The Alberta government designated The Castle Special Place as a Provincial Park and Wildland Provincial Park after more than 40 years of pressure from local advocates and community members. Michael Jamison of the National Park Conservation Association says this land protection has impacts for the entire Crown of the Continent ecosystem.
"The real value in the Crown of the Continent is that the whole is worth so much more than the sum of its parts."
Jamison says the Castle area is now more welcoming to animals migrating from Glacier National Park.
"So certainly this is good news for Glacier’s grizzly bears because it gives them the room to roam. Glacier Park doesn’t make a very good island. The critters need to flow in and out of it’s borders seasonally and the Castle has been a very important part of that seasonal flow. Now that it is protected I think it has very real implications for wildlife south of the border."
The Crown of the Continent ecosystem spans a total of 18 million acres.