report on the mountain legacy project - alberta · 2017-06-16 · smoked out by many large forest...

Mountain Legacy Project

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Report on the Mountain Legacy

Project

Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources Management | April 2014

Overview

The Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) is the world’s largest systematic repeat photography project.

Since 2006 Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources Development has invested in the success

of this project, and this support has been decisive in digitizing and repeating more than 3,500 high

resolution images along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, providing critical historical and

change data for on-the-ground management, creating a sophisticated digital infrastructure and web

services, supporting new techniques and tools for image analysis, engaging innovative research, and

broadcasting to a wider public.

Much more is possible. In this report, which surveys longer-term contributions but especially the

funding provided by ESRD in 2012-13, we assess accomplishments and deliverables and lean forward

to the next phase of work. We include a detailed overview (Appendix 1) of the repeat photography

process. There are more than 10,000 historical survey images unexamined and unrepeated in Alberta.

Innovative management and decision support tools can be built atop digital tools such as the

custom-built ImageLabeler software and MEAT (digital inventory and web services). There is a rich

opportunity for public engagement through crowdsourcing repeat images and digital and in situ

exhibitions. There is certainly a book in the offing that tells the distinctive story of the mountain

surveys and changes over the last century. There are multiple research projects underway that are

attracting the next generation of talented graduate students.

At the heart of the Mountain Legacy Project

Photographs are at the heart of the Mountain Legacy Project. Project members have unearthed over

120,000 archival glass plate negatives originally taken between the 1880s and 1960s by surveyors

working for a variety of government departments. There is no other collection of this kind in the

world. Photographs cover mountainous regions in Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon, including

spectacular interprovincial (AB-BC; BC-Yukon) and international (BC/Yukon-Alaska; 49th parallel).


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MLP field crews have re-taken over 5,000 of these images since 1997, and this number grows

annually. The MLP photographic collections offer managers, researchers and the public an

unprecedented glimpse into landscape conditions during a period of rapid ecological, social, cultural,

and economic transition. These are not merely snapshots of a time past. Historical survey images

were state-of-the-art and constitute image quality that has only in the last five years been bested by

digital cameras. They are systematic and comprehensive, which means that almost every part of the

mountainous landscapes--peaks, subalpine, montane, valleys, foothills--are covered. The repeat

images are captured with professional-grade medium format digital cameras, producing stunning

images that amplify the originals.

The vast majority of project assets are digital, and are managed with a purpose-built information

system (affectionately known as MEAT: Mountain legacy Editing and Administering Tool). We maintain

over 5 terabytes of digital data, which includes versions of both historical and repeat images, meta

data, field location images, maps, field notes, survey notes and other materials.

In addition to the photographic glass plate negatives, there are also tens of thousands of

photographic prints that contain valuable historical and locational information. And, there are

hundreds of draft and finished topographic maps, survey notebooks and other documents. In sum,

the collections are massive, and we are slowly transforming them to digital form for posterity and

widespread availability.

What does this make possible?

The photographic collections enable many activities:

Investigation into landscape change over time (vegetation change, glacial retreat, tree line

advancement, fire ecology, etc.)

Setting goals for landscape management based on historical patterns of change

Understanding cultural perspectives on the mountainous landscapes of Canada

Documenting resource extraction impacts on the landscape (mining, forestry, etc.)

Interpreting land use history

Enhancing archival research

Developing and improving techniques for assessing landscape change through photographs,

including use of GIS, computer vision, and other computer software to analyze and interpret

oblique photographs


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MLP is the cumulative work of dozens of field crew members, researchers and research assistants,

agency staff, grad students, parks representatives, archivists and librarians, and volunteers. With

project partners from Victoria to Edmonton to Ottawa and many places in between. The scope of

MLP is magnified by its interdisciplinary nature, as it brings together social and natural sciences, fine

arts, library science, computer science, local knowledge, and field skills.

Evolution of the Mountain Legacy Project

In 1996, Dr. Eric Higgs and Dr. Jeanine Rhemtulla (at the time a graduate student at the University of

Alberta) began work repeating M.P. Bridgland’s 1915 photographs of Jasper National Park (the

photograph albums were housed by Jasper Nstional Park). Their pilot project examined 80 years of

vegetation change in the Athabasca Valley, which was continued successfully through 1998-99,

allowing them to re-photograph Bridgland’s entire 1915 survey. In 2000, an award winning website

was launched <bridgland.sunsite.ualberta.ca>, to show the power and promise of serving up a large

collection of images (it’s difficult now to imagine that fourteen years ago it was cutting edge to serve

up large numbers of images on the web!).

As research on Bridgland’s work continued, U of A researchers uncovered in 2000 a vast collection of

glass plate negatives housed at an archival facility outside Ottawa. In 2002, they began repeating

Bridgland’s 1913-14 Crowsnest Forest Reserve Survey using scans from glass plate negatives at

Library and Archives Canada. After the success of the Jasper “Bridgland Project” the researchers

expanded their work to Waterton Lakes National Park in 2003. Reflecting this expansion, they

renamed the Bridgland Project to the Rocky Mountain Repeat Photography Project. This first field

season in Waterton is remembered for its auspicious beginning, having very nearly been nearly

smoked out by many large forest fires. However, the team pressed on and expanded work into the

Crowsnest Forest Reserve, the Castle-Crown Wilderness and Kootenay National Park in BC.

In 2007, the Rocky Mountain Repeat Photography Project was again renamed, this time to the

Mountain Legacy Project, to reflect the growing scope of the collections. Repeat photography using

photo-topographical collections has since progressed far beyond the scope of researchers anticipated

when the Jasper “Bridgland Project” began over a decade before.

In the field

The original surveyors were a remarkable group. J.J. McArthur, the first Dominion Land Surveyor to

use the photographic mapping techniques, climbed dozens of mountains in Banff and environs from

1888-92, and later worked the Yukon-Alaska Boundary survey. A.O. Wheeler not only conducted

surveys from 1895-1924, but was the first President of the Alpine Club of Canada. His son, E.O.

Wheeler, participated in the first survey of Mt. Everest, and later became the Surveyor General of


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India. M.P. Bridgland, who wrote the definitive book on phototopographic surveying, was the first

Chief Mountaineer of the Alpine Club of Canada, and remained engaged in fieldwork from 1902-30.

