Waterton National Park
Rugged, windswept mountains rise abruptly out of gentle prairie grassland in spectacular Waterton National Park. Here, several different ecological regions meet and interact in a landscape shaped by wind, fire, flooding, and abundant plants and wildlife. more info
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Waterton National Park helps protect the unique and unusually diverse physical, biological and cultural resources found in the Crown of the Continent: one of the narrowest places in the Rocky Mountains. The highlight of Waterton's sparkling chain of lakes is the international Upper Waterton Lake, the deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies. In 1932, Waterton National Park was joined with Montana's Glacier National Park to form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park - a world first.
Waterton National Park – Fast Facts
- Waterton's size has varied considerably over the years, but its area is now 525 sq. km (203 sq. miles).
- The park's name derives from the Waterton Lakes. This chain of lakes, named by Lieutenant Blakiston (a member of the Palliser Expedition), honors a British naturalist, Squire Charles Waterton (1782-1865).
- Several different ecological regions meet in Waterton, with prairie plants of the Great Plains, Rocky Mountain plants from northern areas, and coastal plants from the Pacific Northwest all overlapping. The park contains 45 different habitat types, including grasslands, shrublands, wetlands, lakes, spruce-fir, pine and aspen forests, and alpine areas. This means Waterton National Park has an unusually rich and varied number of plants for its size, with more than 970 vascular plant species, 182 bryophytes and 218 lichen species. Indeed, more than half of Alberta's plant species can be found in Waterton.
- The park's variety of vegetation communities provides homes for many animals, including more than 60 species of mammals, over 250 species of birds, 24 species of fish, and 10 reptiles and amphibians. Large predators include wolf, coyote, cougar, grizzly bear, and American black bear. The grasslands are important winter range for ungulates such as elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer. In the fall, the marsh and lake areas of the park are used extensively by migrating ducks, swans, and geese. Some animals found here are considered rare or unusual, like the trumpeter swans, Vaux's swifts, and vagrant shrews.
- Waterton Lakes National Park also has global importance because of several key international designations:
(a) The Peace Park was originally created as a symbol of peace and goodwill between the United States and Canada, but has now evolved to also represent cooperation in a world of shared resources. Both parks strive to protect the ecosystem through shared management, not only between themselves, but also with their other neighbors.
(b) The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was designated a World Heritage Site (1995) because:
it is an "outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes" - specifically because of its distinctive climate and landforms, the abrupt meeting of mountain and prairie, and its triple divide (waters flowing into three distinct river systems);
and, it is an area of exceptional natural beauty and scenic values.
