Forest History Program

Harry Edgecombe was a long service Alberta Forest Service ranger who finished his career as an instructor at the Forest Technology School in Hinton. After retirement, he spent the summer of 1982 on ranger patrol in the Willmore Wilderness Park, traversing many of the trails developed by or travelled on by Jack Glen so many years earlier. Mr. Edgecombe’s report of that summer and his photographs provide an interesting contrast to the times of Jack Glen, reported in the recent book “Mountain Trails” from the Adaptive Forest Management/ History Program.

A Logging History of the Whirlpool Valley, Jasper National Park

The Forest History Program explores an overgrown, but not forgotten, episode in forestry.

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Nov. 4, 2015
Blog

Excerpt from Mountain Trails

Jack Glen, c. late 1930s Jack Glen Sr. (1891–1983) was a forest ranger from 1920 to 1945 in the foothills of the upper Athabasca. Produced by the fRI Research Forest History Program, the free ebook Mountain Trails tells of the adventures, colourful characters and challenges of bringing order and law to a previously untracked and mostly uninhabited wilderness. Below is an excerpt from Chapter One: First Days on the Trail.

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Jan. 31, 2015
Article

Northern Rockies Ecotour App Now Available

The Northern Rockies Ecotour App is a free iPhone/ iPad based travellers’ guide to the Northern Rockies region of Alberta, presenting the region’s rich First Nations history, exploits of early fur-traders, artists, missionaries, tourists and scientists and the ongoing interplay of people, wildlife and their inspiring mountain and foothills ecosystem. The authors draw on current research to discuss key environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity conservation.