We wrote a book about his exploits and achievements.1

The field conditions were daunting for the early surveyors. Otto Klotz, for example, wrote about

conditions in the Yukon-Alaska boundary survey in 1894:

“Many a time did an early morning bode a fair day, when a start would be made from a

seashore where camp was almost invariably pitched, for an ascent of perhaps five thousand

feet, only to find after hours of scrambling through Devil’s Club (Fatsia horrida), knee-deep

moss, windfalls, alder brush on land slides; then emerging through timber line onto rock and

snow and glaciers with their treacherous crevasses; skirting chasms and abysses, at times with

only slender foot-hold to save from the yawning depths; again lying full length with arms

extended on smooth, slippery glaciated rock and creeping along, onward--upwards to the

goals, and when reach, oneself enveloped in a bank of clouds hovering around the peak and

completely shutting out the world.”2

We face many similar challenges, although much secured now by safety-back up systems,

contemporary gear, maps (!), and helicopters. Nonetheless, the field crews who walk in the same

footsteps as their historical counterparts are remarkable in their own right. Jeanine Rhemtulla, the first

photographer and researcher on the project, is now a professor in Environmental Studies and

Geography at McGill University. Trudi Smith, a professional photographer and graduate student at the

time, spent four seasons in Waterton and north, completed her PhD and is now Adjunct Assistant

Professor at the University of Victoria. Chris Gat (MSc Computer Science) went into the field for a

season and developed much of MLP’s digital infrastructure. Mandy Annand, who completed her BSc

Honours at UVic, led the field crew through two demanding seasons. Stuart Higgs (no relation to Eric

Higgs), completed a double major BSc in Environmental Studies and Earth and Ocean Sciences, was a

skilled mountaineer, digital jockey, and led the field team through more than 2,000 repeat images

over several years. They’re tough, resourceful, and smart, just like the original surveyors. And, they

love the mountains.

Project Elements

Archival & Historical Research

The stunning historical mountain images that MLP repeats were originally only byproducts: they were

used to create topographical maps of Western Canada’s mountainous regions from the 1880s to the

1MacLaren, Ian with Eric Higgs and Gabrielle Zezulka-Mailloux. 2006. Mapper of Mountains: Mapper of Mountains: M.P. Bridgland in the Canadian Rockies, 1902-1930. University of Alberta Press. 2Koltz OJ. 1896. Alaska Boundary Survey. Popular Astronomy. March-April. pp. 348-353.


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1960s. To produce highly detailed topographical maps, surveyors photographed 360° panoramas

from photo stations with good prospects across the landscape (often mountain peaks), then

employed triangulation methods to link such stations together, providing continuous coverage of the

landscape. Photo-topographical surveying became especially popular in mountainous regions of

Canada because previous European methods of surveying, developed for cleared lands with many

anthropogenic landmarks, were ill-suited for the forested, mountainous, and remote terrain of

western Canada. Surveyors of western Canada became world leaders in mapping mountainous terrain.

As a result of their basis in surveying, the historical photos are systematic and offer us unparalleled

coverage of the mountainous landscapes of BC and Alberta. Despite their remarkable historical value,

all of these photos were very nearly lost. In the 1970s the glass plate negatives from many

departments’ combined photo-topographical surveys were sent from the Department of Mines and

Technical Surveys to a Public Archives Records Centre holding facility in Ottawa (“Tunney’s Pasture”)

and later marked for disposal. Instead, they remained at the facility until 2001 when a team of

researchers from the University of Alberta rediscovered them while researching surveyor M.P.

Bridgland’s work.

Archival research is ongoing, as additional collections do turn up occasionally. An ongoing formal

partnership with the Library and Archives Canada is important to collections conservation, secure

storage and digital reproduction and cataloguing of the images. The glass plates are held in secure,

climate-controlled vault at the Gatineau Preservation Centre, an world-class archival conservation and

preservation facility. The plates never leave this facility; we works solely with high quality digital scans

of the plates. Most of the historical images that MLP uses are housed at the Library and Archives

Canada facilities. MLP also has partnerships with the University of Alberta Libraries and the BC

Archives, and MLP work has relied on smaller public archives and private collections as well.

Such a vast collection of fragile images creates complications in understanding the collection in

detail. It is a puzzle sorting out a chronology of surveys, locating indexes that describe the surveys

(many have none) and figuring out the geographic extent and specific locations of images within a

survey. Working with negatives complicates the work further, and forces digital techniques for

rendering images as positives.

Digitization

The digitization process works directly with the plate negatives. The majority of it takes place in a

fully colour/greyscale managed facility at Library and Archives Canada’s Preservation Centre in

Gatineau, Quebec. The process is detailed: accessing and handling the plates; scanning on high

resolution flatbed scanners; production of high resolution TIF (Tagged Image Format) files at

resolutions of approximately 12000 x 9000 pixels; delivery of media with agreed upon names and file

structure. This last component might seem self-evident, but when working with selections from a


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collection of over 120,000 plates, agreed upon conventions for naming and other metadata tags are

crucial to managing and matching the digital artifacts with the corresponding physical one.

Repeat photography

Perhaps the biggest contribution MLP makes to ongoing systematic mountain imagery is the repeat

photographs taken during the field seasons. Our repeats leverage the systematic nature of the

original work, allowing us to re-photograph the same continuous coverage of the landscape captured

by the historic images. Not only do MLP repeat photographs draw on the legacy passed down to us

by the historic surveyors, but MLP leaves a legacy of mountain imagery in its own right. Taken

together, the historic photo and the modern repeat form an image pair. Through careful

interpretation and analysis, MLP image pairs can be used to explore the dynamics and interplay of

ecological, climate, and human-induced change in the landscape.

Since 1998 our fieldwork has yielded thousands of high quality repeat images. In most cases we are

likely within one metre of the original photographer, based on techniques we have honed over

successive field seasons. The work is at times difficult, and always demanding. Opportunistic

helicopter support speeds up our work, and field crews must also scale many peaks and be able to

deal safely with the changeable mountain conditions. Crews battle bad weather, forest fire smoke

haze, and complex logistics to obtain successful images.

The last few years working with crews of up to five individuals, we have repeated between 600 and

1,000 images using two camera systems. Crews have benefited from reasonably good weather and

modest smoke haze (there’s always the spectre of another 2003 field season, during which smoke

haze prevented any successful repeat photography). MLP has probably reached the maximum

practical output without further expanding the crew and acquiring new gear. Indeed, expanding the

crew much beyond what it is now would require additional managerial and logistical support, to say

nothing of new gear provisioning.

