Calgary Parks 100 Project, celebrating Calgary
Parks 100th Anniversary!
Calgary Area Cachers teaming up with The City of Calgary Parks
Department.
The Calgary Parks 100 Project is a partnership between the City
of Calgary Parks and the Calgary Area Cachers, in celebration of
Calgary Parks' 100th anniversary. Calgary Parks supplied cache
containers and swag for 100 caches, and members of the Calgary
geocaching community placed these 100 caches in 100 parks around
Calgary.
Nose Hill:
In the early 1960s, citizen groups began lobbying Calgary City
Council to preserve a large area in northwest Calgary as a green
space. In 1973, after more than a decade, Council agreed to
preserve Nose Hill's "natural quality for visual and recreational
purposes." After almost another decade of debate over competing
land uses, Council adopted the 1980 Master Plan. Park plans have
been revisited, reviewed and revised multiple times since then, and
debates on policy and planning continue to this day. Major on-going
concerns are off-leash dogs, invasive species and the proliferation
and degradation of random trails by pedestrians and cyclists.
Nose Hill Park is located approximately 5 km from the Calgary
city centre and is only a few minutes’ walk from neighbouring
communities. It has been dubbed an “ecological island”
since it is a large area of grassland completely surrounded by
residential communities and bordered by three major expressways:
John Laurie Boulevard to the south; Shaganappi Trail to the west;
and 14th Street NW on the east.
As for the name, there are several theories on how the
“Nose” got its name. One is that the Blackfoot called
it Nose Hill because, when viewed from Spy Hill, it projects over
the prairies like a nose. Others say it was named because it looks
like a nose from the vantage point of the confluence of the Bow and
Elbow Rivers. And there are a couple of more controversial
explanations, as well. How the hill got its name may forever remain
a mystery.
Major Habitats:
Today, Nose Hill is Calgary`s largest Natural Environment Park,
covering an area of 1,129 hectares. The fescue grasslands, aspen
woodlands and coulee ecosystems of the park are home to a variety
of wildlife species, such as deer, coyote, Richardson`s ground
squirrel and other small mammals. Bird species seen here include
the rare Baird`s sparrow, grouse, meadowlarks and hawks.
The predominant habitat in Nose Hill Park is grassland. About 40
percent of Nose Hill is relatively undisturbed Rough Fescue
grasslands. Since only about five percent of the original Alberta
fescue prairie remains, Nose Hill’s Rough Fescue grasslands
comprise one of the most important preserves in the region.
Porcupine Valley, Many Owls Valley and Rubbing Stone Coulee are
three of the larger coulee areas within the park. Native tree and
shrub species grow in the coulees: Trembling Aspen, Balsam Poplar,
Saskatoon, Choke Cherry, Buckbrush, Wolf Willow and Beaked
Willow.
There are also two human-created habitats within the park. One
is the quarry, which was operated by Burnco Industries Ltd. from
the early 1960s into the 1980s. It’s interesting to see how
nature is slowly reclaiming this area after. The old quarry area is
also popular with mountain bikers. The second disturbed area is on
the plateau, where about 240 hectares were cultivated and planted
with non-native species. Calgary City Parks is attempting to
reclaim native grassland in some of these disturbed areas of the
escarpment.
History:
Nose Hill, along with Broadcast Hill, is a remnant of a
many-million-year-old high plain that was carved by rivers flowing
from the west. Over the past 20 thousand years, Nose Hill was
further shaped by late glacial and post-glacial activity.
The glaciers carried glacial till and glacial erratic, which
they deposited along their path. A large erratic on Nose Hill was
deposited between 18 and 15 thousand years ago; Rubbing Stone
originated from the Mount Edith Cavell area in Jasper National
Park.
Archeological finds and studies show that humans have lived in
the Calgary area for at least 10,500 years. Nose Hill’s
features, such as lookouts, protective coulees and Bison wintering
grounds, attracted Native people to the area from the earliest
times. There are, in fact, many “tipi rings” (large
stones used to hold down the edges of tipis) which can be found in
Nose Hill. Don’t disturb them; they are protected by
provincial law and are historically significant. The glacial
erratics, which play an important role in Blackfoot legends, also
made this an important site for Native people.
The geocache is hidden in the southeast quadrant of the park, a
little south of the old gravel quarry, at a spot with a great view
of downtown Calgary, In fact, there's a great view all up and down
the Bow Valley from this spot. The container is a small (870 ml)
lock ‘n’ lock, hidden a few meters off a narrow dirt
trail. The nearest parking lot is off 14th Street NW near North
Haven Drive NW. When placed, the cache contained a couple of
activated travelling geocoins and some very nice Calgary
Parks-supplied trading swag. Remember - trade up, trade even, or
don't trade at all!