(28:49) I guess another program that I really enjoyed seeing the benefit of, was the Therapeutic Horseback riding program that was run with volunteers in Jasper. As the manager, I was able to sign agreements with a certified instructor and facilitate the program. We were able to bring in younger children who had special needs, usually anxiety issues. That program was with the guidance of Jim Chesser, the barn boss up there. We quite often kept Park horses over the winter for either training purposes or if there was an issue with their hooves. Anyways, there were usually the quieter ones that we could use for the Therapeutic Horseback program and that was another good feeling type of experience. The bonus was having the Park indoor riding arena (Maligne Range), especially during inclement winter weather.
(29:49) As for other thoughts about the changes over the years, actually Christine, now that I’m thinking about it … That’s why at the end (of my write up) I comment on how lucky I was to have the years that I did with the Warden Service…Well, I’ve been gone 10 years now since retirement (2008), but when I see…other staff that are left in the outfit, and in my opinion, are pretty well three quarters of a way through their career, age and years of service wise, they had no choice but to adapt to the managerial changes as a result of that whole side arm issue. (In response to the comment, “So many people I’ve interviewed say that, that they feel they were there at the best of times.”) There are many magazine articles, in fact I was just going through some that I still have, written by a particular writer, Ed Struzik, who worked with the Edmonton Journal, Canadian Geographic and Equinox publications, as well as others. Ed’s quite renowned as a journalist and you will hear of him more recently, he’s written a book called Fire Storm. It’s concerned for instance about the mountain pine beetle (damaged) trees. Jasper is in trouble from a forest fire perspective. The hazard is way up there and he’s written a book on it. He was a naturalist up in Kluane, way back in the 1970s for a short time. But he lives in Edmonton and he took a liking to natural history and ecosystem management…Back in 1999 actually, my CPW (Brian Wallace) and my Superintendent (Ron Hooper) said, “Take this Edmonton Journal writer out on a backcountry trip in Jasper.” So away we went. I had no knowledge of what this was going to be. We went out for five days up to the Willow Creek & Little Heaven area, of the North Boundary. Ed took pictures and he was looking through the cabin warden diaries or logbooks each night and was making notes from the entries. Due to media industry changes, Ed’s story came out in 2001 under the Canadian Geographic (magazine)…That surprised me!. I was able to get a little mileage out of it whilst I was running my personal home accommodation business in my own house in Jasper.
Whenever I would get international visitors and other guests, we would talk a bit. “Oh, you’ve been a warden. What did you do?” I would always give them Ed’s Canadian Geographic magazine and article and say, “Well take this and read it and ask me questions later.” Because it gave a good summary of what I did as a warden…Then after that there were other magazine articles that I was somewhat involved with, mostly to do with horsemanship stuff, including Ed’ big one to do with the “Warden in Arms”. It is in Canadian Geographic, it was July/August of 2009, I have it in front of me. In which Ed Struzik was on a trip with us into the Upper Athabasca Pass region and it’s quite well done. He actually not just included pictures from that trip, but pictures of other wardens doing other things throughout the national park service and he got into the enforcement matter, you know the side arming issue. And he wrote a quite good article on it, so that is another one…there were many memorable events! It was just unbelievable to be honest. In so many ways whether it was recognition of different employees and the work they were given awards for, to I guess political things too…like the dedication of the Herschel Island Territorial Park, in the Beaufort Sea. Because you are way up in the Arctic North, you rub shoulders with the politicians and the bureaucrats. Members of Parliament and members of the Territorial & Provincial legislatures and so forth…you were called upon to be the representative of Parks Canada and the government too, at times. So it was rewarding and being able to share and spread the word of what national parks were all about. You know, explaining the concepts of conservation, preservation, etc …
(36:20) Well, the changes in time…in the 1950s and 1960s after the war, Parks started hiring veterans, sometimes with minimal education but, more importantly, who could survive in the backcountry – look after their horses, maintain the forestry phone lines, clear the trails, do fire weather readings, fight forest fires, assist lost hikers, but keep an eye on the poaching because the national parks tended to have the trophy animals such as the Big Horn Sheep, Elk, Goat, etc. (My next question, you did a great job of answering (in your personal write up) about the warden service and the changes over time…is there anything else that you would like to add?”) They just wanted guys back then in those early days who could survive out there in the remote backcountry areas, to maintain their facilities, how to build a cabin even or to maintain trails, build corduroy or build bridges.Then Senior Management started to realize in the early 1970s, that we need to do some better natural resources management…you need a natural resource inventory (Biophysical) of what you have before you know how you need to manage it! The biophysical inventory was a big push and I was lucky enough in Yoho in 1973/74 that I was assigned to the vegetation contractor (Peter Kuchar). So I was able to get out and get dropped off by helicopter, yes, you guessed it, with Jim Davies as the pilot, in remote valleys, sometimes overnight. Actually, Al Westhaver and I just recollected a story up in a place called Porcupine Creek in Yoho National Park. It was a dog’s breakfast of “thick hair” because of the dense forest of spruce and pine trees and so forth, because of fires over the years and thick regrowth. But through that experience of seeing the park that way, you were forced to get out and off the road into these remote areas to conduct wildlife surveys and transects. You couldn’t follow a trail, you had to go out there and do a transect, follow a compass from A to B and all that kind of stuff. I remember with a backpack on you had to go over, around or under trees …then that experience set me up well for my first permanent warden competition with Jimmy Sime. He was the Resource Conservation head at the Calgary regional office at the time (1973), he had previously been in Yoho N.P. as the Chief Park Warden, prior to Andy Anderson and then Hal Shepherd. Anyways at the interview board because of Jimmy’s knowledge of Yoho National Park, in particular around Emerald Lake, there is a little ecosystem that is very unique, located near the Continental Great Divide where there are some rare Yew trees (geographically located that far to the east for their range). I’m not exactly sure about the Indigenous connotation, but I believe there are some types of medicinal & cultural benefits.There are also Cedar trees and other unique species that only exist in that little micro environment. Anyway, that happened to be one of the questions on the interview board and I happened to nail that one because I had the opportunity, through the vegetation inventory experience, to have personal knowledge of it.
