AWA’s 2012 Priorities: Water, the Lifeblood of Alberta

Wildlands Advocate Article, October 2012, by Sean Nichols. Like a great circulatory system, an intricate network of rivers, streams, and creeks stretches across Alberta, distributing its precious lifeblood from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains’ eastern slopes down across the prairie to the east. It becomes selfevident, then, that AWA would consider sustaining a clean wild water system for Alberta and all Albertans – human and non-human alike – one of its very highest priorities.

“For most Alberta rivers, headwaters areas in the mountain and foothills contribute more than 80 percent of total flows; they accumulate, store, purify and gradually release surface   and groundwater flows. They are critical source water areas, best protected by intact functioning ecosystems. McClelland Lake and the wetland complex are an important way station and breeding area along one of North America’s major migratory bird routes.”