The case for—and against—poisoning prairie ground squirrels On March 30, 2026, the federal government reversed a ban on strychnine and allowed Alberta and Saskatchewan to resume poisoning Richardson's ground squirrels under an emergency exemption until 2027. Richardson's ground squirrels are a famil...

Protecting Harlequin Ducks means protecting the ecosystems we depend on, too. Back in the spring of 2005, I made my first visit to the Maligne Outflow bridge as a newly minted Jasper biologist. It was a beautiful sunny day. After taking in the sweeping panorama of mountains and lake water, I noticed...

GoA's South-Athabasca sub-regional plan represents another nail in the caribou coffin Alberta’s caribou are once again taking a back seat to industry. On December 17, the Government of Alberta released a draft of a caribou management plan for the South Athabasca sub-region , a 38,000 km-sq area of l...

The recent opinion piece published in The Jasper Local raises concerns about the ethics, effectiveness, and motivations behind Alberta’s decision to permit hound-assisted black bear hunting in Caribou Conservation Areas (CCAs).  While the author’s passion for wildlife is commendable, the article unf...

Part 2: Home is where the hearth is In Part 1 of our Walking Through Fire series , we discussed how post-fire vegetation bounces back. But what about animals' attraction to fire? There is a small stampede of wild things drawn to fire’s heat and the blackened forests it leaves behind. Some pyro-lovin...

Amphibian enthusiasts, take note: it’s toad time in Jasper. Area lakes are swimming with toads right now, and if you’re relaxing on a Rocky Mountain lake, for example, you might just encounter a toad takeover. “Right now Western (Boreal) toads are transforming and leaving their breeding ponds as toa...

Look who’s up. Bears are being spotted in Jasper a bit earlier than usual this year. Prints have been spotted on the Pyramid Bench. But how do bears know when it’s time to wake up from their long winter’s nap? Unlike teenage humans, it’s not the smell of bacon and eggs that gets those big boys and g...

Advancements in monitoring technology have improved markedly since caribou were first monitored by VHF (very high frequency) radio in Jasper National Park in the 1970s. Back then, large, clunky radio collars were attached to a handful of animals in a herd. Using VHF receivers, researchers would hike...