Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park A World Heritage Site

Peace Park staff and visitor
© Parks Canada / Jeff Yee

Beargrass, unofficial emblem of the Peace Park.
© Parks Canada

Picnic on the International Boundary.
© Parks Canada

Located in the southwest corner of Alberta, Waterton Lakes National Park is bordered to the south by the state of Montana and on the west side of the continental divide by the province of British Columbia. Due to its small size (505 sq. km/202 sq. miles), cooperative management between all of its neighbours is essential for the protection of the park's environment. For example, one male grizzly can occupy a home range three times the size of the park!

Some of these concerns were addressed with the establishment of the Waterton/Glacier International Peace Park (IPP) in 1932. Today, cooperation between both parks allows for the joint management of a larger part of the ecosystem. The following is a brief overview of the evolution of Waterton/Glacier IPP.

Waterton Lakes National Park was established in 1895. By 1910, Glacier had become a National Park as well. John George 'Kootenai' Brown, Waterton's first park official, and American ranger Henry 'Death on the Trail' Reynolds (Goat Haunt Montana) were the first proponents of the International Peace Park idea.

" It seems advisable to greatly enlarge this park ... it might be well to have a preserve and breeding grounds in conjunction with the United States Glacier Park."

John George "Kootenai" Brown

They felt the lake and valley could not and should not be divided. The parks shared the same geology, climate, wildlife and ecology.

The idea for an International Peace Park was taken a step further by the Cardston Rotary Club, who initiated a meeting of several regional clubs from Alberta and Montana. In 1931, at the Prince of Wales Hotel, the first "annual goodwill meeting" convened to discuss the desire to foster "a worldwide International Peace Movement". The idea of establishing an International Peace Park in the Waterton/Glacier area was unanimously endorsed.

Following petitions from their respective Rotary clubs, local governments approached the two federal governments on the establishment of a peace park. Everyone's hard work was finally rewarded with the passing of the American bill on April 25, 1932 and shortly after with the Canadian bill on June 16, 1932. Designation and celebration of the International Peace Park took place during two ceremonies. The first was held at Glacier Park Hotel, East Glacier, Mt., on June 18, 1932. The second, after some organizational problems and delays, was held at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Park, on July 4, 1936.

The International Peace Park Association (IPPA) (sponsored by the Rotary Clubs) continues its activities by promoting international goodwill through annual assemblies, by erecting symbolic artifacts, by conducting appropriate ceremonies, honouring Association officers, and promoting the idea of international peace parks elsewhere. Currently, the IPPA is urging both Canada and United States to consider allowing regrowth of the previously cut border swath dividing Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Allowing the 20 foot (6 m) border swath to grow in would be a visual reminder that nature does not recognize artificial boundaries.

Originally, the International Peace Park commemorated the peace and goodwill that exists along the world's longest undefended border (8,892 km/ 5,525 miles). Today, the united parks represent the need for cooperation and stewardship in a world of shared resources. Cooperation within the Peace Park is reflected in wildlife and vegetation management and in search and rescue programs. The parks also share interpretive efforts including joint hikes, programs and exhibits.

On December 6, 1995 UNESCO designated the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park as a World Heritage Site because it has a distinctive climate, physiographic setting, mountain-prairie interface, and tri-ocean hydrographical divide. It is an area of significant scenic values with abundant and diverse flora and fauna.

Criteria (revised in 2006)

(vii) Both national parks were originally designated by their respective nations because of their superlative mountain scenery, their high topographic relief, glacial landforms, and abundant diversity of wildlife and wildflowers.

(ix) The property occupies a pivotal position in the Western Cordillera of North America resulting in the evolution of plant communities and ecological complexes that occur nowhere else in the world. Maritime weather systems unimpeded by mountain ranges to the north and south allow plants and animals characteristic of the Pacific Northwest to extend to and across the continental divide in the park. To the east, prairie communities nestle against the mountains with no intervening foothills, producing an interface of prairie, montane and alpine communities. The international peace park includes the headwaters of three major watersheds draining through significantly different biomes to different oceans. The biogeographical significance of this tri-ocean divide is increased by the many vegetated connections between the headwaters. The net effect is to create a unique assemblage and high diversity of flora and fauna concentrated in a small area.

The concepts of peace and solitude are indivisible from the natural beauty and international location of the Waterton-Glacier landscape. It is an example to the world of what conservation and cooperation can achieve - tangible evidence of goodwill between nations and nature.

As visitors look down the Upper Waterton Valley or glance across Cameron lake, their thoughts of awe and inspiration move freely from one mountain peak to another. And just as their thoughts move freely across the 49th so do the waters, the fish, the pollen, the seeds, the birds, the deer and the bears.

Other examples of International Peace Parks are: Peace Arch (Blaine, Washington - Douglas, B.C.), International Peace Garden (North Dakota - Manitoba), Campobello (N.B. - Maine) and Gold Rush International Park (Yukon - Alaska).