Edward Abbey Quote I stumbled upon a quotation recently from the great ecological activist Edward Abbey. It was shared on Facebook by Kevin Van Tighem, a former Banff National Park Superintendent. He was talking about how tiring it can be to be a public advocate for nature and ecology. Abbey was highly regarded as one of the great authors on conservation and was a militant protector of wild spaces. He also strongly opposed what he called: "industrial tourism", something the mountain west is suffering at the moment. One of Van Tighem's Facebook followers offered this gem.  “One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; you will outlive the bastards.” ― Edward Abbey I think we can all take heart in these words. Being an advocate is hard. Sometimes we need to say things that people don't want to hear, but our wild places are at risk at the moment; risk of being loved to death by the very people that espouse their appreciation for the wilderness. We all need to be vigilant and continue to fight for the rights of wilderness, watersheds, and the importance of keeping the wild in wildlife…but as Abbey so eloquently states: "ramble out yonder and explore the forests" and "breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air." Bison Release Plans Over the past year, I've spoken at length about the reintroduction of wild bison into Banff National Park. Back in Episode 27,  I cheered when the first bison born in the park in 130 years first showed its face on Earth Day of 2017. I looked at the fascination of biologists when the first grizzly tracks were found circling the enclosure and in the same episode, investigated how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone in 1995 changed the ecology of the regions wolf population. Once again, in Banff, we have a population of both grizzly bears and wolves that have never encountered a wild bison. This gives biologists an incredible opportunity to study the interactions between these massive ungulates and two apex predators as they interact and evolve over time. The lives of the newly established bison population is set to change this June when their small pens are opened up to a much larger territory stretching over 1,200 sq km of Banff National Park. For the first time, they'll find themselves on the menu. They'll also have an opportunity to wander over a much larger landscape, and in doing so, make decisions that biologists cannot predict using the very best computer models. The bison will no longer be wooed by daily deliveries of food and water by Parks Canada staff. They'll explore a much larger landscape and make decisions based on their own whims. Will they like their new home? Parks Canada selected their release area very carefully. The Panther Valley is very different from many areas of Banff National Park. It is less steep and more rolling and has the potential to support much more grassland. This is the moment where Parks Canada staff will b