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These headwaters and the surrounding lands
may well be the best that the creator ever managed on this earth.
Although the west edge at Elbow Lake is much visited, few venture
further. Beyond there it's a land best left to the elk, sheep
and grizzly; all of whom wander with the echo of Norma Piper to
keep them aware. Foliage not found here are lesser botanicals
and could never match the splendour of alpine flora that thrives
in the runoff from the Rae, Elpoca and Tombstone mountains.
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Near Piper Pass
New water flows
As clear as glass
Before it goes.
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Lacking petroleum, minerals of value or trees
enough to cut; the eastern slopes are nevertheless most threatened
by people.
Let it be.
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Too little river,
for too many souls.
With ripple and rapid,
relentless she flows.
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The Elbow floods in April with runoff from the meltwater of Springbank.
The second flood occurs in the green of June, starting summer
with the wash of a winter briefly banished from the eastern slopes.
Pictured right is the "Buffalo Hump", a campsite for
millenia. It was rescued from developers in 2002 and is now protected
as part of the riparian preserve of Colpitts Ranches.
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Dodging subdivisions and golf courses,
the Elbow River finds respite as it passes through Colpitts Ranches.
It's a braided river that fills some tributaries and abandons others.
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Before the
Ebow reaches Calgary, developers have their way with her - recontouring
the morraines and natural landscape. Their choppers hover for hours
just 20 meters over a heron rookery. Where the beaver and bison
once provided shelter and sustenance now backhoes chew relentlessly
until replaced by the sounds of barking dogs and leaf blowers. |
| Elbow
Valley Developers call this ... |
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"Landscaping by Mother Nature"
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