Full text articles are included for reference purposes only. All rights are retained by Ward Cameron. Articles must not be published, or reproduced in any way without the express permission of Ward Cameron.

Canmore is often referred to as a pleasant community in which to live. However, when we use that description we are often excluding most of the other residents that share this community--the plants, animals, insects and birds (to name a few). Nature has developed its own definition of a community and as we look at the area surrounding Canmore, we begin to see how similar this can be to an urban community.

In any urban area, there are a multitude of people all fulfilling different roles. Each of these roles is specific and in some way (generally) forms a necessary part of the community. This breeds a strong interdependence between the various functions. For instance, if we were to remove the R.C.M.P. from the picture, vandalism and crime would begin to increase until the "nice community" idea failed to describe Canmore.

In any natural community, the same interdependences occur. In the surrounding area, the coyote polices the small rodent populations. Remove the coyotes, and suddenly the rodents begin to reproduce unchecked.

Most communities begin with the dominant plant species. In this area that is generally the lodgepole pine or the white spruce. Each in turn provides a very different environment for which its co-residents will have to be adapted. As a result, each attracts a very different group of neighbours.

The pine forest is a bright and open forest. There is generally lots of spacing between trees. Below their tall summits, many plants compete for the sunshine that squeezes through the upper branches and bathes the forest floor. Plants like buffaloberry take advantage of the availability of sunshine and flourish along with their much taller neighbours.

Light is one of the most important factors limiting the members of a community. In the rainforest, where little light reaches the ground, much of the forest life is found living high up in the trees where the availability of light is much higher. Living high up in the lodgepole pine trees, the red squirrels chatter a warning at the first sign of intrusion. The pine cones form their main diet and it's not uncommon to find yourself rained upon by cones as they run through the crown cutting down cones for winter.

Of course the squirrels form part of the diet for a variety of predators like the coyote. The coyote spends much of its time hunting many of the small animals and mice living within the forest cover. It will also feed on the carcasses of other large animals, like elk, that either die of natural causes or at the hand of some other predator.