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WONDERS OF NATURE
Banff and Jasper. Nature miracle
In the southern half of the Canadian Rockies (the eastern part of the Cordillera system of North America), in the province of Alberta, there are large national parks - Jasper, Banff, as well as Kootenai Yoho, Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine, Humber. Jasper and Banff have a lot in common in nature, but Jasper is located further north, so the climate is more severe there.
Banff (664 thousand hectares) - the oldest national park in Canada; it has been in existence since 1885. Then it occupied only about 2,6 thousand hectares in the Bow River valley around the hot springs and was a mineral water resort. Jasper Park (1088 thousand hectares), located within the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, was created in 1907. Its southern border is also the northern border of Banff Park. These parks are characterized by mountain peaks, glaciers, hot springs, blue glacial lakes, waterfalls, canyons and limestone caves. In the upper part of the forest belt of mountains there are many placers of large stones. The Rocky Mountains are very strongly dissected. Quite often they end with pointed peaks and have sheer walls several hundred meters high. These mountains were once under a thick ice sheet, in memory of that time there were moraines from large stone blocks and bowls of glacial lakes. A. Bannikov and A. Kishchinsky compared the nature of North Asia and Canadian national parks and found much in common: "The chains of high mountains form an almost continuous belt along the Pacific coast of America and North Asia, with a narrow gap only near the Bering Strait. There is much in common in geological history and modern appearance of these mountain landscapes, and many of the mountain species of animals and plants inhabiting them in Asia and America are the same or closely related. Therefore, the comparison of the American highlands with the highlands of Eastern Siberia is especially interesting." In the upper part of the forest belt, mountain fir and whitebark pine are found, at the very border of the forest they acquire a dwarf form, and Engelman's spruce is dwarfed, with branches only near the ground and on the upper half of the trunk. In the mountain forests of the parks, gray spruce, Engelman's mountain spruce and seaside pine grow. A little lower grows another mountain pine with cones very similar to spruce, and Douglas fir, reaching a height of 40–45 m. There are patches of small-leaved trees with balsam poplar, paper birch, etc. There are many willows and alders. Of the berries, bearberry is found, but there is no lingonberry. Many mountain-tundra plants (saxifrage, astragalus, fescue, willows, etc.) grow in the Cascade Mountains. But differences in the flora of the two parks still exist. If in Jasper flowering alpine meadows and glaciers are most common, then in Banff - steppe areas. A. Bannikov and A. Kishchinsky note: “The subalpine belt in the Rocky Mountains is weakly expressed. There are neither specific species of animals and plants, nor characteristic communities. As a rule, alpine lawns and mountain tundra border at an altitude of 2000–2300 m with dense spruce forests, only clusters of fir trees, pines and firs of dwarf and wind forms and thickets of widespread shrubs - alder, dwarf birches, willows, Kuril tea, along the slopes - juniper slightly move into the mountain tundra. geological youth: about 10 thousand years ago, these places were under a continuous ice sheet - the Cordillera ice sheet. Here in Eastern Siberia, glaciers did not occupy particularly large areas, and subalpine landscapes had much more time for their formation. As a result, peculiar biocenoses have been formed there, for example, cedar and alder elfin forests with their own population of animals. On the contrary, the alpine belt of the Jasper and Banff National Parks is very characteristic, occupies large areas and is similar to the alpine belt of our East Siberian mountains." Jasper fauna is represented by caribou, wapiti, bears, elk, bighorn sheep, Canadian beaver, weasel, skunk, wolverine, lynx, wolf and coyote. Grizzlies, American black bear, cougar, black-tailed deer, wapiti, bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer and others live in Banff Park. Of the large animals, elk deer are found here. There is a small group of them constantly on the shore of the lake in the center of Jasper near the hotel. Black-tailed deer are common in spruce-deciduous forests. The mountain sheep - bighorn - is found in the Rocky Mountains not only in the alpine belt, it can often be seen along the edges of river valleys and even along highways. One of the most interesting animals is the bighorn goat with thick long white hair and small black horns. These animals settle in the most inaccessible mountainous places, keep singly or in small groups and rarely descend into the forest belt of the mountains. Goats can easily move along completely sheer cliffs with barely visible ledges, and sometimes jump down from a height of 6–7 m. The most noticeable animal in the parks is the red squirrel. She spends most of her time in a tree; feeds on the seeds of the seaside pine, and digs their reserves into the ground. On rocky areas, in the upper part of the mountain forests, live chipmunks, small, chipmunk-like, ground squirrel and pikas (unlike northern animals, they are rather silent and rarely appear on the surface). Small chipmunk and ground squirrel feed on juniper seeds and berries, pikas feed on greens, leaves and twigs. About 200 species of birds live in the park. The most common are: American nutcrackers, Canada jays (their color is dominated by bluish-ashy tones, and not red, like in Eurasian jays), Hudson chickadees, buntings, magpies. In the forests you can see brightly colored American thrushes, grouse birds. The American hawk and golden eagle live in the upper border of the forest. Mountain finches, horned lark, and white-tailed partridge live in the Cascades. In river valleys, on lakes there are mallards and gray-cheeked shelducks, kestrels resembling magpies. Stone ducks and dippers live on reservoirs with a rocky bottom and a fast current. Jasper Park is divided into 12 sections. The central section - Fiddle River (180 sq. km) - is of interest for its thermal springs. However, it is possible to inspect objects such as baths or old settlements only by moving along a special path (it is forbidden to leave it to the side). Other objects are not included in the number of demonstrated. In the so-called natural environment zone, you can walk, take pictures and observe nature. Attendance at national parks in Canada remains quite high (for example, from 1960 to 1966 the number of visitors increased 6 times). This creates certain problems in the conservation of natural landscapes. The Government of Canada is taking measures to limit road construction in parks, dividing parks into zones, highlighting areas of untouched nature, moving service centers outside the park, and reducing the number of employees permanently living in parks. In some provinces, parks have been divided according to their purpose into several categories (for the protection of natural resources, for recreation, etc.) with different protection regimes. Special recreation reserves also began to be created, for which land was used that was not very suitable for agricultural development. The system of national parks of the Rocky Mountains, in addition to its main purpose, also fulfills the task of protecting a vast area of the upper Saskatchewan River, which irrigates the steppe provinces of Canada. Once upon a time, before the creation of national parks here, in the valley of one of the largest tributaries of Saskatchewan - the Bow - forests were destroyed (this was done during the construction of the Pacific Railway). In this regard, the conditions of water flow changed, several large floods occurred, and the adjacent steppe plains experienced an acute shortage of water. With the introduction of a general environmental regime in the territories of national parks, the forest cover was gradually restored, and the water supply of the plains improved. Author: Yudina N.A.
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