Research programs

The Mountain Legacy Project began as a curiosity-based research project—how have mountain

ecosystems changed over time?—and has expanded to address applied research questions across a

wide range of disciplines and practices. The fact that the images themselves are powerful and easily

understood testaments to the landscape renders them fascinating to a broader public.

Climate change impacts on mountain landscapes. With additional funding support from the Pacific

Institute for Climate Solutions, Prof. Brian Starzomski has led a team of faculty and students on the

CLIMB project, CLimate change Imaging and Mountain Biodiversity. This is based directly on the MLP

images, and focused initially on tracking biodiversity changes in Willmore Wilderness with the aim of


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projecting likely shifts in biodiversity in the future. A central component of this project is custom-built

software that for the first time allows large-scale semi-automated computer classification of

landscape features in oblique images. In practical terms, advanced techniques in computer vision are

harnessed to recognize discrete landscape features (deciduous forest, water & etc.), thereby allowing

estimates of historical and contemporary spatial attributes and comparisons of change. Now beyond

the pilot phase, the first large-scale initiative is beginning to classify hundreds of images from the

MLP collection to address questions about climate driven landscape-level changes. This work extends

earlier graduate student research projects by Adrienne Shaw, who looked at the conservation

implications of contracting subalpine meadows, and Will Roush, who studied dramatic upward

movement of the treeline ecotone in Kootenay National Park.

Fire history and applied forest management. Rick Kubian, Resource Conservation Manager for the

Lake Louise/Kootenay/Yoho field unit of Parks Canada, recently completed an MSc thesis on mixed

severity fire regimes in the Kootenay Valley. Combining painstaking fieldwork laid out in a systematic

grid across the valley, and using historical and repeat images to locate and assess field sites, he was

able to show strong evidence of a mixed-severity fire regime. The results of his work not only show

potential for further research on this particular question, but open opportunities for using MLP

images for testing assumptions and allied historical evidence of fire and other disturbance patterns.

Chris Stockdale, a PhD student at the University of Alberta, is using MLP images to understand the

dynamics of prairie/forest patterns along the eastern slopes. He is also working on new techniques

for registering oblique images for spatial analysis. The images themselves have been used by ESRD

staff for a wide variety of management and communication initiatives; much more is possible in the

future with the advent of new research and visualization tools.

Cultural studies of mountain landscapes. Cultural studies of landscape change have been an

important part of the MLP. Significant long-term research projects were undertaken by Dr. Trudi

Smith during her graduate studies (MA, PhD), Jenaya Webb (MA) and Dr. Ian MacLaren. New

graduate student, Kristen Walsh, will combine anthropological and ecological perspectives to her

studies of wind on the Eastern Slopes.

Ecological restoration. Research by Higgs focuses on ecological restoration, historical ecology and

novel ecosystems. Much of his productivity as a senior professor has used MLP images, research

results, and field-based insights in building new ideas about how to intervene responsibly in rapidly

changing ecosystems. Indeed, most graduate students working on MLP, including Lisa Levesque,

Graham Watt-Gremm, Rick Kubian Jenna Falk and Adrienne Shaw have integrated ideas about

restoration in their work. New graduate student, Nicole Goodman, will focus her work on long-term

change and restoration goals in the Grande Cache region (including Willmore).


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External collaborations. A growing network of researchers and managers have embraced the MLP,

including direct use of images by researchers such as Dr. Brian Luckman (Western), Dr. Roger Wheate

(UNBC), and Dr. Jeanine Rhemtulla (McGill). Dr. Martin Price, Director of the Centre for Mountain

Studies (Scotland) observes: “Our mountains are changing rapidly, but it is only rarely that we have

the long-term high-quality evidence to allow us to establish change over the span of a century or

more. The Mountain Legacy Project permits this, providing a unique basis for research and informed

analysis that benefits not only Canadians but all of us who are concerned with the past and future of

our planet and its mountains.” We anticipate that more widespread availability of high resolution

web-based images will catalyze graduate research at many universities. Dr. Brian Luckman

(Department of Geography, Western University), comments: “It is critical that this valuable archive of

irreplaceable data be catalogued, fully documented and made available to the scientific community as

it opens up a whole range of potential avenues for research. In much of the Canadian west these are

the first images of these landscapes and a vital baseline for studies of change over the last century.

They are also invaluable to conservation projects that seek to understand and/or restore pre-

settlement landscapes and their dynamic ecosystems.”

Communications and infrastructure

Mountainlegacy.ca. Our main communications are focused through web services. The main website

comprises background, information and news about the MLP; a companion website, Explorer

<explore.mountainlegacy.ca>, is the front end of our digital database (please see below). New

information architecture developed in 2012-13 extends the capacity of the Explorer site to allow for

just about any eventuality (crowdsourcing applications; annual repeats; third view projects). A major

overhaul of <mountainlegacy.ca> is under design for rollout in the third quarter of 2014; the new

Explorer site will launch in the second quarter 2014.

Digital asset management. Digital assets include multiple versions of historical digitized images (e.g.,

unprocessed scan; cropped master), repeat images (RAW, TIFF and various field-useable images),

location images, EXIF camera data, survey and MLP field notes and maps. More than 5 terabytes of

data are arranged and controlled by a state-of-the-art database design using open source standards

and compliant with both Library and Archives

Canada and university library information systems.

We call it MEAT (Mountain legacy Editing and

Analysis Tool). All data are backed up on high

security robust servers at the University of Victoria.

ImageLabeler is custom software for semi-

automated image classification developed by

postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Frédéric Jean, in the

Figure 1: Example of ImageLabeler


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Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Victoria. This software allows

for the first time high resolution (pixel-by-pixel) feature detection and subsequent analysis of

landscape features in oblique photographs. Designed with learning algorithms, ImageLabeler has

been calibrated with more than 60 manually classified image pairs, and achieves increasing

refinement from expert intervention.

Imaging systems. Since 2003 we have used Hasselblad medium format cameras, which offer superb

optics and resolution sufficient to exceed the historical images (which is a testament to the quality of

thie historical images!). Our systems, purchased in 2007 and 2009 used a 39 megapixel capture

sensors. As a modular system, we have the ability to exchange and upgrade sensors. Despite chronic

field issues (these are primarily studio camera systems), we believe they represent the best system

within our budget. In the 2014 field season, we will test the performance of the Nikon D800E, a much

more affordable camera with resolution and image performance theoretically close to the Hasselblad

39 MP system. Certainly, the Nikon will bring improved field capability in a lighter package. We use a

variety of supplementary cameras for documenting field locations and activities.

