Parks - IUCN

Fishing in Peter
Lougheed
Provincial Park,
southern Alberta.
Photo:
Bart Robinson.
PARKS VOL 9 NO 3 • OCTOBER 1999
forests. Certainly Y2Y includes many
identifiable ecosystems, defined as a
relatively self-sustaining, dynamic
interaction among plants, animals, and
their physical environment.
An ecosystem, of course, can be as
small as a pond or as large as the
geographic range of a grizzly bear
population. Many distinct smaller
ecosystems, each bounded by related
ecological processes and parameters,
overlap and form progressively larger
ecosystems. A small stream is part of a
river system, for example, and a grove of
trees stands in a coniferous forest. Thus,
ecosystems are bounded somewhat
arbitrarily, and can be viewed at multiple
scales.
So too, our idea of Y2Y as an ecoregion
is something of an artificial construct, for
there is no hard separation between
what is included within the boundary
and the lands outside. The boundary on
the maps should not be interpreted as a
sharp delineation based on a crisp
ecological difference, but rather as a
permeable membrane, through which
animals, rivers, and ecological processes
cross continually. Y2Y, then, can be
viewed as a region comprising smaller connected ecosystems and linked to other
large ecoregions such as the prairie grasslands and the arctic barrens.
One biological fact that pertains to ecoregions and ecosystems at all scales is that
change is inevitable. Big forest fires, like the 1988 Yellowstone fires, can produce big
impacts that last for years, while local landslides can alter hydrology and vegetation
on local scales. The drought of one summer can lead to a major big game die-off the
next winter. Deep winter snows give wolves an advantage in their pursuit of elk and
moose, and replenish rivers and lakes. Some elements of ecosystems, such as
geologic landforms, change relatively slowly, while others, such as communities of
spring beauty and globemallow wildflowers at the edge of a melting snowfield,
change almost overnight.
Y2Y: connected by problems and people
While change from natural forces is the norm, change associated with certain types
and levels of human activity can harm the capacity of the broader ecosystem or
ecoregion to function well. In Y2Y, road building, clear cutting, oil and gas
development, damming and diverting rivers, suburban sprawl, and even unfettered
recreation are adversely affecting and altering the natural integrity of some parts of
the ecoregion. Grizzlies and wolves, for example, have been extirpated in 99% of the
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