Elections and the Environment

I wonder to what extent ‘the environment’ is on the minds of voters in today’s U.S. election. 

Link: Vote the Environment 
Source: Moldy Chum

Looking back along the Bow River - 2012 Season

Photo, Copyright Bow River Shuttles All rights reserved

Mallard duck feeding in the frozen slush.

March 2012. High 3 °C, Mostly cloudy, Wind Avg 9 km/h, Wind Max 35 km/h on this day.

Today along the Bow River - November 2012

Photo, Copyright Bow River Shuttles All rights reserved 2012

It ain't over 'till it's over!

Milder temps on Sunday Nov 04 (6 °C) and Monday Nov 05 (9 °C) resulted in a number of drift boat fishers and walk & wade fishers getting one more Bow River trip under their belt before more snow flies.

That gave us the opportunity to get a few more pics.  We'll be posting them in the days ahead.

Tensions linger over Castle wilderness logging

Retired fisheries biologist Lorne Fitch stands near the entrance to a logging area in the Castle wilderness area of southern Alberta. Fitch says the sediment from erosion caused by logging and logging roads is damaging the sensitive water drainage of the Castle wilderness area.

Photograph by: Gavin Young , Calgary Herald

Tensions linger over Castle wilderness logging
 
Part 1 of 3

By Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald, October 22, 2012

BEAVER MINES, Alta. — Walking up to a logging road built to clearcut a stand of Lodgepole pine, retired fisheries biologist Lorne Fitch and other members of the Castle-Crown Wilderness Coalition receive an unusual welcome.

“Are you guys tree huggers?” yells a nearby rancher.

“No, we’re with Castle-Crown,” comes the response from the group.

The brief exchange shows the animosity over industrial development — in this case, forestry — in the Castle wilderness area, a watershed for dozens of downstream communities and a critical wildlife habitat that has been the subject of controversy for decades.

Earlier this month, the province halted logging in the area west of Beaver Mines after the current plan expires.

“We wouldn’t have any additional harvesting,” Diana McQueen, minister of Alberta’s Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, said in an interview last week.

Read more here

Hurricane Sandy on Bikes in NYC

facebook.com/cneistat



The Salvation Army
American Red Cross

Thanks to Le Mouching for the link.

Looking back along the Bow River - 2012 Season

Photo, Copyright Bow River Shuttles All rights reserved 2012

Can you spot the red strike indicator? If you can, share this photo with your friends. 

March 2012, high14 °C & overcast, Wind Speed: Avg 14 km/h, Max 39 km/h, on this day.

OMG: I Hooked Up with a Girl Who Works for Greenpeace

With the deep divide currently dominating US politics, you had to know it was just a matter of time...






LINK (via: EcoWatch )

Looking back along the Bow River - 2012 Season

Photo, Copyright  Bow River Shuttles All rights reserved 2012

 Spin fisher meets fly fisher. March 2012, this day partly cloudy, high 10.0 °C.

Going fishing on Sunday?

Watch SkyWatch Weather – Nov 03, 2012

Several Bow River drift boat fly fishers have booked their shuttles for tomorrow (Sunday). 

Have you? 

403-278-9165 :-) 

Looking back along the Bow River - 2012 Season

March 2012, Mostly cloudy & 12.0 °C on this day.  
Photo, Copyright Bow River Shuttles All rights reserved 2012

'Red Hands' from Walk off the Earth

The 'Red Hands' video from Canadian indie band Walk Off The Earth is now live.  

WOTE will be in Alberta in a few weeks - Nov 21 Calgary and Nov 22 Edmonton.

NEW! Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2012

Photo, Copyright Bow River Shuttles All rights reserved 2012

Beginning today, and continuing daily, we will post previously unpublished photos from the 2012 fly fishing season. 

This new album begins in March 2012.  The photos will be in chronological order and will follow the season through to the end of October 2012 (which was 2 days ago!).

This first photo was from March 09 2012.  Although there is still snow in the background, the temp that day got up to 15.0 °C and it was mostly cloudy.

Thinking of our friends to the south ...

 

Kid Rock and Sean Penn get past their (political) differences 

By Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2012  

Read story here

Photo,

Bruno Schlumberger, Ottawa Citizen

Diving into Navigable Waters

Ottawa Citizen  
Editorial
October 31, 2012

Does the federal government have a role to play in construction of the cottage docks and waterslides of the nation?

Canada’s Navigable Waterways Protection Act — which dates back to 1882 and was brought in under Sir John A. Macdonald — says the federal government has a role in anything that could interfere with the navigation of Canada’s lakes, river and ocean shores. Common law supports that. The federal government, which is attempting to streamline the act as part of its latest omnibus budget bill, says its current role is far too broad.

Read more here

Rick's Rant - Experimental Lakes Area Cuts

"Rick Mercer's rant on shutting down Canada's Experimental Lakes Area. Does your Canada include "weird scientists who are devoted to keeping our water clean?" Ours sure does!!" - Canada Water Week

Bow River - Runoff 2012

Click directly on graph for larger image

On Friday Nov 01, the flow rate of the Bow River at Calgary is fluctuating in the range of 60 cms.

It's always interesting to look back on the river conditions over a fishing season.

For 2012, we began with the highest Canadian Rockies snow pack in history.  On March 23, John Scurfield of Sunshine Village reported  “This is an all-time record snowfall, more than I’ve seen in my entire life and I began skiing at Sunshine in 1970.”  Over 909cm (30ft) had fallen since opening day.

Fortunately, the spring run off was somewhat orderly, and we did not experience any severe flooding. On June 28, flood watches were lifted.

However, very high water continued for much of the early summer. The flow rate spent weeks in the 300 cms range, approaching the 500 cms level a couple of times.

It took until August 03 for flow rates to decrease below 200 cms.

On August 15, it finally got down to below 150 cms.

Overall, we had wonderful weather over the summer and early fall.  June, July and August  were the the hottest summer in three decades.  Average daily temps at the YYC airport were the highest since 1970.

Taking out the cool and rainy June, and looking just at July, August and September, Calgary experienced the warmest summer and early fall since record keeping began in 1881!!

And finally, October was rolling along fairly good, until we ran into snowfall beginning on Saturday October 20. That brought drifting on the Bow River to a screeching halt. 

Since then, except for two days when we reached highs of 2°C and 4°C , the temps have been below 0 °C.

So, that's a wrap on 2012.  Already looking forward to 2013!