Overview of MLP Assets with respect to Alberta

At over 120,000 images, the historical collection of systematic mountain photography plates that MLP

has access to is the largest in the world. To date approximately 6000 historic images have been

resurveyed, the majority of these (approximately 80%) falling in Alberta and/or the Alberta/BC border.

Of this 120,000 we do not know exactly how many total plates cover Alberta; a conservative estimate

is 15,000. Thus, as many as 10,000 images remain to be digitized and repeated. Approximately 4,000

of these were appraised in January 2014 by an MLP team at Library and Archives Canada.

Currently MLP is working with the artifacts from 22 surveyors, of which 12 have direct and deep

connection with the mountain landscapes of Alberta. Table 1 below gives a snapshot of station

completion rates for these Alberta-focused surveys. This snapshot deals only with assets presently in

the MLP collection – a small portion of the thousands of plates that exist but are not yet

incorporated directly into the MLP collection.

Appendix 2 gives a detailed breakdown on Alberta-focused assets within the current MLP collection.


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Table 1: Overview of Completion rates for stations in Alberta as of April 2014. Based on current assets held by MLP. Note: some images held in the MLP collection have yet to be digitized at high resolution.

Overview of Completed/To-be-Completed Stations in Alberta as of April, 2014

Surveyor # of Stations currently in

MLP Collection

Completed stations

# of Stations to Complete

% of survey complete

(with current data)

Bridgland, M.P. 538 272 266 50.6%

Cautley, R. W. 1 1 0 100.0%

Cochrane, R. M. 19 0 19 0.0%

Dawson 1 1 0 100.0%

Dowling 44 18 26 80.0%

Lambert 13 11 2 84.6%

Malloch, G.S. 29 18 11 62.10%

McArthur, J.J. 192 53 139 27.6%

Nichols, D. W. 86 40 46 46.5%

Nidd, M.E. 17 15 2 88.2%

Royal Engineers 2 2 0 100.0%

Wheeler, A. O. 344 176 168 51.2%

All surveyor totals 1286 607 679 47.2%

2012-13 Fieldwork Overview

The summer of 2012 proved to be quite a successful season for the Mountain Legacy Project, with

the field crew covering 4 key regions in just short of 7 weeks. The three-person field crew left Victoria

on July 1st bright and early, and shot photos 4 days later in Kananaskis. Following intervals of work in

the Clearwater-Blackstone Gap region, Willmore Wilderness, Grande Cache, and Mount Robson areas

(BC work was done in support of Jenna Falk’s master’s thesis research, and was funded separately),

the crew returned to Victoria on August 16th. With a crew of three, 2012 echoed the two-person crew

of 2011 with all members being well versed in each aspect of fieldwork and data management. Jenna

Falk, an MLP team member since August 2011, served as field team lead. Heike Lettrari and Mary

Sanseverino joined the field crew in early June 2012. Each crew member brought unique strengths


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and perspectives, which kept things both fresh and efficient for field and lab work. Group dynamics

settled into an easy rhythm within a few days and everyone contributed well throughout the season.

While the field crew was deployed, back in Victoria work study student Mary Lawrence continued

working on digital organization and field note transcriptions. Long time MLP researcher Chris Gat

advanced the enormous data management aspects of the project.

Pre-season preparation and training

Pre-season preparation and training included the following:

All field crew members took and were examined in an extensive Wilderness First Aid course;

All field equipment was inspected, inventoried, retired/recycled/repaired/replaced (if

necessary);

Equipment for a smaller, shorter, second field crew was set aside (Eric Higgs and Rob Watt –

Kaskawulsh Glacier, Kluane National Park Reserve, Yukon);

Digital data preparation (locating stations, setting up field data hierarchy on field computers,

gridding and printing historic images, etc.) proceeded as well as could be expected, given

that the majority of the 2012 Library and Archives historic scans were not received before

departing for the field;

Field school training in locating historic stations in the field, camera work, safety concerns,

data collection, logistics, workflow, data management, etc.

2012 Field Season Timeline

The following is a brief overview of the field crew’s activities throughout the July 1 – Sept 1, 2012

field season.

July August

July 1st – 7th 2012:

July 1: Field crew leaves Victoria at 6AM for 7AM

ferry to Vancouver; stay overnight in Kaslo, BC at

Heike’s family home;

July 2: Field crew travels to Elbow Fire Base in

Bragg Creek, AB;

July 3: Field crew comes to ASRD Fire

Management Staff Meeting in Calgary and

discusses project with meeting members;

July 3: meet Rick Arthur and Stephan Best who

July 29th – August 4th 2012:

July 29: Full helicopter support field day – eight

Nidd 1944 stations completed; weather

“reasonable” for Willmore;

July 30-31: office day; process new field data,

thank-you cards and blog;

August 1: Drive to Edson to ESRD, signed-out

equipment;

August 1: Crew meets with Matthew Wheatley

for lunch meeting in Hinton on the way back to


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served as key contacts in Kananaskis;

July 3: Helicopter hover-exit training at Elbow Fire

Base; first flight;

July 5-8: Full helicopter support field days; perfect

weather and conditions.

Grande Cache;

August 1: Drive from Grande Cache to Tete

Jaune; stay the night at Tete Jaune Lodge;

August 2: Crew meets with Wayne VanVelzen at

Mt. Robson Provincial Park Visitor Center;

August 2-7: Camping at Robson River

Campground;

August 3: Office day; Eric Higgs meets us at

campground;

August 4: Field day – Hike Wheeler 1911

Yellowhead Pass Station.

July 8th – 14th 2012:

July 9-12: Full helicopter support field days;

July 12: Drive to Shunda Fire Base in Clearwater

region;

July 13-14: Full helicopter support field days;

significant weather challenges.

August 5th – 11th 2012:

August 5-6: Office days;

August 6: Field trip around Robson/Valemount

local area with Visitor Center owner and local

historian Bruce Wilkinson;

August 7: Meeting with Chris Zimmerman (park

warden);

August 7: Drive to Shunda Fire Base for second

round of Clearwater work;

August 8-11: Full helicopter support field days;

decent weather;

August 8: Rob Watt visits; Eric joins us in the

field;

August 9: Eric leaves for Jasper; Rob joins us in

the field;

August 9: Present to JFR girls at Shunda on MLP;

August 10: Rob leaves for Jasper.

