CPAWS SOUTHERN ALBERTA NEWS

Our 2022 Annual Report is out now

Here’s to all that we accomplished together this year!

2022 was a year that came with its fair share of challenges — but regardless of what was happening around us, those of us at CPAWS Southern Alberta have been committed to our mission to safeguard, connect, and expand Alberta’s parks and wilderness — and to do so in a way that includes all Albertans, supports communities, and advances reconciliation.

Working alongside a diversity of Albertans, we navigated constantly changing government directions to create a wave of support for our mountains and streams and pushed the provincial government to halt almost all new coal exploration and development, at least temporarily, in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. We’ve continued to defend Alberta’s parks and monitor and provide input on provincial and national park management, raised concerns about forestry and land-use proposals, including the risk to water and native prairie from the single largest irrigation expansion in the province’s history, and worked with the Native Trout Collaborative on communicating the important role of our province’s at-risk native trout and the threats to their survival. We also celebrated 25 years of environmental education and engagement.

Finally, we have worked internally to ensure that, through all of this, we are operating efficiently, with integrity, and supporting our staff, partners, donors, and members. To learn more about all that we achieved this year, take a peek at this year’s Annual Report!

In short: We’ve accomplished a lot together over the past year — and we’ll continue to build on that momentum going into the New Year.

We know that conservation is a core value for Albertans. A recent poll, commissioned by CPAWS Southern and Northern Alberta chapters, shows that the majority of Albertans support setting aside more land in Alberta to protect wildlife habitat to prevent further decline of wildlife populations (77%), to be left as wilderness where human activities are minimal (76%), and for provincial parks with a focus on recreation and leisure (73%). A full 85% of Albertans support Alberta committing to a target of 30% protected lands by 2030 – moreover, this majority support spans across political affiliation, age, and urban and rural Albertans.

Industrial activities and land management pressure have put nature, wildlife, and communities at risk around the world, and Alberta is not immune. We have a lot of work to do on coal, forestry, sustainable recreation, and species at risk. But we also have the love of and connection to the lands and waters, and the infamous Alberta determination, to protect the places we love and find solutions to the most challenging conservation issues.

If it is within your means, please consider a contribution this holiday season — any amount helps.