Nature's Legends

May 3rd, 2021 1 Minutes

*Kettle Valley Railway ca. 1951 Collection No. 0413.0018 – Stormy day over the Canadian Rockies – Courtesy of Cranbrook History Centre & Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History* (CBIRH)

The memory of landscape is incredible. Long after fires extinguish and floods subside, storms pass, and summers sleep, the land remembers.

Have you ever looked at the Douglas firs and western larches in the valley bottoms? Five scars hug the bark of trees that survived the heat of summer spark. Many trees have multiple blemishes, a testament to the strength and resilience of our cone-bearing beauties.

*Elk Herd moving toward Douglas firs near Premier Lake, Collection No. 0158,006 Apr. 24, 1966 – Courtesy of the Kimberley District Heritage Society and CBIRH*

If your eye wanders upward from the valley bottom to the crown of the mountain peak, you will see emerald streaks blossom in the summer months. The landscape features of avalanche paths develop in response to the disturbance of falling snow. They quickly cultivate various fast colonizing shrubs like green alder and serve as natural fire guards on the slopes.

In addition to the research and presentation of human and social history, the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History works to promote and connect aspects of nature and landscape into a more comprehensive model of regional history.