A student ranger’s experience in the northwestern Skeena region of B.C.
Written by Ulana.
In 2023, I was a student ranger based out of Terrace, in northern British Columbia. I had the privilege of working in 10 parks throughout the northwestern Skeena region, and I visited nine more in the area on personal time. Northern B.C. has unrivalled beauty and holds some of the most intact ecosystems in the province, especially alpine meadows. I highly encourage other university or college students to apply for the 2025 season if they like being outdoors, exploring beautiful B.C., and working hard! Online applications are typically accepted from mid-November until the start of January.
The park I worked in the most, which was also my favourite, was Seven Sisters Park and Protected Area, located on traditional Gitxsan and Kitselas territory. As a student ranger, my day-to-day work included trail maintenance to improve access within parks. Though I initially chose this region because I’m studying marine biology at university, I ended up really enjoying trail maintenance. No day was the same as the last, and I had some of the most rewarding experiences of my life as a student ranger.
One of my favourite trips was where I got to participate in a vegetation survey of an intact alpine meadow with a BC Parks biologist (also known as a Conservation Specialist). The survey introduced me to some of the important work that conservationists do in parks and allowed me to see firsthand some of the damage done by off-road vehicles (ATVs) on these delicate ecosystems.
Conservation efforts to protect alpine meadows
Alpine meadows filled with wildflowers, fungi, and lichen survive in an impossibly delicate balance of spring melt, moisture availability, space, and sun exposure. Climate change directly impacts this delicate balance and poses a critical threat to the alpine bio-geoclimatic zone. Over time, trees are expected to migrate upslope as conditions in the alpine become suitable habitat for competitive woody perennials. The purpose of the vegetation survey I participated in was to measure treeline rise, a result of warmer seasonal temperatures.
To help monitor this change, BC Parks has been developing an inventory of biodiversity along an ecological alpine gradient. The data BC Parks has collected will serve as a baseline to assess how this delicate alpine meadow is changing over time, which will provide valuable information about how the park’s alpine zone is changing on an individual level, as well as how much it is changing compared to other alpine meadows within British Columbia. This provincial database will guide conservation practices in parks to protect these alpine ecosystems, especially from the effects of climate change.
However, a changing environment isn’t the only thing threatening these ecosystems – recreational activities can also do a lot of harm in sensitive areas when not done responsibly.
Human threats to the alpine
A few kilometers away from the alpine meadow I helped survey, there was extensive environmental damage from ATV use near the Oliver Creek Trail. ATVs and other off-road vehicles (ORVs) are prohibited within the Seven Sisters Park and Protected Area, with an exception made for registered local trappers. Unfortunately, some ORV users occasionally breach gates around the park and cause significant damage with their vehicles. This is a common, preventable problem that threatens to destroy alpine ecosystems.
Oliver Creek Trail began as a mining exploration road and was subject to extensive ORV use until Seven Sisters Park was established. However, even after two decades of protected status and extensive restoration efforts, the park is still impacted by the history of ORV use and other recreational activities along this trail. Soils in the alpine are almost always consistently wet and soft from meltwater, making them susceptible to damage from ATVs, dirt bikes, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and hikers when they go off designated trails.
The meadows I passed bore a combination of both old and new scars of destruction, where beds of delicate mosses and lichens had been gouged down to the soil by ATV tires. This kind of destruction recovers slowly, if at all. Some of the damage I saw was approximately two years old, however the tracks still appeared as if they had been made only the day prior.
A series of restoration projects remedied this damage in the past. Oliver Creek’s upper alpine meadows would not be what they are today without the previous recovery efforts. The expanse of ruts within the meadows were causing erosion and pooling of water that prevented natural restoration by native species, and they had to be infilled to restore natural waterflow and drainage through the soils. Seeds were harvested and collected from alpine vegetation in the remaining strips of nearby intact meadows and then scattered along the surface of infilled ruts. Some seeds were also retained for nursery rearing and transplantation over the following seasons.
The problems I witnessed at Seven Sisters Park are not exclusive to alpine ecosystems and are a growing concern across B.C., but we can all make a difference by choosing to recreate responsibly in BC Parks. All parks serve the purpose of protecting ecosystems and must be carefully managed to balance conservation with responsible recreation, and it’s much easier to preserve an intact one than restore a degraded one. This is why dedicated restoration efforts and respectful users are critical when it comes to protecting these threatened ecosystems.
What can you do to help?
Educate yourself on the parks you want to visit before you leave home and abide by all regulations. Pay attention to park boundaries and signage, and only use your ATVs and dirt bikes in parks where ORV use is permitted. Use e-bikes, mountain bikes, and horses only where permitted, stay on designated trails, and most importantly, leave no trace. If you are interested in ecosystem restoration, volunteer or donate to local environmental organizations that focus on restoring damaged ecosystems. There are groups all over B.C. doing important restoration projects in all kinds of environments, and they may welcome more help.
For ORV users interested in sustainable riding and riding opportunities please visit:
