Castle Education Committee
Last Review/Updated: May 8, 2003
You do not need a formal invitation to experience the magic of the Castle. It is open to anyone with a respect for nature and a love of the great outdoors. Located between Waterton Lakes National Park and the Crowsnest Pass, the Castle Special Management Area Forest Land Use Zone is a world of foothills, forests, craggy peaks and sparkling lakes and streams. It is a place where grizzlies roam through alpine flowers and bighorn sheep graze on some of the best range in the Rockies.
Representing the Rocky Mountain Natural Region, the Castle is an enchanted world - attracting people from as far away as Germany and as close as Pincher Creek. Visitors can wander along its streams, hike up narrow canyons or feel the Chinook winds conjure up the spring in the middle of winter. If the limbs of the gnarled pine seem to gesture in a very human way, well, that's part of the enchantment (see accompanying maps).
As for the creatures that call the Castle home, many of them walk, crawl or swim far beyond the borders drawn on a map. Their continued existence depends on people providing secure habitat in and around the Castle. Although the boundaries of the Castle are invisible, the impacts of human use on the landscape are sometimes visible. The rich natural resources of the Castle support our local economies, and the challenge is to balance recreation and other economic uses of the area with the preservation of opportunities for human use while maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
"When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." - Aldo Leopold
Invertebrates
An invertebrate is a small animal with its skeleton on the outside. Humans are vertebrates as we have an internal skeleton.
It is often pointed out that the health of the Castle is reflected in the large mammals such as the bears, deer and cougar. These large predators in particular are good indicator species as to the health of the ecoregion. Spiders are one of the top predators of the invertebrate world and they are a very good indicator species for the health of each habitat as well. However, the Castle area contains many damaged and poor quality habitats.
Some of the most conspicuous of insects are the butterflies. The most striking one in the Castle area is the Canadian tiger swallowtail, Papilio canadensis, with its 100 millimetre wing span and striking yellow and black colors.
Look for it between May and July in the Castle area. To help locate the Canadian tiger swallowtail, make sure you are near poplar trees, particularly black poplar alongside river systems and aspen on the dryer ridges. Stand still and watch the swallowtails fluttering down among the leaves as they look for a place to lay their eggs. Another good observation site would be a stand of Compositae, flowers that are grouped together such as thistles and the members of the carrot family Apiaceae.
Spiders of the Castle
What spider to look for during spring
Wolf Spiders: Family Lycosidae.
These spiders are among the first you will see in spring. They are dark active spiders seen in the Castle by a lake or riverside. Quite often they will be seen sunbathing on a rock or large stone. You can find them along the stony shores of riverbanks.
Wolf spiders belong to the Lycosidae Family with the majority of them hunting their prey by day, first stalking then following with a lethal pounce, during which the fangs are embedded into the prey and venom is ejected. This poison subdues the prey and starts the digestion. Because spiders cannot take in solids, all food must be reduced to a liquid form outside the body before ingestion occurs. The male courts the female with a code of leg movements like semaphore, which she answers with a similar series of leg waving.
In late spring and throughout the summer, the female wolf spiders can be seen carrying an egg sac attached to their spinnerets at the rear of the abdomen. They carry the egg sac for many days, never letting go while hunting, sleeping and feeding. One may observe the mother warming the egg sac in the sun or dipping it into water to cool it down. She will even open it and introduce a drop of water if the eggs become too dry.
Once the spiderlings are ready to emerge (the young don't "hatch" from the egg but moult out of the egg membrane) the mother spider then opens the egg sac and the spiderlings crawl out and climb up onto her back. Her back is covered with spines and hairs, which aid the young to hang on. It is truly a wonderful sight to see the female wolf spider covered with a mass of legs and tiny bodies particularly when one considers that each youngster has eight legs, eight eyes, six spinnerets, two palps and two large fangs. After about two weeks the young spiderlings moult and drop off to start an independent existence. After much growth during the late summer and autumn, they overwinter as subadults.