July 15th – 21st 2012:

July 15: Man-up helicopter support field day;

significant weather challenges;

July 16: Office day/day off;

July 17: Drive to Hinton Training Center (HTC) in

Hinton, AB;

July 18: Drive to Edson Fire Center regional office

August 12th – 18th 2012:

August 12: Day off – swimming in Fish Lake with

Shunda JFRs;

August 13: Office day;

August 14: Drive to Rocky Mountain House to

sign out; drive to Valemount;

August 15: Field day – hike Wheeler 1911


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– meet and greet, discuss project, logistics, go to

warehouse for signed-out equipment from ASRD

(radio, satellite phone, helicopter harness);

July 18: Set up at Grande Cache Fire Base, then

leave for Rock Lake in Willmore;

July 18-20: Camping at Rock Lake Provincial Park

for Willmore work;

July 19: Full field day – hike Nidd 1944 Station #1

Rock Lake;

July 20: Full field day – hike Nidd 1944 Station

#14;

July 21: Office/day off.

Moose Lake West Station #1 and #2; perfect

weather;

August 16: Drive back to Victoria from

Valemount; made 7:30pm ferry;

August 17: Field gear and equipment is

unloaded at SSM and stored in lab;

August 17: Return the truck unscathed to

Budget;

August 17-18: Field crew goes through

equipment in lab and reorganizes, cleans,

inventories and returns gear to rightful storage

locations

July 22nd – 28th 2012:

July 22: Full field day – hike Nidd 1944 Station

#1A;

July 23-24: Day off/office day.

July 25: Crew meets with Kevin Freehill, Bill Tinge

and colleagues in Edson for project logistics

purposes;

July 26: Stand-by for helicopter support while

machine does fire tower servicing / office day;

July 26: Presentation on MLP to Aboriginal Junior

Forest Rangers (AJFRs) in Grande Cache at FN

Community Center;

July 27: Stand-by helicopter support field day –

Nidd 1944 Station #21 and ASRD Adam’s Creek

Fire Lookout Tower 1966 Images; significant

weather challenges;

July 28: Full helicopter support field day – Nidd

1944 Station #20; significant weather challenges.

August 19th – Sept 1 2012:

Field data is uploaded and secured on NFS

server in lab;

Inventory and gear return;

Writing field reports;

Final blog entries.


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Work Summary

In the field the crew used a Chevrolet Silverado 4x4 crew cab with full box and canopy. The truck

performed admirably overall. Besides a short stint on dirt roads getting to the Huckleberry Fire

Lookout just NE of Grande Cache, the tires were sufficient for the kind of driving encountered.

Extensive helicopter support, with hiking and driving interspersed between full helicopter field days,

made for very productive fieldwork. Work in Kananaskis was accomplished by helicopter directly from

the Elbow Fire Base, or from the Ghost Base, which was just over an hour’s drive NW from the Elbow.

In Clearwater, the situation was similar to Kananaskis, as the stations were even more removed from

road networks. When repeating the Malloch 1908 survey photos in Clearwater, the crew left Shunda

Fire Base directly by helicopter to the stations. In Willmore, the crew left the Grande Cache Fire Base

directly by helicopter to stations. In a few instances prompted by dangerous weather, stopovers were

made at the Hinton Fire Base during the day. For the earlier work in Willmore in August, the crew

camped and hiked to stations (#1, #1A, #14) from the gravel road leading to the Rock Lake Provincial

Park campground area.

Communication

While in Alberta the MLP field crew was in constant contact with ASRD through various methods of

communication. Primarily this was through cell phone contact using personal phones. ASRD radios

were also used. The crew diligently maintained contact with ASRD while out working, as

communication systems work best if both ends are actively engaged. Within a few days all crew

members were accustomed to the patterns and protocols of check-ins, check-outs and updates via

radio.

While working in Willmore Wilderness Park out of the Grande Cache Fire Base, the crew also signed

out a satellite phone from the Edson ASRD equipment warehouse. The satellite phone was used five

times, and only when the other two forms of communication did not suffice. Nonetheless, the

satellite phone with the crew at all times while in Willmore.


15

Table 3: Nichols, 1916 Palliser-Kananaskis Survey detail

Table 2: Stations at a glance

Completed Stations

Region Surveyor Survey Total #

Stations

Total #

Photos

Kananaskis Nichols 1916 Palliser-Kananaskis 21 69

McArthur 1889 - Rocky Mtns Park &

Coalfields 1 3

Bridgland 1917 Bow River Forest Reserve 7 40

Kananaskis Totals: 31 133

Clearwater Malloch 1908 Bighorn Coal Basin 18 60

Clearwater Totals: 18 60

Rock Lake &

Willmore Wilderness Nidd 1944 Willmore 14 40

Grande Cache ASRD Fire Lookout Towers 1966 2 21

Willmore (et al) Totals: 19 84

Mount Robson

Provincial Park

Wheeler 1911 Mt Robson 3 18

Topley 1913-1914 Mt Robson Cultural

Images (LAC) 1 1

Mount Robson Totals: 4 20

OVERALL TOTALS: 139 549

Nichols 1916 Palliser-Kananaskis Survey # of

Repeats

Access

Stn. 1 Mt. Indefatigable 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 2 Pocaterra 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 3 Mt. Morrison 4 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 4 Spray Lakes 7 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 5 Mt. Brock 3 Helicopter

Stn. 6 Mt. Allan 8 Helicopter


16

Stn. 7 Mt. Evan-Thomas 2 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 8 Shatch Mt. 6 Helicopter

Stn. 10 Whiteman Pass 5 Helicopter

Stn. 11 Elbow 7 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 12 Burstall (Snow Peak) 3 Helicopter

Stn. 13 Mt. Back 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 14 Mt. Worthington 3 Helicopter

Stn. 15 Mt. Nestor 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 16 Mt. Burns 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 17 Mist Mt. 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 18 Hoffman 4 Helicopter

Stn. 19 Picklejar 3 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 20 Dyson 2 Helicopter - hover

Stn. 22 Sullivan 2 2 Helicopter

Stn. 23 Bull Creek 2 Helicopter

Totals: 21 Stations 69 Repeats

Figure 2: Nichols, 1916, stations surveyed. Green – Station complete Blue – Not surveyed: Stations outside of Alberta area.

