Columbia Valley Wetlands

Surrounding the Columbia River in British Columbia, and extending 108 miles along the river covering a continuous area of 64,200 acres are the amazing Columbia Valley Wetlands. The wetlands are situated within the Rocky Mountain Trench, and support an astonishing number and diversity of wildlife, plant life and aquatic creatures. 

The Columbia Valley Wetlands  are located on the Pacific Flyway - an important migration route for many birds. The area has 264 species of birds, and around 100 species of song birds live in the wetlands and more stop for awhile when migrating. Also from personal observation by myself and my family we saw plentiful signs of beaver, muskrat, deer, squirrels, elk, moose,  and big horn sheep. No doubt there are also many other mammals like coyotes, wolves, river otters and so on. When there is such a rich variety and number of wildlife there are bound to be all kinds of predators present. 

On the eastern side of the valley are the Rocky Mountains, which can be seen in these two pictures. These are very large towering rugged mountains, that at times seem to form a continuous massive wall on the east side of the valley. 

To the west of the valley are more ancient mountains then the Rocky Mountains that are on the east. While driving we could see clearly with the naked eye that the eastern range of mountains (the Rocky Mountains) were different and separate from the western range of mountains. In the following two pictures you can see this western mountain range, which is located not far from Parson, B.C. on highway #95. These are either part of the Purcell Mountains or the Selkirk Mountains, which are both part of a larger grouping known as the Columbia Mountains. 

The following picture is of the Columbia Valley Wetlands with the Rocky Mountains on the left, and the Columbia Mountain Range on the right. The width of the valley varies from place to place, but it is not an extremely broad valley. Like maybe from 2 to a maximum 10 miles wide. 

The Rocky Mountain Trench runs for almost 1,000 miles from Montana to the British Columbia - Yukon border. Some of the numerous Canadian settlements within the Rocky Mountain Trench are places like Mackenzie, Radium Hot Springs, Invermere, Windermere, Edgewater, Fairmont Hot Springs, Spillimacheen, Brisco, Panorama, Canal Flats, Skookumchuk, Wasa, Fort Stelle, Kimberley, Cranbrook and Golden. 

The picture below is of Golden, which is situated within the Columbia River Valley, which is part of the Rocky Mountain Trench. 

The Columbia Valley Wetlands need to be protected and preserved, but not to the exclusion of farms, ranches and other human settlements and developments. There needs to be a healthy balance between the needs of man, and the needs of wildlife. I see no reason why such a healthy balance cannot be achieved. It seems to be happening already, quite a bit. We saw farms and ranches built in and around the wet lands, yet the wet lands were still very much intact. 

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