The Northern Wolf Spider
Pardosa groenlandica
(Thorell 1872)
Drawing by John Hancock
Bird Watching
The Crowsnest Pass and its environment offers a stunning array of ecological diversity. If you are looking for the chance to discover an unusual variety of bird populations amid spectacular Rocky Mountain scenery, you have come to the right place. The area offers diversity spanning the wetlands and riparian environment of the valley floors to that found in alpine meadows and the highest peaks forming the Continental Divide.
Being strategically located on North America's largest eagle migration route, between 6000 and 8000 golden eagles and countless other raptors migrate north through the community each spring, and return south each autumn.
The Crowsnest Pass is also a "crossroads" for many other species. Here, prairie falcons, ferruginous hawks and white pelicans are extending their ranges from the eastern prairies into the mountains. From the scrub and forest to the east and northeast come opportunistic mockingbirds, barred owls and blue jays. From the southwest come the black-chinned hummingbirds, white-headed woodpecker, the Cassin's finch and the violet-green swallow. The Crowsnest Pass is also the eastern limit of the Lewis's woodpecker, and home to chestnut-backed chickadees, breeding common loons, and a host of other bird species.
As the fastest growing outdoor activity in North America, birding offers the opportunity to view, identify, or photograph some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet. If birding is your passion, our region's avian diversity will delight you!
To get a birding check list, contact the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre or Beauvais Lake Provincial Park.
Crowsnest Forest Stewardship Society
The Crowsnest Forest Stewardship Society is a nonprofit charitable society formed in 1995 to provide:
- Stewardship of public lands within the Crowsnest Forest,
- Participate with land management agencies on enhancement, maintenance and reclamation projects within the Crowsnest Forest, and
- Promote the continuation and sustainability of multiple-use opportunities while maintaining environmental protection objectives within the Crowsnest Forest (now called the Southern Rockies).
The society has a diverse membership of over 600 citizens including off-highway vehicle (OHV) owners, hunters, hikers, snowmobilers, horseback riders, bikers and berry pickers. Some of the Society's work over the past eight years includes:
- donating hundreds of volunteer hours by more than 1200 volunteers in trail maintenance and repair, trail reclamation and enhancement, bridge reconstruction, benches, sign kiosks,
- donating over $25 000 of materials, supplies and equipment time,
- cleaning up thousands of kilometres of roadside and random camping sites, including Allison Lake, Beaver Mines Lake, Syncline Cross-Country Trails, Table Mountain, Old Miner's Path, Star Creek and OHV trails in the Crowsnest Forest, and
- planting approximately 7000 tree seedlings.
Currently the society hosts one formal volunteer work day a year - the first Saturday in June - called the Ed Gregor Memorial Stewardship Day in honor of Ed's service in the Alberta Land and Forest Division for many years. We celebrate his great love of all forms of recreation and outdoor pursuits!
Over the years, the Crowsnest Forest Stewardship Society and the Crowsnest Pass Quad Squad has been very involved with maintaining sustainable multi-use on public lands within the Castle area. For more information on the type of activities taking place in the area, visit the CNP Quad Squad website.
Events
In June 1999, 25 members with machines and trailers did signage work and cleaned up garbage on 115 km of backcountry trails. They removed approximately 700 kg (1500 lbs) of garbage. In June of 2000 Quad Squad members do backcountry clean-up in the Lost Creek area of the Carbondale drainage.
Approximately 150 volunteer hours of labour went into cleaning trails and random camp sites.
Ed Gregor Day 2002
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Ed
Gregor DayResearch
Current Research:
- Audience Knowledge and Awareness Research, Adele Teserak - Support by the University of Lethbridge and Alberta Environment. Goal is to survey and analyze the attitudes and knowledge of visitors and users of the Castle Special Management Area.
- Carnivore Population Distribution and Connectivity Research, John Weaver, Paul Paquet and Bryce Bateman - Support by the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Nature Conservancy of Canada. Goal is to develop a database that can inform and direct conservation planning decisions for the entire southern Canadian Rocky Mountains including the Highway 3 transportation corridor.
- Arachnid Research - John and Kathlene Hancock
- Hummingbird and Bee Research, Dr. Andrew Hurly, - Support by the University of Lethbridge and
- Spider Research - John Hancock
Supporting Partners
This is a joint partnership between Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Alberta Environment and Alberta Community Development.
