Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve is a tract of land owned by the government of the Canadian province of Alberta (called "Crown land") along the eastern slopes and foothills of the Albertan section of the Canadian Rockies. It is a long strip of land just east of the more famous Canadian Rocky Mountain parks, which is managed for forest and water conservation, public recreation, and industrial goals, rather than aesthetic and preservation goals, as in the Rocky Mountain parks.

Forest reserves were established for "...(1) the reserving of timber supplies, (2) the reserving of areas unsuited to agriculture so that they would not be homesteaded, and (3) the preserving of the water level in streams by conserving the timber on the upper watersheds". Government of Canada (1911). "All forest reserves are set aside and constituted for the conservation of the forests and other vegetation in the forests and for the maintenance of conditions favourable to an optimum water supply in those reserves." Province of Alberta (2004). The surveyor

The size and shape of the reserve changed repeatedly and dramatically in its early years. In its original configuration in 1910, the forest reserve constituted two disconnected pieces of land, neither of which are part of the modern reserve. The more northerly part was north of Jasper National Park (today the Willmore Wilderness), and the southerly section was between Jasper National Park and Rocky Mountain Park (today the northern third of Banff National Park). In 1911, Jasper and Rocky Mountain parks were reduced in size and the land transferred to the Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve. The reserve was expanded eastwards in 1913. In 1917, Rocky Mountain Park and in 1927 Jasper Park were greatly expanded at the expense of the reserve. In 1929 and 1930, the park boundaries were adjusted slightly, giving the Kananaskis valley back to the reserve. With the passage of the Alberta Natural Resources Act, 1930, management of the parks and reserve became separated, as all public lands (outside of national parks and military bases) in Alberta were transferred from the federal to the provincial government, including the reserve.^[1] Water management was still a shared responsibility until the 1970s, however.^[2] Within the boundaries of the RMFR, protected areas include the following types:

• Wildland provincial parks: Brazeau Canyon, Don Getty, Bow Valley, Bluerock, Elbow-Sheep, Bob Creek, and Castle
• Wilderness areas: Ghost, Siffleur, and White Goat
• Provincial parks: Peter Lougheed, Spray Valley, Sheep, Bow Valley, Ram Falls, and Castle
• Natural areas – various
• Ecological reserves – various
• Provincial recreation areas – various

In 1948, the province designated all of its forested lands the "Green Area", including the eastern slopes.