Dear Editor,
Long-time residents of Okotoks, and some other Albertans, will remember that in 1998, the Town instituted a population cap of 30,000 due to its limited water supply from the Sheep River.
This bold step garnered support, encountered wailing opposition and was watched with curiosity from afar as to whether it would hold. Well, it did, until 2012, when a new council cancelled it and embraced a new model allowing more growth.
Now, 25 years later, much of the Prairies is currently in a drought. Adding to this, the Town of High River is watching with concern the logging approved in the watershed of the Highwood River, which supplies their drinking water, knowing that it will impact water flows in the summer.
On the flip side, we also know that logging in our high watersheds added to the flood levels that hit Southern Alberta communities in 2013. It has been well said that healthy forests do three things with water: they slow it down, spread it out and soak it up. We clear our forests at our peril.
On top of all this, the extreme weather events ushered in by climate change. As retired Alberta biologist Lorne Fitch wrote this week in the Western Producer, "Climate change isn’t our future, it is our present. Declining river flows, persistent drought, increased temperatures, heat domes, greater evaporation and more wicked weather events signal our world has changed. This is not the end of our world but it’s time to be smarter, more conscious of the changes and better stewards of what water is available.”
Bold Okotokians who decades ago championed sensible, long-term thinking, Alberta needs you now.
Roger Gagne
Calgary
