The Tsuu T'ina Nation is held its annual Rodeo and Pow Wow on the weekend of July 23 -25
It is an extravagant expression of culture and sport. I'm not a rodeo guy, but their rodeo appears to be a full-on event. My favourite part is the kids playing and chasing each other around the teepees (or tipis - take your pick) erected on the grounds outside the huge wooden tipi where the dancing takes place. The purpose of the event is to bring together nations from across the province and even across the continent. This celebration provides an opportunity for the kids to find each other. The dancing, drumming and singing are really the main attractions.
One of the announcers dedicated a memory to his sister to whom he attributed the statement that "on Saturday night the magic happens, the magic of the singing and drumming". Hopefully I caught some of the magic in this video.
You may have heard about these impromptu dance events that pop up in train stations and public places all over the world. A group of Bragg Creek locals and some reinforcements from Calgary led off the 2010 Bragg creek Days parade with our own Flash Dance. Thanks to Maya Lewandowsky for showing us how it's done.
The hamlet of Bragg Creek mounts a parade each July in an annual celebration of summer. Locals and business people decorate floats, ride horses, cars, tractors and walk or dance their way around "downtown Bragg Creek". There are some crazy costumes and you have to wonder about some of the people inside those costumes. This video of the 2010 parade is about 6 minutes long. If you would like a high definition version of the video please contact me.
The Alberta government will conduct several prescribed fires in the Kananaskis area as conditions allow.
By imitating natural wildfire in a controlled manner, these projects will:
..help protect nearby communities from the threat of future large-scale wildfires;
..restore vegetation diversity, improve and expand wildlife habitat; and
..remove prime pockets of mountain pine beetle habitat.
The prescribed fires are planned in the Evan-Thomas valley and the Buller Creek and Mount Nestor area.
Every effort will be made to minimize the impact to backcountry users and nearby communities, however some areas will be temporarily closed to ensure public safety. For more information on these prescribed fires,
call 1-866-916-INFO (4636) or visit www.Kananaskis-Country.ca.
Weather webcam
The weather cam, visible in that small photo on the left of this page, is now updated more frequently. So, from now on the weather page, which shows a current photo of Moose Mountain, will be updated every 15-minutes from 6 AM to 11 PM Mountain Time.
Owls are nocturnal and timid. Seldom seen in the daytime, it is a rare occasion when they can be caught on video. But, this one was either very bold or very hungry - check this out:
Enrique Massot will be posting stories and commentaries on governance issues affecting Rocky View County on a new website. The purpose is to inform and also to provide a forum of discussion on the various alternatives available to the county in the future, especially in light of emerging provincial, regional and local land-use initiatives.
Five months after the launch of the OurRockyView.com web site a full-fledge online newspaper Rocky View County News has taken its place.
Residents of Springbank, that is our neighbours, are concerned about the pace and scope of development in the area between Bragg Creek and Calgary. They have a new web site designed to focus attention on urban sprawl west of Calgary. They have formed a community task force to investigate and address issues that impact Springbank. Their http://www.ourspringbank.ca web site "is a place to obtain information and coordinate a vigorous community response".
There is information and discussion about development in Bragg Creek on this web site. To read it, use the search tool on the right, enter ASP (for Area Structure Plan). My principal concern is the need to create a park in Kananaskis to ensure that we have a secure water supply and a natural area for recreation and tourism. I calculated that the current rate of development west of Calgary would see suburbs on the Kananaskis border by 2040. The Springbank web site seems to support that idea.
West Bragg Creek trails marked for clearcut
In 2003 I went to a workshop sponsored by Spray Lakes Sawmills of Cochrane. They announced their intention to conduct commercial logging in Kananaskis under the Forest Management Agreement they were awarded by the Alberta Government Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development in 2001. Since then I’ve tried to stop the logging, working with the Bragg Creek Environmental Coalition and many Bragg Creek and Calgary residents, in particular Alvise and Paola who helped run the Tag-A-Tree campaign. In that 2006 campaign we made 7,000 wooden “tags”, marked with our “Save Kananaskis – It’s worth it” message. People hung them on their property and around the area.
Over the years thousands of heartfelt appeals to Save Kananaskis have been delivered to the government through letters, brochures, posters, petitions, rallies, postcards, web sites, media campaigns, public meetings, exhibit booths at festivals and events. We tried everything we could think of, we had a lot of supporters and we were very successful getting the message out, building awareness and winning converts.
Right in the middle of that, Ted Morton, then Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, approved the Spray Lakes Sawmills, Detailed Forest Management Plan. The loggers moved into the Sibbald Area, near Barrier Lake and clearcut large tracts of forest claiming that they were practicing good forest management while controlling the pine beetle. Turns out the beetle had very limited impact. The scientists who were advising us said the bugs wouldn't kill more than 30% of the Kananaskis forest. It looks like it they won't kill more than three percent. SRD used unwarranted alarmist tactics and their power over the media to instill panic in people declaring a “State of Emergency” with respect to the bug. Under the onslaught of misinformation, even well-informed people accepted the supposed need to log Kananaskis. Shame on the government for using scare tactics to intimidate people. Shame on the government for not listening to its citizens.
Our Save Kananaskis campaign foundered when, in 2008, the provincial government won a very strong mandate to proceed with their assault on the environment.
Orange flagging tape on trees along the Crystal Line recreation trail in West Bragg Creek area of Kananaskis indicates they are about to fall to the loggers
Now, in 2010, the loggers have marked the forest along the Crystal Line trail in the West Bragg Creek Recreation Area and our highly valued natural area is about to be turned into a clearcut. Now that they can't use the pine beetle to justify their commercial logging operation, they claim the threat of forest fire makes logging in Kananaskis OK. It's not OK. It will have negative economic, social and environmental impacts on Bragg Creek and the thousands of people who recreate in the most popular recreation area in the province – the one located ½-an-hour from Calgary, a city of 1-million people. The worst of it is that those people depend on this watershed for their water supply. The scientists say logging has a negative impact on the quality and quantity of water. We should listen to them this time.
To protect this fragile watershed, Cathy Ryan is calling for the City of Calgary to buy up the available land immediately adjacent to the Elbow River, between the city and Bragg Creek.
"This is an opportunity," said Ryan, an associate professor of geology and geophysics who made her case in November 5-6, 2008, in Cochrane at a water conference called Our Place in the Headwaters: Managing the Commons.
Read the article:
Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
Published: Monday, November 10, 2008
It's late October. Most of the leaves have fallen and it's slim pickings for the moose and deer. I noticed some movement through the patio door and the dog started barking frantically. There, a few feet from my window was a moose - on my deck - happily munching on the leaves of the mountain ash tree that grows through the deck.
Moose on the deck
Bragg Creek
Your guide to a full-of-fun destination in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Calgary and Banff. Drive the Cowboy Trail to Kananaskis and outdoor adventure. Explore the horseback, biking, and hiking trails. Enjoy a day in the country, unique shopping, fine dining and accommodation.
Kananaskis
Information on facilities and attractions in this 4,000 square kilometre recreational playground. Explore the Elbow valley. You can access the trails, rivers, ponds and mountains along highway 66 and in West Bragg Creek. You'll find picnic areas interpretive trails and campsites.
Activities
Outdoor adventure awaits on the trails and recreation areas around us. Catch some culture in the Bragg Creek Centre. Share the fun at our annual events. Your guide to the trails, events and activities in Kananaskis.
See a map of the West Bragg Creek trails