Safeguarding the Source by Kevin Van Tighem

Naturalist, hunter and former Banff National Park superintendent Kevin Van Tighem revisits his July 2013 article entitled “Safeguarding the Source”,  

This article, published in the July 2013 edition of Alberta Views magazine, remains no less relevant in the wake of last year’s destructive flooding (driven by an exceptional precipitation event but made worse by damaged headwaters landscapes that shed the water too fast) and by the public consultations, which will conclude this month, on a draft land use plan for the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan.

Much of the flood mitigation discussion has been about engineering solutions (‘dry dams’ and bank armoring) on river floodplains, even though last year’s floods proved, yet again, that floods damage floodplain infrastructure – including dams and berms.  The importance of intact healthy landscapes not only for flood mitigation but also for drought amelioration gets lip service in the public dialogue, but little tangible policy action in the Province’s land use planning.

We seem incapable of seriously heeding the advice that, when the hole is getting deeper, it might be time to put down the shovel and stop digging.  Given that, and the old aphorism that ‘insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results,’ it seems appropriate to put this article out again for the important suggestions it offers for changing how we care for our headwaters. 

Read: Safeguarding the Source. Van Tighem, K. (July/August 2013). Safeguarding the Source. Alberta Views, 16,(6), 28-35. Retrieved from http://albertaviews.ab.ca/2013/07/02/safeguarding-the-source/