Since 2018, the Alpine Club of Canada has published a national State of the Mountains Report annually, produced in collaboration with mountain researchers, community members, and partner organizations from across the country (including Canadian Geographic and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society). Sustainability and stewardship in mountains has long been a foundational pillar of Canada’s mountaineering community. The Report provides summaries of our current understanding about our changing mountain environments, based on current research and perspectives from across academic disciplines and beyond.

Looking back across the last three reports and the 40-plus essays written by Canadian experts, it’s hard not to notice a variety of worrying trends. Rising summer temperatures and changes in winter snow cover suggest that mountain biodiversity may be greatly affected, with perilous consequences for the survival of many globally-important alpine species. 

Contributions have documented changes in alpine treelines, butterflies, mountain sheep and goats. In the 2018 Report, Kathy Martin describes how Canada’s mountains provide birds with high quality habitats for breeding and migration, a role that becomes increasingly important given the more rapid loss of lower elevation habitats. One quarter of the bird species using our mountains are on national or continental lists of conservation concern, including Bicknell’s Thrush, Rufous Hummingbird, and Western Meadowlark. In 2019, Layla Neufeld outlines the measures being implemented by Parks Canada to protect mountain caribou populations, while also acknowledging the challenges. But despite these efforts, the Maligne caribou herd in Jasper National Park was officially extirpated in September 2020. And the Tonquin and Brazeau herds, the two remaining southern mountain caribou populations in the park, remain in a perilous state with few breeding females surviving.

Glaciers play a vital role in sculpting the landscape, and their retreat can bring about drastic consequences. In the 2018 Report, Dan Shugar and John Clague describe what happens when glacier-fed rivers are diverted from their usual course. Shugar and his colleagues have also documented a 50 per cent increase in the volume of water in glacial lakes around the world since 1990. This increase poses a higher risk of floods, damage to infrastructure, and the disruption of downstream ecosystems.

In the 2018 Report, Mike Demuth reports on the Wapta Icefield, one of the southernmost icefield complexes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and a high mountain headwater for the Columbia and Saskatchewan-Nelson river systems. The Wapta’s well-studied Peyto Glacier has likely lost over 70 per cent of its mass since it was first measured in the 1960s, and its demise is representative of larger changes. According to Valentina Radi?, British Columbia and Alberta together contain more than 15,000 mountain glaciers, totalling roughly 29,000 square kilometres of glaciation. Estimates based on remote sensing indicate that glaciers in B.C. and Alberta have lost about 11 per cent and 25 per cent of their area, respectively, over the 20 year period between 1985-2005. And recent simulation models show that, by 2100, the volume of glacier ice will shrink by another 60 to 80 per cent.

For Canada’s mountain communities, many of which are dependent on vulnerable sectors such as tourism, forestry and agriculture, climate change will bring adaptation challenges best met with early acknowledgement and planning. This resilience will require information and knowledge, and will involve building community adaptation literacy to understand the risks and actions needed for endurance and success. In the words of Kevin Hanna, “Forewarned is forearmed.”

Even more important, research in traditional territories of Indigenous communities needs to be driven in some large part by the people who live there. Tosh Southwick and Kate Ballegooyen (2019), and Norma Kassi (2020), outline how this can be achieved through the co-production of knowledge, which, at its foundation, begins with mutual respect, dialogue, and exchange. For example, the new Canadian Mountain Network is supporting innovative research bringing Indigenous knowledge and Western science together in collaborative partnerships to inform and enhance decision-making.