Yellow – Image/station mismatch.


17

Table 4: Malloch, 1908 Bighorn Coal Basin Survey (Clearwater area) detail

Table 5: McArthur, 1889 Rocky Mtns Park & Coalfields detail

Malloch 1908 Bighorn Coal Basin Survey # of Repeats Access

Stn. 2 2 Helicopter

Stn. 4 1 Helicopter

Stn. 5 1 Helicopter

Stn. 8 3 Helicopter

Stn. 10 3 Helicopter















McArthur 1889 Rocky Mtns Park & Coalfields

# of

Repeats

Access

Old Buck North 3 Helicopter - hover

Totals: 1 Station 3 Repeats


18

Figure 3: Malloch, 1908, stations surveyed. Green – Station complete Blue – Not surveyed: images not available.

Figure 4: McArthur, 1889, stations surveyed. Green – Station complete. More stations exist in this survey, but images and/or locations not available in the 2012 field season.


19

Table 6: Bridgland, 1917 Bow River Forest Reserve Survey detail

Bridgland 1917 Bow River Forest Reserve Survey

# of

Repeats

Access

Stn. 93 3 Helicopter - Hover








Figure 5: Bridgland, 1917, stations surveyed. Green – Station complete. More stations exist in this survey, but images and/or locations not available in the 2012

field season.


20

Table 7: Nidd, 1944 Willmore Survey, and Alberta Fire Lookout Towers detail

Table 8: Wheeler, 1911 Mt. Robson Survey detail

Nidd 1944 Willmore Survey

Alberta Fire Lookouts 1966 (Towers) # of Repeats Access

Stn. 1 Rock Lake 5 Hiking

Stn. 3 3 Hiking













Adam’s Creek Tower 11 Helicopter

Huckleberry Tower 10 Truck

Totals: 14 Stations (Nidd)

2 Towers (AFT)

40 Repeats (Nidd)

21 Repeats (AFT)

Wheeler 1911 Mount Robson Survey

# of Repeats Access

Stn. 15 Yellowhead Pass 8 Hiking

Stn. 29 Moose Lake #1 5 Hiking

Stn. 30 Moose Lake West #2 5 Hiking



21

Figure 6: Nidd, 1944, and Alberta Fire Towers (AFT) stations surveyed. Green – Station complete. Yellow – Image/station mismatch. More stations exist in this survey, but images and/or locations not available in the 2012 field season.

Figure 7: Wheeler, 1911, stations surveyed. Green – Station complete.

More stations exist in this survey, but images were not available in the 2012

field season.


22

Table 9: Remaining stations to be completed based on the 2012 field season.

Table 9 is not a comprehensive list of all outstanding photo stations available to MLP based

on the current collection, but a list of the incomplete stations based on the surveys

approached during the 2012 field season.

Note* Authoritatively determining this total requires further work at Library and Archives

Canada. The 2012 field crew worked with approximately 103 rough plate scans from

which station divisions were made. At minimum there are another 11 stations based

on photos that are known to exist. There may be more stations and photos: future

research is required.

Region Surveyor Survey Total #

Stations

Total #

Photos

Kananaskis Nichols 1916 Palliser-Kananaskis 7 19

MacArthur 1889 Rocky Mtns Park &

Coalfields

6 10

Bridgland 1917 Bow River Forest

Reserve

18 133

Kananaskis Totals: 31 222

Clearwater Malloch 1908 Bighorn Coal Basin 12 >15*

Clearwater Totals: 12 * Not known

Willmore Wilderness Nidd 1944 Willmore 13 52

Willmore Totals: 13 52

Grande Cache AFS Fire Lookout Towers 1966 2 22

Grande Cache Totals: 2 22

Mount Robson P. Park Wheeler 1911 Mt Robson 46 276

Mount Robson Park Totals: 46 276


23

Appendix 1: The repeat photography process

Underpinning the MLP repeat photography process are two overarching conventions: 1) Safety and

training of crew is paramount – data and equipment follow; 2) Appropriate logistical support is

assured before fieldwork commences. MLP has a strong safety record, and nothing can be allowed

to compromise this.

With the understanding that safety is first, the MLP process of conducting systematic repeat

mountain imaging has three main components:

1. Preparatory research and organization

Station discovery

Gridding/historical image preparation

Station visitation order

2. Fieldwork;

Getting to the station area

Occupying the station

Repeating the photographs

Getting back from the station

3. Processing the images;

Selecting the candidate images for pairing

Entering images into the MLP data hierarchy

Backing up images

Entering field notes and environmental data for each station

Producing registered image pairs at each station

It is not surprising that MLP crews spend two to three hours in “the office” for every hour actually

spent out in the field on station. The historical surveyors faced a similar work structure: three to four

months in the field, 8 or 9 months in the office.

Sample process: Repeating D. A. Nichols, Palliser-Kannanaskis Survey, 1916, Mt. Brock Station

In order to get a feel for the repeat photography process, let us look at one station from initial

station discovery to final image paring. The station selected is Mt. Brock in the Palliser-Kananaskis

Survey of 1916. David Nichols was a surveyor and geologist working for the Geological Survey of

Canada (GSC), Dept. of Mines. He spent several seasons in the area. In 1916 he and his team

produced 325 plates of the Kananaskis to Spray River Valley area.


24

Figure 1 provides an overview of the general area Nichols surveyed in 1916 and Figure 2 gives an

indication of the level of detail generated by the photo-topographic survey method.

We will use Mt. Brock (Figure 1) to illustrate a full cycle of the MLP process. However, we take as a

starting point a set of digitized images of the plate negatives. It most cases MLP works with master

scans from Library and Archives Canada. In the case of Nichols 1916, the field crew worked with

photographs of the plates. Although not as high-resolution as the master scans, the plate

photographs proved quite workable in the field. Master scans were obtained from LAC after the field

season and used in the final processing of the images.

1. Preparatory research and organization

In any given survey one of the first orders of business is to separate the scans into survey stations

and determine where the surveyors were standing when a given set of images was taken. Historical

records (e.g. the map in Figure 2 above, surveyor diaries, historical view indexes that match plates

with stations) give an indication of the general area that a survey took place in.

Once the general area is determined, the historic images are sorted into groups by edge matching

where possible. An image with some unique feature in it is selected, and MLP researchers locate the

feature on topo maps and in Google Earth. A pin is “dropped” in Google Earth to set the station.

