Water experts call on Premier to protect the Castle

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) press release

Two internationally renowned water experts are calling on Alberta Premier Alison Redford to protect the Castle Special Place in order to protect Southern Alberta’s water supply.

Dr. David Schindler is a professor of Ecology and Killam Memorial Chair at the University of Alberta, and Robert Sandford is the EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of United Nations “Water for Life” Decade. Both distinguished Albertans are alarmed by the lack of regard for the health of the Oldman River watershed shown by the Government of Alberta in not only allowing logging to proceed in the headwaters of the Castle River, but also not increasing legislated protection of this Special Place.


“The Castle is the water tower for Southern Alberta,” said Dr. Schindler. “The forest there acts like a sponge, absorbing water in the winter and slowly releasing it over the summer months when it is needed the most. Clear cutting this forest will reduce the ability of the Castle to provide water to the dry prairie that it currently supplies and increase costs for filtering water in municipalities like Lethbridge.”

“Previous civilizations have learned at huge cost that deforestation of upland watersheds in arid or semi-arid regions can have a devastating impact downstream, creating deserts and destroying agriculture lands,” says Robert Sandford. “It is incomprehensible to me that our government would approve logging activities that will compound water security concerns in an already dangerously over-allocated basin merely for the sake of a few sticks of lumber and a few bags of landscaping mulch.”
In 2006, the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, an International body of water experts invited to assess Alberta Water for Life Strategy, recognized the Castle region as one of the most important areas for watershed protection and water conservation in western Canada. Closer to home, the government appointed Oldman Watershed Council is part of a multi-stakeholder working group that recommended the designation of the Castle as a Wildland Park. Such a designation would allow the local economy to prosper from recreational uses such as camping, skiing and OHV use on designated trails, while protecting watershed values for millions of users downstream across the prairie provinces.

“Protecting the Castle is essential to protecting Alberta’s water supply,” says David Schindler. “Since the 1970’s the government of Alberta has been playing lip service through reports, plans and priority setting to protecting its most valuable natural resource: water. With a new Premier, Alberta has an opportunity to actually do something to protect water, and that means protecting the Castle.”