"Returning to Jasper this summer, I found myself rerooting, as an Albertan who spent most of my adult life abroad." The palette beyond our engine was a blinding white. Not snow, not fog, but something closer to the emptied light that those who brush against death claim to glimpse — a blankness that ...

When Alberta teachers voted nearly 90 percent against the government’s latest contract offer, the message was clear: the deal does not meet the needs of our classrooms or our students. Yet, within hours, the Government of Alberta released a press release painting itself as the rational adult in the ...

Mark Hall’s reaction to my article on the newly legalized practice of hunting bears with dogs started with the statement that it ‘relies on emotional rhetoric, selective science, and mischaracterizations that deserve clarification’. I would like to address each of his criticisms in turn. Mark Hall: ...

The recent opinion piece published in The Jasper Local raises concerns about the ethics, effectiveness, and motivations behind Alberta’s decision to permit hound-assisted black bear hunting in Caribou Conservation Areas (CCAs).  While the author’s passion for wildlife is commendable, the article unf...

In July, Todd Loewen, the Minister for Alberta’s Forestry and Parks, quietly updated provincial regulations to allow the use of dogs while hunting black bears. His rationale? To help protect endangered woodland caribou populations, because black bears prey on newborn caribou calves. Hunter gatherer ...

Ten years ago on a cold cold night, the journey ends for two Jasperites It's the last day of the year, the last day of A Doorstep Adventure that began back on April 25, , 2014, when Jake Alleyne and Liam Harrap left Jasper with 100 pound packs and skied, hiked and snowshoed 5407 kilometres on the Gr...

Beneath surface-level discussions and debates around the Jasper wildfire lies a more complex reality. This fire is not just an isolated event, but part of a broader pattern linked to climate change—a result of a century of colonial land use practices and an economic system focused on extraction and ...

Is Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks camouflaging the hunting of “problem” grizzly bears as a wildlife safety measure? Back in June, Minister Todd Loewen, a renowned big game hunter and shareholder in a Valleyview-based outfitting business, signed a ministerial order that, to this retired bio...

The Jasper wildfire was a fiery furnace, temperatures reaching almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt copper and gold.  With such atomic obliteration, will we ever see the forest come back within our lifetime, certainly within mine? In four days in August I would have my answer.  There ...

Margot Finley’s Uncle Charlie’s house was one of the more than 350 structures destroyed by the wildfire that swept through Jasper, Alberta on July 24, 2024.  But “structure” is a terribly empty word for what's gone, Margot writes. At a dinner last winter I learned that our waiter had spent time in J...

Despite the collective devastation and trauma we suffered as a community in the July 2024 fire, I feel we need to take some time each day to show gratitude for the things we still have in our life. Research shows it benefits our health both mentally and physically. It helps us sleep better. And it b...

DISCLAIMER: Views, opinions and actions of Jasper Local contributors do not represent those of Jasper Local staff and/or publishers. Monday July 22 was another hot day. The day before was even hotter: at 38 degrees Celsius (100 F) Jasper was the hottest place in Alberta—excluding my apartment! (The ...

It took me some time to wake up out of the shock of the fire, to come out of a numbness. Slowly, I began to connect to survivor’s guilt: the guilt one feels for surviving an event that others did not. Survivor’s guilt can present very much like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) , with similar sy...

A Fort McMurray resident sent this dispatch to Jasperites trying to figure out next steps ​ Dear Jasper: I’m so sorry for your losses. It is very, very difficult. Here are some thoughts that might be helpful at some point…… This is an emotional process. Give yourself room to cry, get upset, feel ove...

Death struck deeply into those who waded ashore on June 6, 1944. Struggling to quickly move from their landing craft to the sand of Normandy beach, burdened by the heavy weight of their equipment and the sights and sounds around them, before them lay a terrifying array of obstacles waiting to trap, ...

Changes will send chills through municipal councils and create a lot of grief for MLAs  It has been very interesting to watch over the past week how Premier  Danielle Smith ’s United Conservative Party government has unrolled its suite of changes to municipal governance and local election laws, and ...

This is the sequel to Poetry in the Snow , from February 9, 2024. Next day we skied  to the alpine and came across fresh grizzly tracks. One of the things I enjoyed about snow camping was the comforting thought that all the bears were tucked up snugly in their dens and I could get a good night's sle...

I was driving on a snowy Maligne Road a number of years ago—one of those crisp winter days that make you glad you live in Jasper—when I spied a set of wolf tracks crossing the road. I stopped for a better look, and I had just crouched down to look at the tracks when I heard howling nearby. In my min...

The sky was mauve, a pale bluish purple. A colour you only see in winter. Mauve, the colour of cold. This was the night the temperature was forecast to hit minus 30 degrees Celsius.  As we struggled up from the valley the forecast seemed spot on.     I caught the smell of woodsmoke and figured our b...

August 31. A blue moon tonight, the second full moon of the month. The weather is not looking good. As I trudge up the summit slope cloud sweeps in as if sucked by a vacuum cleaner. One moment I have a view, the next I'm in a whiteout and flakes of snow splatter on the rocks. I don't know why the he...