Upper North Saskatchewan River Basin, Coyote Lake, Alberta (Photo by Karol Dabbs)
Thanks to a moister climate, Alberta's parkland landscape offers excellent growing conditions for plants, making it a magnet for farming and development. The conservation of remaining natural areas in this area is incredibly important and a distinct focus of conservation for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).
We focus our efforts in three Priority Natural Areas here:
- Cooking Lake Moraine
- Coyote Lake
- Red Deer River
Key features within these Priority Natural Areas
The "knob and kettle" topography of Alberta's parklands supports a high diversity of vegetation, waterfowl, mammals and birds, and functions as an extensive groundwater recharge area.
The region is under increasing pressure due to development and is at risk of fragmentation and degradation of its valued natural features.
The Rumsey Ecological Reserve and Rumsey Natural Area are found here, constituting the largest block of non-sandy aspen parkland remaining in the world.
Parkland's highly productive wetlands provide vital breeding habitat for North American waterfowl populations and other important species.
Featured projects
Two of NCC Alberta's flagship properties lie within the parkland ecoregion:
- The historic OH Ranch sits in the rolling Foothill Parkland outside of Kananaskis and is home to a significant variety of rare and sensitive species such as northern pygmy owl, Cape May warbler, grizzly bear, sharp-tailed grouse and bull trout.
- Coyote Lake is situated within one of the richest biological areas in the province. Nestled in a transition zone between the dry mixed wood boreal forest and the central parkland natural regions, the area supports more than 22 mammal species, 154 bird species (nine of which are imperiled) and 266 plant species.
