The Little Things Count

Banff National Park, 5th July 2008

The first national park in Canada, the 3rd in the world (after Yellowstone, USA and Royal, Australia) spans 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 square miles) of valleys, mountains, glaciers, forests, meadows and rivers. On November 28th, 1885, the hot springs at Banff and the surrounding 26 square kilometres became a federal reserve. From then on it was expanded twice, in 1887 and 1902 when it became known as Rocky Mountains Park being officially named Banff National Park in 1930. The park is now 6,641 square kilometres (2,565 square miles) in size and is part of a block of 3 other parks, in totally spanning 20,160 square kilometres (7,784 square miles) which colletectively became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. Banff National Park lies 128 km (80 miles) west of Calgary, Alberta.



Columbia Lake, British Columbia - April 2008

The 2,044 km long Columbia River drains an area of 155,000 square kilometres (59,846 square miles) in B.C. and the northwestern U.S. The most southerly source for this mighty river is Columbia Lake (pictured - looking towards Fairmont) 45 km south of Radium Hot Springs. The Columbia River flows north for 250 km before making a hairpin south, flowing past Revelstoke and across the US border. The pacific estaury for the Columbia lies beyond Portland, Oregon.
Since 1961 14 dams were constructed on the river (3 in Canada and 11 in the U.S.) and 18 more on the primary tributaries of the Columbia River. The disadvantage of such developments? The killing of one of the world's greatest salmon runs.

On the east side of Columbia Lake there has been housing developments recently such as those of Spirits Reach. Part of the warm water Columbia Lake is a Provincial park, spanning 257 hectares (635 acres).
The new Fairmont Hot Springs resort owner is planning a $1-billion expansion, which will develop some of the area seen in the centre-left of the photograph above, at the northeast end of Columbia Lake.






Columbia Mountain Range - November 2007

The Columbia Mountain mountain located in British Columbia, and partially in Montana, Idaho Washington. The mountain range covers 135,95 sqaure kilometres (52,491 square miles) - the portion of the Columbia Mountain range here - is the Purcell range they are located on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Trench in the area of the Columbia Valley. The only large settlement in the mountains is the Panorama Ski Resort, although a large destination resort at Jumbo Mountain is currently in the proposal stage. A new local government minister has said he will make the development of Jumbo a priority, despite many locals opposing the large resort development, due its environmetal impacts. Wildsight have a campaign against the development of the Jumbo Glacier resort and hold a very valid environmental argument, which until now has slowed development and planning of the resort.