Castle Wilderness

Threats to the Castle

Without legal protection the Castle has suffered degradation from industrial and other activities. It is not too late for the Castle, but it will continue to face further threats without legislated protection. Several of these threats are listed below briefly below. For further and extensive information, please see Selected Ecological Resources of Alberta's Castle Carbondale: A Synopsis of Current Knowledge Ecological Resource Report, published jointly by Shell and CPAWS in 2005.

On this page: Unmitigated Petroleum Exploration Logging Off Road Vehicles Commercial and Residential Development Current Management

Unmitigated Petroleum Exploration

In 1957 the first successful natural gas well in the Waterton gas field was drilled just outside the boundary of the Castle Wilderness. Since then, more than 50 wells have been drilled within the Castle, and more are planned.

Although the wells appear as small dots on a map and industry practices have improved substantially over the years, the cumulative surface disturbances caused by the well pads, the associated pipeline infrastructure and new access roads are significant. Also, new roads open up the land to motorized access that brings people and their machines deep into the wilderness, fragments habitat and displaces wildlife from their natural habitat.

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Logging

Logging has resulted in the greatest surface disturbances in the Castle Wilderness. Currently, an estimated 15 percent of the Castle's forested area has been clear-cut.

Ecological effects of clear-cut logging include habitat fragmentation, increased road-related disturbance, soil degradation, weed invasion and spread, erosion, stream siltation and loss of fish habitat. Since the 1930s, an estimated 50 percent of old growth forest has been lost due to logging in the Castle. Today less than 10 percent of the forest cover in the Castle area is composed of old growth. Old growth forest is important to many species of animals, such as marten, lynx, and red-tailed chipmunks which live only or principally in such habitats.

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Off Road Vehicles

The majority of the current environmental problems which plague the Castle Wilderness such as wildlife harassment, soil erosion, hunting and fishing in excess of sustainable levels, and vehicle damage stem from an extensive network of industrial roads and its associated uncontrolled off-road vehicle (ORV) access. An estimated 700 kilometers of new roads have been pushed into the Castle Wilderness since 1950.

Although the Castle Access Management Plan, approved by the Alberta government in 1996, is an attempt to regulate off-road vehicle use, regulation enforcement is poor to non-existent. Areas that are supposed to be off-limits to ORVs often show evidence of illegal off-road use. Under this plan, 24 out of 26 valleys receive some form of motorized use. In one study 16 of the 22 sites visited showed ORV damage and 9 were found to be heavily damaged.

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Commercial and Residential Development

Surface disturbances such as roadways caused by industrial activities may be rehabilitated. Once residential and commercial housing developments are in place its presence will always be felt. In 1993, a major expansion of an existing commercial downhill ski operation in the West Castle valley was proposed. While the Alberta government rejected this proposal, piecemeal development of resort homes is being allowed in the core of the Castle Wilderness.

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Current Management

The Castle is part of the Rocky Mountain Forest Reserve which is administered by the Alberta Forest Service. The Alberta Forest Service is part of the Department of Sustainable Resource Development. In 1998, the Castle was zoned as a Forest Land Use Zone (FLUZ) and named the Castle Special Management Area FLUZ. FLUZs are a regulation under the Forest Act which allows the designation of defined areas and trails as either open or closed to public off-road vehicle use, snowmobile use or random camping (but only if enforcement is adequate, which it is not). It has no effect on industrial activities or other forms of development; the Castle Special Management Area FLUZ does not protect the Castle.

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