Postcards from the Field: Brenden Anderson

Shell Conservation Intern Brenden Anderson

Hello from Jaffray!

Where’s Jaffray? Well…it’s about thirty kilometers from NCC’s picturesque Mt. Broadwood property on the southeastern edge of the British Columbia Rockies. Having grown up in the nearby resort town of Fernie, I’m a Shell Conservation Intern in the same backcountry where I spent my youth hiking and fishing. I love it here!

The first half of my summer has been spent in a variety of ways. After training in Victoria with NCC-BC’s Director of Land Stewardship Tim Ennis, it was back to the Kootenays to begin work on the Ancient Cottonwood Trail. The trail will pass through a forest of the oldest-known Black Cottonwood trees in the world that are within NCC’s Elk Valley Heritage Conservation Area.

The 22,000-acre Mount Broadwood property, donated by Shell Canada Limited, is a strong conservation foothold in the Elk Valley

I’ve also taken part in the removal of derelict vehicles from the Elk River. In a 1995 flood, several vehicles were washed into the river and sat abandoned on gravel bars. These vehicles had been leaking harmful substances for over ten years and contributing to the degradation of a world class trout fishery. With financial contributions from the Tembec Environmental Fund, NCC and the Fernie Rod and Gun Club were able to build a temporary access road into the sight and remove the unsightly vehicles from the sensitive riparian habitat.

The second half of the summer will be spent completing more technical tasks such as mapping road systems for GIS databases and the creation of several photo monitoring plots on our Elk Valley properties.

In the fall, I will return to Lethbridge to complete my degree in Conservation Enforcement but I just don’t want this summer to end!

Cheers!

Brenden Anderson
Rocky Mountain Stewardship Shell Conservation Intern

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