Motorcycles must be of the dual-sport variety, road-legal but ready for mudded ruts and loose gravel. Here you have a choice between a quick and easy return to the starting point on Highway 22, or an adventure over an unnamed, unmaintained forest road to emerge into beautiful Beaver Creek Valley. For the quick return, head north on Range Road 10 to the previously visited switchback intersection with the continuation of Township Road GPS N49 Livingstone West Boasts an impressive mountain range by the same name, as well as the areas flanking the west side of the Forestry Trunk Road.
Whaleback Central East of Livingstone is the Whaleback, an affectionately named 30 km stretch of foothills resembling a beached humpback whale. Crowsnest South The Crowsnest region borders the municipal area along Highway 3, containing a string of small towns Coleman, Blairmore and Bellevue. The Crowsnest is particularly well-known for its powerful mountains, the Crowsnest Mountain and Seven Sisters, as well as the world-class fly-fishing offered by the Crowsnest River.
The Porcupine Hills hold a rich mosaic of vegetation and are popular for their hunting grounds, hiking paths and horse packing. Livingstone-Porcupine Area of Concern. Together, these areas mark a key component of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, supporting some of the most diverse ecosystems in Alberta. In the Porcupine Hills alone there are five distinct vegetation types grassland, parkland, montane, subalpine and alpine ; nowhere else in Alberta do these vegetation types coexist in such close proximity.
Public lands have suffered the same fate as many other public lands in Alberta; a decades-long pattern of neglect has fueled an uncontrolled explosion of cutblocks, pipeline right-of- ways, seismic lines, and motorized use. These plans provide the tools and mechanisms to responsibly manage our public lands by establishing legislative limits on land uses, including industrial activity and motorized recreation, and determining where such activities would be appropriate. There are still no limits placed on all remaining human footprint, including coal mines and industrial scale logging.
AWA believes the completion of the Biodiversity Management Framework — which will place legislative limits on spatial human footprint — is urgently needed. Although sub-regional planning was implemented in the spring of , the direction of land-use will continue to be set by the Integrated Resource Plan IRP until all provisions have been reviewed.
Management objectives from the LFMP and RMP include: maintaining valued ecological components such as headwaters and biodiversity , protecting threatened species, providing sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities, and acknowledging and maintaining First Nations land uses.
The BMF is to be developed under the SSRP to support the conservation of regional biodiversity through the management of cumulative effects — namely, spatial human footprint. From this framework a number of biodiversity indicators key species, important habitats and landscapes will be outlined, monitored and used as triggers for action. Livingstone-Porcupine IRP map. The area can be accessed by the Cowboy Trail Highway 22 and via Highway 3. Nearby the municipalities include Coleman, Blairmore and Bellevue to the south, and Pincher Creek to the southeast.
The area contains a number of recognizable sub-regions, including:. The Oldman is significant to Southern Alberta for the high percentage of water that it supplies for communities downstream, the habitat it provides to fish and wildlife populations e.
Livingstone-Porcupine is composed of two major geologic regions: the Cordilleran and the Interior Plains. The Cordilleran is made up of complex folds, normal faults and thrust faults, while the Interior Plains are composed of relatively flat-lying strata. The Porcupine Hills are underlain by very gently tilted and easterly-dipping beds of sandstone and shale as part of the Porcupine Hills Formation.
Unlike the dramatically folded and faulted rocks of the Foothills and Rocky Mountains, the primary structural feature of the Hills is a broad, shallow syncline, structurally more similar to the plains. Although parts of the south-central segments of the Porcupine Hills escaped continental glaciation, two major ice sheets migrated into, around and through the Hills from the north, east and south. This glacial activity resulted in carving of long, flat valleys and large, deep bedrock coulees and channels along parts of the eastern margin.
Portions of the Livingstone-Porcupine area have been designated as either provincially or nationally environmentally significant areas ESAs.
These ESAs boast old-growth forests over years old and key low-elevation corridors for east-west migration. Livingstone-Porcupine ESA map. Livingstone-Porcupine Natural Subregions. Fescue grassland : Rough fescue, Parry oat grass, timber oat grass, Idaho fescue, sticky geranium, perennial lupine. Aspen parkland : Aspen, veiny meadow rue, northern bedstraw, wild strawberry, Saskatoon, willow, fireweed, prairie smoke. Montane : Douglas fir, white spruce, limber pine, thimbleberry, creeping mahonia, buffalo berry, bearberry, snowberry.
