Adventures for Wilderness – Cacti and Coulees

July 11, 2025

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• Adventures for Wilderness
• Events
• Milk River - Sage Creek
• Public Lands
• Species at Risk
• Wildlands

On the weekend of July 4 and 5, AWA was joined by a handful of interested folks for a trip down to the Milk River Natural Area and Hargraves Coulee Natural Area. These areas are crucial to protect grassland habitat in Alberta, which are one of the least protected ecosystems in Alberta and worldwide. The Milk River watershed is recognized internationally as an Ecologically Significant Area.

AWA has been involved in the management of the Milk River Natural Area since it’s designation in the late 1980s and participants had the opportunity to walk the coulees with Cliff Wallis, who has spent decades doing ecological surveys in the area and sits on the management board.

A highlight of the trip was the four rattlesnakes and a bull snake the group saw, as well as a great plains toad, which is designated nationally as a “species of special concern” due to its limited range. The greatest threats to this toad are loss of habitat through cultivation and development of the limited grasslands ecosystems remaining. The last time this species was assessed was 2002, so its current situation may be even more dire. Just one of the reasons these protected areas are so critical.

There were also numerous plants in flower, and with some detective work we were also rewarded with a few specimens of a rare rockscab lichen. Prairie falcons, kestrels, lark sparrows, blue green swallows and other birds sang from their perches or in flight. The dramatic landscape of coulees made for a spectacular backdrop for the day and in the mudstone we found fragments of fossilized wood and shells.