Every watershed has a story: this is the Elbow’s.

The Elbow River watershed is a small yet significant watershed extending from the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains to downtown Calgary. This geographical watershed is itself at a metaphorical watershed, due to increasing pressure for urban, industrial and recreational development which will alter the healthy functioning of its interdependent parts.

Mountains to Metropolis combines the author’s own explorations in the watershed with comprehensive background information to place the reader in the watershed itself. Grizzly bears and mule deer, park wardens and cowboys, First Nations and first settlers, range cattle and coyotes, urbanites and beavers, city engineers and soldiers, Grey Nuns and missionaries – all are part of this watershed’s story. And each has shaped and been shaped by the physical and spiritual power of the river at the watershed’s core.

While legislators, municipal managers, industry and residents all have a responsibility for making our watershed happy and healthy, in the end it comes down to the individual. The author lays out simple actions that we each can take in our daily lives.

Diane Coleman writes non-fiction and technical materials, based on her forty-year career as a geo­matics consultant, environmental applications specialist and educator. A geographer by training, she has lived, worked and hiked in the Elbow River watershed for four decades and is currently Chair of the Elbow River Watershed Partnership.