Trying to accurately gauge distance, elevation and scale are the main factors in successfully locating a

station.

The edge matched historical images from Mr. Brock are as follows:

Figure 2a: Approx. area of 1916 Palliser-Kananaskis Survey. Mt. Brock station indicated.

Figure 2b: Section of map produced in 1920 from D.A. Nichols’ 1916 topography (lower right corner of survey area)

Mt. Brock


25

254_Nichols_1916 257_Nichols_1916 258_Nichols_1916

Figure 3: Mt. Brock images from the 1916 Palliser-Kananaskis Survey. The leading numbers are plate identifiers. They correspond to the physical plate at LAC. 255 and 256 are not available.

Mt. Blane, the tooth-edged peak in plate 257, is an example of a unique feature, as is Lower

Kananskis Lake in the distance in plate 258. The edge matching is clear between plates 257 and 258.

Once the station is located the historic images are gridded so the field crew can better line up the

repeat photograph in the gridded viewfinder of the

field camera. Images can be gridded in a bulls-eye

fashion, or in quadrant fashion. The Nichols 1916

images were all bulls-eye grids as illustrated in

Figure 4.

Finally, after gridding and printing copies of the

gridded images for the field, some decision on

which area to visit, and order of images to shoot is

undertaken. The geographical coordinates of the

stations to be surveyed are placed in a handheld GPS, which will be used in the field for station

location.

If the field team is using helicopter support than the manner of that support will determine the area.

If the support is “man up” (opportunistic drop off and pick up with the machine), then selecting an

area that matches the pilot’s flight plan for the day is mandatory. Of course, field crews can still be as

strategic as possible about where to be dropped off – perhaps one drop off/pick up point will allow

surveying of more than one station. As many as four stations can be accomplished in a day using

helicopter support. If the field crew is proceeding on foot only one or two stations will be repeated

on any given day, and much depends on the approach and technical difficulty of the climb. On July 7,

2012, the day that Mt. Brock was resurveyed, the field crew was using semi-dedicated helicopter

support. The crew was put down just below the survey station.

2. Fieldwork

Once in the general area of a given station the painstaking process of locating the exact spot that

the surveyor stood begins. If a cairn is present, this is often a good place to start. Indeed, some

Figure 4: 257_Nichols_1916_gridded


26

Figure 6: Histogram for plate

257’s repeat photograph.

surveyors (M. P. Bridgland, A. O Wheeler for example) famously have large cairns, many over 2 metres

tall. However, Nichols, in his 1916 survey, was not a prodigious cairn builder, although he did build a

smaller one on this station.

Without a cairn, field crews move to the geographic point pre-recorded on the GPS and begin to

search. The historic photos are compared with the scene in the field and a rough location is found. At

this point the camera is deployed and a more detailed comparison occurs. The far background of the

historic image is compared with the view through the camera– alterations in location are done until

the background is correct. Then, the mid-ground of the historic image is aligned in the same manner.

Finally, the foreground, if it exists in the historic image, is compared with the location foreground.

Again, the crew will move themselves and the camera to line up the view with the historic image.

The gridding on the historic image assists the

photographers to get as accurate a repeat image as

possible. Typically, one of the field crew holds the

historic image while another adjusts the camera and

tripod (Figure 5). Then the two trade places to

confirm and make final adjustments. Finally the two

trade places again and a final image is composed

and shot. Several shots are taken of each plate

varying some of the attributes of the photograph.

As well as achieving the sharpest focus possible with

the largest depth of field, MLP photographers strive

to expose each image as appropriately as possible. Field photographers use the histogram presented

on the camera for each image capture.

When used in photography a histogram is a graphical representation of

pixel exposure in the image recorded by the camera. MLP

photographers strive to have a histogram that doesn’t clip off the

highlights or shadows. The histogram in Figure 6 is the one recorded

for the repeat image of plate 257 on Mt. Brock: there are no grey bars

running up either the right or the left side, which indicates an image

with no clipped or blown out whites (the right side), or shadows so black they have no detail (the left

side). This turned out to be an appropriate exposure for the image, the result of which can be seen in

Figure 7.

Figure 5: MLP field crew repeating an historic image. Photography, aspect angle, and environmental conditions are all recorded.


27

Figure 7: Repeat image of plate 257 taken on July 7, 2012.

In addition to the repeat image, an azimuth of the camera position with respect to the image is

taken. This, along with the GPS lat/long point recorded by the field GPS and the camera GPS, will

allow future researchers to come back and accurately “repeat the repeats”.

The field recordings of azimuth and lat/long will also allow researchers to do advanced analysis on

the images – such as georeferencing the historic and modern images, and draping them over a

Digital Elevation Model, and/or creating map overlays of both historic and modern images.

Other environmental data (e.g. wind speed, relative humidity, barometric pressure, etc) are also taken

at each station. Narratives of the weather conditions, trip conditions, time in the field, and party

number are recorded. Most importantly, the file information from the repeat image is captured and

related to the historical image.

3. Processing the images

On returning from the field, there are a number of essential tasks. All of the data collected during the

day must be downloaded to the field computers, matched with their historic counterpart, and a

backup of all data made. At approximately 40 megapixels per image (compressed), a full day can

have upwards of 120 photos to upload, record, and match with the corresponding historic image.

One of the key components of the immediate data processing is deciding upon which of the repeats

taken at each station will serve as the basis for the master repeat photograph. As noted, each plate

will have several repeat images associated with it. No matter how good the histogram looked in the


28

Figure 8: Scan of historical plate 257 compared with the selected repeat image prior to final scale, rotation and cropping.

field, it is only when the field crew can compare the images on a big screen that the best image can

be selected.

Figure 8 shows the comparison between the historic scan of plate 257 and the image selected as the

best repeat. As can be seen, the modern image has a wider field of view than the historic one, so

some close inspection of the both images is needed before a “winner” can be selected from amongst

the modern repeats.

After the modern repeat is selected, an automated process is run on the field computers to update

file names and move copies of the selected images into a file hierarchy that represents the physical

stations in a given survey. The written field notes are correctly filed, the camera and gear examined,

cleaned and prepared for the next day, and one more backup – this time of the file hierarchy with

the new files in it – is performed.