Alpine : Krummholz of whitebark pine, grouseberry, mountain avens, snow willow, moss campion, kobresia, bear grass, black alpine sedge. Ungulates, including elk, moose, mule deer and white-tailed deer, frequent the area, including the largest elk herd found entirely outside of a national park. The diverse terrain and forage have also made the Livingstone-Porcupine a major area for cougars, particularly among the rock outcrops in the North Porcupine Hills. Wolves have profound effects on whole ecosystems, and are capable of completely reshaping them.
We believe it is important to maintain at least small populations of wolves along the Southern Eastern Slopes to prevent the kind of deeply transformative ecosystem disruption caused by trophic cascades, as found in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem after wolves were extirpated there. The waters of the Livingstone-Porcupine are important spawning areas for native trout species, including threatened westslope cutthroat trout federally listed and bull trout.
Both species of trout are limited by a number of, primarily human, factors. These factors include habitat fragmentation and degradation, roads, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. Many of these factors are the result of the cumulative impacts of industrial use i. AWA strongly asserts that new developments e.
This area falls within the traditional territory of Treaty 7, and is marked by the historical uses of the Blackfoot Confederacy Siksikaitsitapi , consisting of Kanai, Siksika, and Piikani, for hunting and winter camps. There were buffalo jumps in various places within the Porcupine Hills until the buffalo herds were nearly extirpated in the s.
The area was explored and recorded by the Palliser Expedition led by Captain Thomas Blackiston , Robert Dawson, a British surveyor , and by provincial boundary surveyors in Colonel Robertson-Ross, Commanding Officer of the Canadian Militia, travelled through the area in en route to the North Kootenay Pass, where he and his crew were trapped by a violent snowstorm for 6 days in the North Porcupine Hills.
In , tragedy struck as a rock slide buried the town of Frank in million tonnes of limestone and shale, killing 90 people. The Provincial Parks, Natural Areas and Public Lands of the Livingstone-Porcupine area host a variety of recreational activities, in both the front and backcountry. The Public Land Use Zones offer motorized and non-motorized trail systems. Some areas have been designated for non-motorized use due to past conflicts that have arisen between non-motorized recreational users i.
Provincial Parks, such as the Chain Lakes Provincial Park, offer more day-use activities, like fishing, kayaking, wind surfing and birding, whereas the Natural Areas, like Beehive, offer more backcountry opportunities for hiking, camping, horse riding, and hunting.
Significant abuses of public lands within the Livingstone-Porcupine have been documented, with an incredible proliferation of roads, industrial development and industrial scale logging which is all utilized by motorized recreationists.
As of January , there are currently 4, km of linear features in the Livingstone-Porcupine Hills with an average trail density of 2. There is no question these ecosystems are damaged and reducing the linear density is necessary. PLUZs are fundamental to the conservation of public land, as within their boundaries wildlife officers have the authority to issue tickets for damaging public land; an authority that does not exist on public land not designated as a PLUZ or Public Land Recreation Area PLAR.
Issuing tickets, rather than sending offenders to court, reduces the amount of time it takes to remove harmful behaviour from the land. However, in order for PLUZs to be effective mechanism for conservation, infringements need to be strictly enforced to ensure that lawless and destructive behaviour does not continue to fall under the radar.
AWA believes the completion of the Biodiveristy Management Framework — which will place legislative limits on spatial human footprint — is urgently needed. OHV use can deteriorate riparian habitat, diminish downstream water quality, degrade fish habitat, disturb critical habitat for grizzly bears and deter other recreational users from the area.
The exacerbation of linear disturbances, particularly in the Public Land Use Zones, is further reducing viable habitat for at risk species, such as the westslope cutthroat trout and grizzly bear.
In general, AWA is supportive of safe and responsible use of motorized recreational vehicles on designated trails in appropriate areas that do not impact other recreational users, vegetation, water or wildlife. Your submissions are monitored by our web team and are used to help improve the experience on Alberta. If you require a response, please go to our Contact page. You will not receive a reply. Submissions that include telephone numbers, addresses, or emails will be removed.
For more information, visit: Public Lands Camping Pass. For advisories and closures for this and other areas, visit: Public land and trail closures.
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