Citizen asks Premier to protect Livingstone Range

David McIntyre, Letter to the Editor

Editor's note: This letter was originally sent to Albert Premier Alison Redford and ESRD Minister McQueen

This March 24, 2013 view looks southwest into the eastern flanks of the Livingstone Range, where a thin ribbon of coniferous cover features an endangered forest of ancient limber and whitebark pines … and, at the base of this forest, and almost incongruously, remnant populations of pure-strain westslope cutthroat trout, another threatened species.

Dear Premier Redford and ESRD Minister McQueen:

The attached view of Alberta's iconic Livingstone Range showcases the stunning headwaters of the Crowsnest River, part of the Oldman Watershed …and it, a vital component of the South Saskatchewan.


This revered Crown of the Continent viewscape, home to grizzly bears and pure-strain westslope cutthroat trout, is also the flyway for the world's greatest concentration of golden eagles—thousands of these majestic raptors soar along the crest of the knife-edged range as spring unfolds in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Livingstone Range, protecting endangered fish and an endangered forest on an internationally lauded flyway, within a game-rich, Serengeti-like landscape, is as stunning as it is diverse. Incredibly, this land of treasured and tortured topography remains under threat from nickel-and-dime industrial interests that would degrade and denude it.

Please protect the Livingstone Range landscape today.

Sincerely,
David McIntyre