Habitat

The mountain on the way into Canmore and Banff used to be large when I was a child . You could not see the range behind it. Today it is gone - a whole mountain - eaten up by the manufacturing of cement. I remember watching the top of it flatten out as the mining removed it bit by bit. By the time I was 18 it had layers that could be seen from the #1 highway as machinery removed the limestone and they blasted away. Now you can see the range behind and this is the gateway to some of the most important habitat for bear, wolves ungulets and many more species. The lake below the plant is congested with dust and the number of birds that use it as a resting place during migration has diminished. Arctic and Trumpeter swans are seen here seasonally as they stop on they long voyage north. They announce the changing seasons and I wait for them each spring and fall. The numbers that stop are also diminshing as the water levels drop and the lake fights the silt from the cement plant.