For 50 years, Bow Valley Naturalists has been a strong and constant voice championing preservation of nature and wild places from Kananaskis River to Bow Lake.
Starting out as a traditional naturalist group on March 22, 1967, it wasn’t long before BVN also took on an environmental activist role as development pressures exploded throughout the Bow Valley.
The 1960s and ’70s were tumultuous times, with proposals for paved roads through Banff’s backcountry, a full-blown alpine village at Lake Louise ski hill, Sunshine ski hill expansion plan and protection of the ecologically important Yamnuska area.
But BVN, perhaps more so than any other naturalist group in Alberta, never stayed quiet on its call for protection and demands on governments to stick to their legislated conservation mandates.
“We’ve had a very strong voice and there were many, many issues. There wasn’t really another voice,” said Gerry Wilkie, a former president of BVN who joined the group the year after it formed.
“We had a strong sense of holding national parks to its mandate, which members of the naturalist club fervently believed in. Our commitment wasn’t just confined to Banff National Park, but we were involved in many issues in the province.”
In February 1967, approximately 20 people got together to see if there was any interest in forming a natural history organization. A month later, on March 22, BVN held its first regular meeting at the Banff fire hall.
The key founders were Aileen Harmon and Bruce Gordon, but there have been many others who played a critical role along the way, including Bob and Mary Smith, Gerry Wilkie, Jon Whyte and Mike and Diane McIvor.
“Mike and Diane were the heart and soul of the naturalist club for many, many years,” said Wilkie.
The first big issue came in the late ’60s, when federal managers of the four mountain national parks took their first shot at management planning, which called for paved roads throughout Banff’s wild backcountry.
Parks eventually backed away from that in the face of strong public outcry.
“They wanted to put roads up every valley – paved roads,” said former president Mike McIvor, at a celebration this spring of BVN’s 50 anniversary.
“The best one was to pave the Cascade fire road up to the Red Deer, go up the Red Deer, over to Skoki and down the Pipestone to Lake Louise.”
Development proposals continued to roll out from there, including the controversial Village Lake Louise proposal by Lake Louise Lifts Ltd., which was backed by Imperial Oil.
They wanted to build an alpine village at the existing ski hill on the slopes of Mount Whitehorn, complete with commercial accommodation.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who was the minister responsible for national parks at the time, turned down the Village Lake Louise proposal in the early ’70s.
“They wanted to essentially build another town there,” said Wilkie, also a former president who played a critical role in BVN. “Village Lake Louise was perhaps the most critical. It was good we won that one.”
Also in the ’70s, province-wide hearings were held on land use for the eastern slopes of the Rockies. BVN, backed by others, led the push for permanent protection of Yamnuska – special for its scenic beauty, interesting geology and diversity of habitats.
The board that held public hearings recommended the Mount Yamnuska area be protected. That was in 1973.
“Now, if we had recommended a golf course, I bet you in 24 days we would have had approval, but from the time of that recommendation from the board that held those hearings until we got the first protection of Mount Yamnuska was a mere 24 years,” said McIvor.
“Fortunately, since then, it’s also been upgraded further so it’s now part of Bow Valley Wildland Park.” A higher level of protection came out of the Special Places 2000 planning process.
For decades, BVN has pushed for Parks Canada to establish permanent limits at local ski hills – Sunshine, Lake Louise and Norquay – and move away from piecemeal development.
Wilkie said this is an issue that continues to this day, referring to major expansion plans for Lake Louise and Sunshine’s ongoing push for expanded parking opportunities.
“These battles will be ongoing,” said Wilkie. “It’s the nature of our species, we want more and more.”
Commercial development debates in and around the Banff townsite heated up in the 1990s, when the two-year $2 million Banff-Bow Valley Study found Banff was at a crossroads and ongoing development was hurting the environment.
A moratorium on commercial development was put in place in the Banff townsite as administration and council considered future development scenarios. In the end, the federal government put a cap on commercial growth. Banff is now very close to full build-out.
BVN managed to get intervener status for National Resources Conservation Board (NRCB) public hearings in the 1990s on Three Sisters lands.
“We were the only organization interveners who were not represented by a lawyer and the board didn’t really like that,” said McIvor.
“We just said ‘it’s a public hearing, we’re citizens, and why the hell should we have a lawyer to speak?’ So we didn’t hire a lawyer.”
BVN, however, was involved without other groups in lawsuits on two developments approvals where there was strong opposition on many fronts. One was the Limestone Valley Resort at Deadman’s Flats and the other was a six-storey convention centre at Chateau Lake Louise. Both were unsuccessful in stopping the developments.
Conflicts between environmental protection and tourism development continue to this day.
Peter Duck, BVN’s current president, said the organization has been a constant and articulate voice on behalf of natural ecosystems in the Bow Valley, consistent with the views of its founding members.
“That voice has been present in a way that respects the right of nature to exist for its own sake, on its own terms,” he said.
“This is an important but sometimes difficult role to play in a community that has so many human interests vying to use nature in many different ways for many different reasons.”
BVN has been fortunate to have many dedicated and very skilled people who have acted and spoken eloquently from their hearts throughout the group’s 50-year history, Duck noted.
He said their contributions are recorded in the group’s archives, now in the custody of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.
“As we move into the future we want to recognize that the ongoing protection of natural ecosystems requires many contributions,” he said. “BVN looks forward to continuing to help those voices be heard on behalf of nature for another 50 years and beyond.”
BVN has been active not only in advocating for ecosystem protection, but also sharing knowledge and becoming involved with many projects and programs.
BVN has assisted with the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program since 1999 and organizes a citizen science program referred to as HELS (High Elevation Localized Species).
The group has produced two publications – one on Yamnuska (1974) and the other for Vermilion Lakes (1978), holds regular monthly meetings with guest speakers from fall though spring and runs the annual Christmas Bird Count.
At the 50th celebration, McIvor had some parting words, encouraging people to get outside as often as possible, off their cell phones and get involved.
“The more people who are speaking up about issues the better,” he said. “It looks like an uphill climb, but then it always is. It’s worth doing.”
