Cows and Fish: Is a voluntary, pro-active, non-profit mentorship organization.

Executive Director: Norine Ambrose  

Definition of Mentorship: A mentor – Is a relationship between two people where the individual with more experience, knowledge, and connections is able to pass along what they have learned to a more junior individual within a certain field. The senior individual is the mentor, and the more junior is the mentee.  

The Cows and Fish organization has done a wonderful job of mentoring and working with many other related symbiotic organizations, industry and Departments to share and encourage good stewardship of our natural areas. 

The east slopes in Alberta are the last (Bastian-see footnote) of relatively wild unscathed natural landscape left in the province especially in the southern region of the Alberta. To the west is the federally managed landscape of the Banff and Jasper National Parks that remains the most intact wondrous band of landscape left in the mid to lower landscape in North America. To the east Lies the privately owned grasslands and respites crown lands that have for the most part been developed or lie next to developed lands. Let’s not impetuously charge in and violate this last strip of wild precious natural area for its precious natural resources for a short-term extravagant uneconomical benefit.    

Water quality, water quantity, water stability – realized through healthy vibrant riparian zones.

Riparian zones – are the interface zone between land and water that produces that green zone.

The riparian zone is composed of the stream banks, flood plains and the shorelines of lakes & rivers.

Where land and water meet there is an oasis of abundance of moist, lush green vibrant growth.  

Healthy riparian areas assure an equilibrium and qualitative natural balance of water storage, water volume and unspoiled water quality. 

Beyond the riparian zone there is an area referred to as a buffer zone that encapsulates the land area, tributaries and the groundwater sources that feed the tributaries and the main watershed with purified, cold healthy sources of stable water supply.

These buffer zones need to be carefully considered, respectfully appreciated and thoroughly understood so that municipal and industrial development only take place safely outside both these (Riparian and buffer) areas.  

*Footnote: Bastian – Is something that keeps or defends a belief or a way of life that is disappearing or threatened.

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These are the only ways the actions of mans footprint and appetite for natural resources can be channelled and managed pristinely ensuring an enduring balance between development and natural places. This is what is defined as stewardship and only then can we be defined as good stewards of the land. 

The value of keeping natural riparian areas original and natural as an untouched ecosystem is natures gift to mankind and we should value this precious endowment and have the determination to acknowledge these places and not blemish them.

Buffer zones and riparian areas filter runoff as well as store runoff to later release it at a much more moderate stable constant resilient rate of fusion ensuring a balanced equilibrium. The buffer zones and the riparian areas act as a sponge which holds, stores and releases water at a stable undisruptive beneficial level that ensures riparian zones remain healthy and intact.

Land uses all have consequences and once a buffer zone or riparian area has been permanently changed no manner of mitigation will ever return it to its natural state.

Seismic cutlines, oil field activity, forestry, mines, gravel pits and recreational (ATV) activity all have an impact on habitat, wildlife, fish and the head water areas, lakes and mainstream watersheds. Any industrial or recreational activity that occurs in riparian areas that compacts surface soils, removes surface area, or penetrates and accesses ground water this leaves a linear (*See footnote) footprint.

Oil field, forestry, mining and gravel pit activity and the roads constructed to gain access all transport water over land in a silt laden unnatural scouring deteriorating flow rate. Any wetland naturally possesses the qualities of a sponge and is able to store, purify and release water gradually. A riparian area that is left in a natural state is a type of wetland that holds water in its flood plain and banks and releases this stored water gradually over a graduated period.

When industry or municipalities modify flood plains and riparian areas, they alter the land scape and when industry logs and clears out forested areas snow melt happens faster, runoff happens quicker and flood events are intensified. 

The most intact pristine areas in the east slopes are those areas with barriers like waterfalls, steep hillsides and canyons when they are located on or alongside our head water streams. The limited access and complexity of effort to harvest complicate development or extraction by industry and limit recreational all terrain vehicle use in these areas. 

The far better choice is to leave these natural riparian areas natural it is far more productive and beneficial than having to reclaim or repair these areas back to even close to a natural state. The recreational, economic and supernatural remedial refreshing significance and freedom these areas offer a frazzled, skittish and troubled modern-day citizen is invaluable. These wondrous products and services are offered up freely in a most naturally pure and pristine form by mother nature herself and should be preserved and protected in format that resembles our national and provincial parks.

*Footnote: A linear process or development is one in which something changes or progresses straight from one stage to another, and has a starting point and an ending point.

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The resourceful opportunity for clear clean fresh water downstream is maintained by preserving healthy riparian areas upstream in the head waters of the provinces major watersheds that originate up in the east slopes. Natural riparian areas naturally store water, filter water, trap sediment and later release cold clear pure water at a more even moderate stable rate downstream to the grasslands. These precious riparian areas in their pristine state provide communities, ranchers, farmers and industry water volume, water quality and quantity through the natural ecosystem. These ecological goods and services are provided to communities, industry, farmers ranchers, recreationalists for free with no strings attached. 

These headwaters and riparian areas as well as the adjacent buffer zones are fragile and must remain intact to function properly this is best achieved by mankind not interfering. It is in the nature of people who are stewards of the land to preserve these areas, perhaps we need to go one step further and protect these areas long term. Both the politicians and big industry seem to have this insatiable disposition to deconstruct and extract the forests, minerals and cold clean pure water that make these environments functional, pristine and prosperous. The short-term financial royalties they seek under the mantle of prosperity seems to override self control, common sense and consideration to the long term affects these money-making ventures have on the natural landscape. The east slopes is a very narrow band of very wondrous, beautiful and precious premier Lougheed seen the value in these areas and rightly so in 1976 protected them through a classed environmental protective policy. Over the years, the policy shaped the Alberta Land Stewardship Act and was transcribed into legally binding land-use plans.   

The eastern slopes are the source of the provinces three major river – the Red Deer, the Oldman and the Bow River which converge and merge downstream to form the South Saskatchewan river basin. Every community, rancher and farmer in southern Alberta and many in Saskatchewan as well as Manitoba depend on these rivers for drinking water, irrigation, power and industry. The water on these three rivers is already sadly severely overwhelmingly heavily tasked and over allocated especially at lower elevations down in the grasslands. If the last Bastian in the narrow band of foothills and mountainous region known as the eastern slopes is left to the appetite of any of the natural resource extraction industries the natural areas will suffer intolerably. 

Will we end up with our headwaters suffering the same fate as the lower sections of these three major watersheds which now suffer at the hands of mans intervention. Mother Nature has naturally provided Alberta with a rare and precious gift, the east slopes will never be duplicated ever again. The areas that provide, nourish and deliver these precious gifts of lush green forested areas, majestic mountains and pure cold, clean water are indefensible from mans desire to develop and extract. Albertans have overwhelmingly stated the eastern slopes are not for sale and should be dedicated to watershed and land use protection, recreation and tourism. 

The variety of wildlife, birds and native fish species some of which are already classified as species at risk live in these sacred areas. The whale back, porcupine hills, the forests, meadows and canyons the very Rocky Mountains that make up the face of the east slopes and its rare precious natural beauty has been recognized universally. That is the real true inherent natural value of the eastern slopes this is the long-term sustainable worth that will provide uninhibited long-term substantial monetary revenue for the province. A tourist visits this region for a brief period and breaths in its beauty and partakes in its splendour. They only extract a wonderment, revitalization and peace (inner feeling not matched anywhere else) later leaving the area as close to natural and intact as humanely possible as it was before their visit. This is the practice and approach Alberta should endeavour to strive for in the place of massive resource extraction that is relatively a short-lived benefit and later leaves a deconstructed much less functional natural area that most people are displeased with.