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Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

In Jasper National Park, old spruce and Douglas fir forests, hot springs, glacial lakes and rugged mountain slopes are home to thousands of plant and animal species. Most large animals - elk, bear and deer - can be observed from the roadways and show far too little fear of people. Backcountry trails offer glimpses of glacier-draped summits and green alpine meadows. Heritage rivers, waterfalls and sand dunes along the Athabasca River Valley are home to moose, bighorn sheep and rare wildflowers. The park covers 10878 square kilometres, a larger area than the combined territory of Kootenay, Banff, Yoko and Waterton Lakes national parks, which lie just to the south. It embraces two of the three mountain ranges - Front and Main, as well as the Maligne Canyon and the Athabasca Glacier, located in the Columbia Icefields on the park's southern border, one of the largest and most accessible glaciers in the Rockies and the largest glacier area anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere below the Arctic Circle.

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Flora

Jaspers three ecological zones are home to 1300 species of plants: the dry forested montane in the river valleys that makes up 10% of the park, the sub-alpine forests and the rocky alpine tundra. The grassy open slopes and mixed wood forests of the montane zone make ideal grazing. Trembling aspen and Douglas fir grow primarily in the river bottoms where climate is less severe. Lodgepole pine benefit from the park's burning program that increases productivity by releasing seeds for germination and produces new growth for grazing animals. The montane is also home to Brown-eyed Susans and arnica, paintbrush, crocus, yellow lady's slipper, wild rose and wild strawberry. About half of Jasper is sub-alpine forest characterized by larch, sharp-pointed Engelmann spruce and alpine fir, which can spread down valleys like a black tide. Multi-coloured columbine and the orange western wood lily cling to the mountain slopes. Above the treeline, the back-country alpine tundra display moss campion with small pink flowers growing in clusters, wolf lichen, old man's beard and dog-ear lichens that may have been growing there for a hundred years.

Fauna

Open slopes are the terrain of grizzly bears, elk and bighorn sheep; most animals that live in the park inhabit the grasslands and open forest of the montane zone. Marsh areas in the low-lying parts provide excellent habitat for moose, which can weigh up to 500 kilograms, beaver and waterfowl. Conservationists, such as the controversial naturalist, Grey Owl, in the 1930's saved the beaver, trapped to near extinction for its pelt. Today they can be seen around Pyramid Beach or the Valley of the Five Lakes building lodges and dams and eating the bark of the trembling aspen. Cougars and the smaller lynx have been sighted in the park but both are very rare. Porcupine, wood rat, marmot, squirrel and deer mouse are also montane residents. Canada's grizzly (or brown) bear, the biggest and most easily recognized for the pronounced hump on its back, is neither slow nor limited in its range. Strong enough to kill an elk and drag it uphill or swim in rapids to catch salmon, it is never tame or harmless. People and wolves are their only predators. Sadly the grizzly has been extirpated in many of its original habitats and parks such as Jasper may offer its only chance for survival. Black bears are smaller, darker, less endangered, but no less dangerous. Both eat plants, fruit and fish, but will chase down and kill live animals in their Rocky Mountain habitat. In the upper alpine region lives the hairy marmot whose piercing whistle provided the name for the Whistlers just east of the town of Jasper. About 2000 bighorn sheep and considerably fewer mountain goats live in the park and can often be sighted from the roadways. Wolves hunt the elk, deer, caribou and moose. The coyote, smaller than the wolf, has a bushier tail and a yappy bark; foxes are very rare. Mule deer and elk commonly appear on the open slopes, while the dwindling population of mountain caribou is being carefully monitored and protected by the park. The populations of rodents, golden mantled ground squirrel and rock rabbit attract a number of birds of prey: bald eagle, golden eagle, great horned owl, osprey, falcon and several types of hawk. The ptarmigan, grouse, jays and hummingbirds all live here. Rainbow trout, northern pike and stickleback are common in the park’s lakes and watersheds.

Geology

Maligne Canyon, formed 160 million years ago, is bounded on the northeast by Colin and Queen Elizabeth ranges; to the southwest are the more rounded slopes of the Maligne range. The Maligne River, named by Father de Smet, who attempted to cross the ‘wicked’ river in 1846, cut easily into limestone beds, carving its way down into layers of rock, making a V-shaped valley between the ranges. Waterfalls plunge 120 metres to join the Athabasca River on its way to the Arctic. Glacial ice up to 300 metres thick flowed down to the Athabasca carrying rocks scraped off the sides of the mountains, widening the valley into a U-shape and leaving behind the Maligne Lake. Mary Schaffer discovered Maligne Lake in 1908, by following the directions of Stoney Indians, and rafted down its length (22 kilometres) naming the mountain peaks. At an altitude of 1800 metres and ringed by snow-capped mountains, it is both the largest lake in the Rockies and the largest glacially formed lake in North America. The canyon is one of the three places in Alberta where black swifts are known to nest, and the Harlequin duck, endangered in eastern Canada, migrates inland to nest and feed here. Mosses and ferns live in potholes in the rock and fossils of snails, sea lilies and lampshells are found where ripple marks of ancient waves are imprinted on the rocks.