Students see good, bad on tour of Canadian Rockies

They saw the beauty of the towering mountains, the waterfalls that descend from them, the wildlife that resides in them and the array of wildflowers and other plants that grow on them. They even saw fossils that lie in the mountains in places.

But they also observed some frightening scenarios that apparently stem from global warming. Glaciers in the areas they visited are receding and thousand of acres of prime forest land in Alberta and British Columbia have been destroyed by beetles that have survived the recent mild winters and feast on pine and spruce trees the remainder of the year.

In essence, the trip was an exhilarating experience for the participants, most of whom grew up in the flatlands of Nebraska or eastern Colorado and not spent much time in mountains. But it also left some of them wondering if they were seeing what may become a horrific ecological disaster.

“I learned a lot and saw some amazing sites,” said Craig Jost, a senior from Sterling, Colo. “It was awesome to see what God has created. Of course, I had never walked on a glacier before. It also was great to hike above the tree line in one place and to be able to see for miles and miles with nothing to block our view.”

Like nearly all the students, Jost carried a camera during the trip and returned with dozens of photos that will help him remember the experience.

The trip was sponsored by two veteran members of the CSC science faculty, Dr. Ron Weedon and Dr. Mike Leite. They had previously joined in leading two field trips to three localities, the Desert Southwest, the Big Bend area west Texas and Costa Rica. This was the first time they had led a tour to Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

Two newer members of the CSC science faculty, Dr. Mathew Brust and Dr. Ann Buchmann, also served as mentors during the trip.

Besides taking in the diversity landscape and breathtaking beauty on the trip, each student selected a topic involving geology, plants or water to study during the 12-day journey. The students are now writing papers on their research.

“I think they were all blown away by the scenery,” said Weedon. “I know I was and I’ve seen much of it before. But most of all it gave them a chance to see first hand why we need to use science to protect what we have in this world. You can read and look at pictures all you want, but seeing it in person will impress you a lot more.”

The CSC entourage experienced rustic living and team work. They camped out all but one night during the trip and took turns preparing the meals, which often featured stacks of sandwiches. 

The trip began with a diagonal jaunt through northeastern Wyoming and Montana by way of Missoula and Flathead Lake to Glacier National Park, which provided a memorable experience in itself.

Weedon said relations between the United States and Canada have become strained recently because Canadian interests have plans to develop a coal mine just above Glacier Park, which on located the Canadian border. The mine would undoubtedly have a great environmental impact on the park, he said.

“It’s already predicted that by 2030 there will no longer be any glaciers in Glacier Park,” Weedon said. “A mine above it could really take a toll.”

One of the highlights of the trip was being able to walk on the Athabasca Glacier in Banff National Park in Alberta. The glacier has retreated a mile since 1844, the CSC group was told.

Other major attractions visited in Canada included the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, traveling on the spectacular Icefields Parkway to Jasper National Park, hiking on a restricted area (led by a guide) on Mount Stephen, viewing quarries where significant numbers of Cambrian fossils have been collected but many other remain and exploring Yoho National Park in British Columbia.

After returning to the U.S., the CSC party viewed the Channeled Scablands, a unique 150 by 200-mile area with diverse agriculture ranging from fruits to wheat not far from Spokane in eastern Washington.

It was the northern-most part of the trip, about 200 miles into Canada, where the CSC entourage saw the effects of spruce bark beetles on thousands of acres of trees have died. Scientists say the beetles are flourishing because the winters have not been cold enough to freeze them to death.

“It made a big impression on me when all of the sudden you see an entire mountainside where the trees have died and have turned brown,” said Jennifer Balmat, a Florida native who has been attending CSC the past six years.

 “It was also scary to see how much the glaciers have receded. We don’t notice the affects of global warming much around here, but we could see it there. I don’t know what the solutions are, but it is a challenge for those of us who are studying science to try to find them,” Balmat added.

Jost was among those impressed by the wildlife that was spotted during the trip. Included were wolves, moose, elk, deer, mountain goats and mountain sheep. But just one bear was seen and only through binoculars.

“Since we were camping out all the time, I’m not sure whether seeing just that one bear was good or bad,” Leite said with a grin.

Tracy Witt, a sophomore from Crawford, chose wildflowers as her research topic, and was surprised to find some of the same flowers in Canada as grow in western Nebraska. She was not able to collect the flowers at the national and state parks that were visited, but took perhaps 300 photos, many of them of flowers, on the trip.

“It was a very diverse trip,” Witt said. “We saw everything from rolling fields to huge mountains and big waterfalls. I enjoyed it very much. It was like wow!”

Other students on the trip were:

Jamie Keller, Scottsbluff; Adam Neumann, Fort Calhoun; Savannah Padek, Tulsa, Okla.; Sydnie Padek, Gordon; Kayley Parker, Akron, Colo.; Nathan Petersen, Raymond, Neb.; Jessica Peterson, Chadron; Sergio Reyes, Boys Town; Penny Short, Gothenburg; Alaina Walter, Omaha; Kodi Young, Crawford; and Jesse Zwiebel, Gibbon.