky Mountain Books in September. Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com
Brian Van Tighem shot images for Heart Waters over the course of 2 years.// B Covey
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Local rodeo //
saturday, August 15, 2015 // issue 55 // the jasper local// page B6
The Jasper Heritage Rodeo got back in the saddle August 12-15 at its original rodeo grounds. // Valerie Domaine photos
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