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Interested in learning more about local birds? Friends of Fish Creek is offering a Winter Birding Course beginning January 5. During 12 outings you’ll learn about the variety of bird species in Fish Creek Provincial Park and other natural areas in Calgary. Although it will still be winter, it will actually be a great time to spot birds because the trees will be without leaves. This educational experience also gives you the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors during the colder months.

The course costs $60 for Friends of Fish Creek Members, $100 for non-members, and $5 for youth 16 years of age or younger with a registered adult. The program acts as a fundraiser for Friends of Fish Creek and also exposes you to the knowledge of lifelong birder and naturalist Gus Yaki and other experienced birding instructors.

Registration is required for the course, so make sure to check into it soon. To register and for more information including course times, visit http://friendsoffishcreek.org/programs/birding-course/, call 403-238-3841, or email info@friendsoffishcreek.org.

CMI Publishing is pleased to announce that the winner of our 2014 Reader Survey Contest is Gail Chapman of Calgary! The Chapmans have lived in the residential neighbourhood of Deer Run for 20 years now and typically use the park daily, either walking their dog, cycling or hiking. Gail refers to Fish Creek as “my beloved park” and was excited to find a copy of the 2014 edition of Experience Fish Creek & Calgary’s Greenway. Not only did she read our magazine, but she gave it to her husband and daughter to read, as well.

Gail’s name was drawn at random from all of the entries we received this summer. As the winner of our Reader Survey Contest, Gail will receive an Engraved Fieldstone that will be placed next to the gazebo in the Native Gardens, adjacent to the Ranche Restaurant. Valued at $500, an engraved fieldstone is the perfect way to honour the life of a loved one, or to celebrate an important milestone in your own life. Gail’s engraved fieldstone is a gift generously donated by the Ranche at Fish Creek Restoration Society. For more info about this legacy project and all of the great work done by this non-profit group, please go to www.bowvalleyranche.com.

Welcome to this new companion website for our visitor’s guide to the Greenway and to Fish Creek.

Fish Creek Provincial Park was created 40 years ago in south Calgary. It is one of the largest provincial parks that is located in an urban setting, anywhere in Canada.

Fish Creek Provincial Park begins at the Tsuu T’ina Nation in the west and extends 20 km east to the Bow River. Carved from a glacier, the area was home at various times to First Nations hunters, trappers, farmers, a wool mill, ranchers, 4 buffalo jumps, and 80 University of Calgary archaeological digs.

When completed in 2016, Calgary’s Greenway will link Fish Creek to several other parks including: Ralph Klein, Carburn, Griffith Woods, North and South Glenmore, Edworthy, Elliston, and Baker Park. It will provide an estimated 400,000 Calgarians with free and easy access to outdoor recreation. The Greenway will be used year-round by hikers, runners, cyclists, dog walkers, inline skaters, bird watchers and cross-country skiers.

This website serves as a guide to Fish Creek and the Greenway. It features maps, articles related to history and areas of interest, and blog posts about upcoming events.

We’re also offering some exciting opportunities for interaction. On Page 3 of the hard copy of our 2014 magazine, we featured a Reader Survey. Although the Contest portion of that survey has now closed, we invite you to complete that survey online to give us your suggestions.

In our other two magazines, we ran a photo contest in 2014. Indeed, we’ve run a photo contest in each issue of Experience the Mountain Parks since it first launched in 2006! So start taking pictures along the Greenway now, or dust off the ones you have taken already, and get ready to enter them into our very first Calgary photo contest for a chance to win some great prizes!

Click here to learn more about our other annual photo contests, or click here to learn about our Brand ID trivia quiz.

Most of our distribution outlets have already run out of copies of our magazines, but don’t despair, you can still read them as mobile-friendly digital booklets here in our Library.

Happy trails!