Down the River
Winging my way over the deep green forest of northern Alberta toward Fort Chipewyan, I’m crammed into a twin- engine Piper PA 31-350 Navajo Chieftain with two pilots and five other passengers. We [...]
The Ponds
EVERY ALBERTAN NOW KNOWS that the tar sands, the world’s largest energy project, drinks an enormous amount of water. Separating tar from sand is a messy, water intensive business: producing just [...]
Western Taxidermy
Deirdre’s mother opened the door when I arrived at the baby celebration. She reminded me of a monkey: short with stringy limbs, close-set eyes, a wide, smiling mouth. Although, unlike a [...]
The Hidden Face of Prosperity
Six years ago, when RCMP constable Scott Hagarty moved to grande Prairie, prostitution was almost invisible in the city of 31,000. Today, grande Prairie’s population is pushing 50,000, plus a [...]
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The Redwater Decision
All across this province, from the banks of the Peace River to the barley fields of Lethbridge County, 155,000 holes have been drilled in the ground that share four characteristics: They were made to release oil and gas from the Earth’s crust; they’ve produced as much hydrocarbon as they’re going ...
Don’t Fence Me In
Try and picture them all. On his first visit to the Waterton area in 1865, John (“Kootenai”) Brown wrote: “The prairie as far as we could see east, north and west was one living mass of buffalo. Thousands of head there were, far thicker than ever range cattle grazed the ...
Fred Wrona, Chief Scientist
Fred Wrona was appointed Chief Scientist and Assistant Deputy Minister at Alberta Environment and Parks in April 2016. His role is to provide scientific oversight of the province’s environmental monitoring and reporting systems, and to communicate scientific information to Albertans and the minister. Monitoring was previously carried out by an arms-length ...