More To Learn

I have touched on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to aquatic health in Waterton Lakes National Park, the Oldman River watershed and the Crown of the Continent ecosystem as a whole.

I gathered information speaking to resource conservation staff with Parks Canada, as well as reading reports online. There are links in some of my posts to these articles. If you have further questions or are looking for more details please comment.

An Ethical Dilemma

What will healthy mountain watersheds look like in the future?

What aquatic insects will survive? Will there be bull trout?

What should we do about the health of the watersheds?
Can we keep the glaciers from melting?
Should we reintroduce westslope cutthroat trout?







Should we kill all the non-native rainbow trout? 
Should we allow fish to live in the historically fishless lakes?

 

 

Will we have to change our recreational activities to maintain a healthy watershed?

Aquatic Health Indicators

Aquatic insects are an essential part of the watersheds in mountain lakes. They are habitat specific in their distribution and depend on specific water temperatures. Researchers use them as an indicator of climate warming.

Grinnell Glacier - Glacier National Park

In particular meltwater stoneflies and the glacier stoneflies are disappearing from the glaciers and snowpacks of Waterton Lakes and Glacier national parks. Research continues to discover what this means to aquatic health and what the populations of aquatic insects will look like in the future. We will discover which insects are most adaptable to the changing watersheds. 

Meltwater Stonefly

Climate Change

While the species distribution of aquatic life has changed in the past 100 years, there are bigger changes happening to the watershed. And this is climate change.

 

The Canadian Aquatic Bio-monitoring Network for the mountain parks is monitoring watersheds across the Rocky Mountains. Through monitoring like this we are getting a better picture of aquatic health for the Rocky Mountains as a whole and the health of specific streams and lakes.

Volunteers looking for aquatic invertebrates. Carthew Lakes - Waterton Lakes National Park

We are learning that climate changes is altering water temperatures and levels. This begins right at the start of the watershed with the disappearing glaciers and snow pack

Research is showing that brown trout and rainbow trout are the most adaptable to the changes in the water temperatures and water levels. In contrast there are very few streams and lakes suitable for the bull trout to live.

The Watershed Today

Today in our streams and lakes there are no westslope trout and bull trout live in only 2 streams.

Many Rainbow trout and book trout have hybridized, further reducing populations of bull trout. 

And in the high mountain lakes the mighty rainbow trout is now the top of the food chain, eating the once powerful invertebrates.

To encourage outdoor recreation in Waterton Lakes National Park, the lakes and streams were stocked with fish from the 1930's to the 1980's. 

The best fish for fishing were the rainbow trout and brook Trout. They are aggressive cold water fish who thrive in the mountain watersheds. 

The more aggressive rainbow and brook trout began to take over and push the bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout out of the waters. 

And so our waterways changed.

The People

Many people began to visit to the mountain oasis of Waterton Lakes, a cool escape from the heat of the prairies.

They liked to camp and fish or go to the restaurants, dance halls and swimming pools that were being built.

But else where oil was found along the edges of Cameron Creek. Others made money trapping for furs.

A Story of Change

Long, long ago…

In the cold waterts of the Rocky Mountains, many bull trout and cutthroat trout lived happily in the mountain streams.

And high up in the alpine stoneflies and caddisflies were the top of the food chain in the fishless lakes. 

Changing Waters

Grinnell Glacier, Montana

The story of water is a story of change. It’s solid ice, it’s flowing water, it’s an invisible gas. It trickles down the mountain slopes, flows down streams, rushes through rapids and eventually waves through the ocean. Water is constantly changing through time, through space, through place.

And yet in our lives water is a constant. It is the special lake we visit every summer. It helps create the identity of our home towns. Some even say the waters of Canada add to our national identity.

So how do we understand the changes in our watersheds? The waters are a constant in our lives but are continually changing. What do these changes mean?

The Bull Trout and His Friends

Linnet Lake in the Spring

The cold waters of mountain streams and lakes make it difficult for plants and many species of fish to survive.

But fish like the Bull trout thrive in these waters, along with their friends bacteria, fungi, planktons, insect larvae, snails, plants, amphibians and some fish.

To survive in the Rocky Mountains streams, species like Bull Trout and Westslope Cutthroat Trout are specially adapted for the COLD. If the waters warm up, they will not survive.

The Bull Trout and his friends are the canaries in the coal mine, for warming temperatures in the ecosystem. The native species of fish and aquatic invertebrates are also very sensitive to invasive species.

An important issue for all the watersheds in the Crown of the Continent is the aquatic health. Many people in the region are working to research the health of the aquatic ecosystems and learn how to keep them healthy.

My Watershed

Upper Waterton Lake in October

The Waterton Lakes watershed is part of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem. The Crown of the Continent contains headwaters that stream to Hudson's Bay, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Waterton Lakes run out the Waterton and Belly Rivers to Hudson's Bay. The waters here are in both Canada and the USA and are a prominent feature of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Waterlution Challenge

I work as an interpreter for Waterton Lakes National Park where I strive to connect park visitors with the landscape around them. Participating in this challenge is a way for me to try new methods of connecting people to Canada’s natural spaces.

I also wish to share my energy and enthusiasm about our Canadian ecosystems, waterways and natural areas with other young Canadians. The Great Water Challenge is a unique opportunity to network with other like-minded youth across Canada.

Water and Me

During my first open water swimming race in the Quarry in Canmore, I started the swim with a big group of swimmers. But with my head in the cold dark water I felt very alone. All I could see was the sun filtering down a few inches and then darkness. My mind was thinking of the girl who drowned in the Quarry a month before. With darkness all around, there was nothing I could focus on other than the looming panic in my mind. So I turned inward, counted my strokes and 'just kept swimming'. Within minutes I had reached the other side of the small lake. Here it was shallower, sunlight reached the bottom and stringy weeds were swaying upwards to the surface. The sight of those weeds immediately calmed my mind. Seeing the life growing in the water reminded me that this cold dark water was also life giving and life supporting.With this thought, I enjoyed the remaining 1200m of my swim.

This experience was unique because I felt how powerful water is and how it needs to be respected. Water is essential to our lives, it is something we live and die from.

Me receiving a medal for the open water swim.

                                              

Who am I?

I have spent 28 years exploring and living all over Canada. I am most at home at the cold mountain lakes of the rockies around the Bow Valley. Currently I call Waterton Lakes National Park my home.