257_Nichols_1916.tif

Plate 257, D. Nichols 1916

HB2_A0006584.tif

Repeat photograph of plate 257, MLP, 2012

At the end of every field season there is more work to be done in the lab at UVic: all of the data

must be correctly moved into the MLP Library. This is done via the MLP Editing and Administering

Tool (MEAT). The structure of the data library is laid out in Figure 9.


29

Figure 9: Overview of the MLP Editing and Administering Tool (MEAT).

Surveyors, Projects, Surveys, and Survey Seasons are self-explanatory, but the concept of Stations,

Visits, and Locations within the MLP Library bears some explanation.

Station

The concept of a station has its roots in the historic surveys. A surveyor would identify a high

point in the landscape where photographs were required to be taken. Upon arrival to that

location, several photographs would be taken, usually in as many directions as possible. In

many circumstances, the camera would have to be moved around in order gain the best

vantage point for a particular cardinal direction. Thus, there were many sub locations within

the general location of the station. Therefore, a station can be loosely defined as a broad

geographic location where the distance between sub locations is within a reasonable walking

distance. MLP always groups the images into stations defined by the historical surveyor.

Historic Visit

A historic visit refers to the first visit to a station by a particular surveyor. It can be thought of

as a container for historic captures. A station can have only one historic visit.


30

Visit

A visit refers to a visit to the station with the specific purpose of repeating the images from

the historic visit. A visit is uniquely identified by the date at which it occurred. Multiple visits

may occur for each station. The visit object is a container for all information related to that

specific visit, such as field note data, repeat images, location images, metadata, and image

comparisons.

Location

Where a station is a somewhat broad geographical place, a location in the MLP Library is the

specific place where a repeat image was taken. A station can have more than one specific

location.

One of the final products of a full MLP season is an exact overlay of the modern image with the

historic. The process has been automated in the MLP Editing and Administering Tool such that one

only need select four control points in common between the two images (Figure 10) and a scale,

rotate, and translation of one image onto the other is completed.

Figure 10: Setting control points in the repeat and historic images of plate 257 in the MLP Editing and Administering Tool.

After the scale, rotate, and translate operations are performed, the images are checked for alignment.

If the alignment is acceptable, adjusted master tiff versions are produced for both the historic and

repeat photographs. They are held in the MLP collection in the associated station. A researcher using

MEAT can either view the aligned images in side by side comparison or select overlay mode. Figure

11 demonstrates overlay mode for the images associated with plate 257. In overlay mode the user

can push the historic image open and shut over the repeat. This is especially good for noting

differences in vegetation, glaciation, snow cover, and other landscape changes right along the vector


31

of comparison. For example, in Figure 11 note how a fire has swept up and over the right hand ridge

in the historic image.

Figure 11: Overlay mode in the MLP Editing and Administering Tool

Figure 12 shows the same images, but this time in side by side comparison. Now we can see the

effect of the historic fire on the regrowth pattern almost 100 years later.

Mt. Brock station, plate 257, MLP 2012 Mt. Brock station, plate 257, D. A. Nichols, 1916 Figure 12: Comparison mode in the MLP Editing and Administering Tool


32

Both techniques present compelling images for use in a diverse array of teaching, learning, and

research projects. Indeed, the depth of information, attention to detail, and consistency in the final

matched image pairs is what makes MLP a desired research collaborator with scientists, historians,

and archivists from around the world.


33

Appendix 2: Detail of current MLP assets with respect to Alberta

At over 120,000 images, the historical collection of systematic mountain photography plates that MLP

has access to is the largest in the world. The physical plates that comprise these collections can be

found in several places with the main repositories being Library and Archives Canada, the BC

Archives, and the Alberta Libraries.

To date approximately 6000 historic images have been scanned at hi-resolution and resurveyed. The

majority of these (approximately 80%) falling in Alberta and/or the Alberta/BC border. Of the 120,000

physical artifacts we do not know exactly how many total plates cover Alberta; a conservative

estimate is 15,000. Thus, as many as 10,000 images remain to be digitized and repeated.

Approximately 4,000 of these were appraised in January 2014 by an MLP team at Library and Archives

Canada.

Currently MLP is working with the artifacts from 22 surveyors, of which 12 have direct and deep

connection with the mountain landscapes of Alberta. Table 1 below gives a station by station view on

the completion rates for these Alberta-focused surveys. This detailed table deals only with assets

presently in the digital MLP collection and represents a small portion of the thousands of plates that

exist but are not yet incorporated directly into the MLP collection. There is much left to do!


34

Table 1: Detail of Completed/To-be-Completed Stations in Alberta as of April, 2014

Detail of Completed/To-be-Completed Stations in Alberta as of April, 2014

Surveyor Survey Year

# of Stations

currently in MLP

Collection

# of Stations

Completed

# of Stations

to Complete

% of survey

complete (with

current data)

Notes

Bridgland, M.P.

Bow River and Clearwater Forest Reserve 1917 52 15 37 28.8%

20 unsorted historic plates in 1919 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

1918 65 26 39 40.0%

1919 77 9 68 11.7%

1920 113 0 113 0.0%

Brazeau Forest Reserve and Jasper National Park 1927 13 13 0 100.0%

1928 No historic images at this

time

Clearwater Forest Reserve 1924 4 3 1 75.0%

461 unsorted historic plates in 1928 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.No historic images in 1928 at this time.

1928


35

Crowsnest Forest Reserve and Waterton Lakes National Park 1913 110 107 3 97.3%

1914 103 99 4 96.1%

Jasper National Park 1915 1 0 1 0.0%

Bridgland totals 538 272 266 50.6%

Cautley, R. W. Kananaskis 1916 1 1 0 100.0%

Cochrane, R. M.

International Boundary Commission 1909 19 0 19 0.0%

Dawson Geological Survey 1881 1 1 0 100.0%

Dowling, D.B. Rocky Mtn. Coalfields 1904 29 6 23 20.7% 75 unsorted historic plates in 1905 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

1905 15 12 3 80.0%

Lambert Jasper North Boundary Survey 1927 13 11 2 84.6%

1928 No historic images at this time

Malloch, G.S. Casscade 1906 12 unsorted historic plates in 1906 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

Bighorn Coal Basin 1908 29 18 11 62.1%


36

McArthur, J. J. Rocky Mountain Parks and Coalfields 1887 1 0 1 0.0%

1888 83 24 59 28.9%

19 and 8 unsorted historic plates in 1891 and 92 surveys. Plates not hi-res scans.

1889 25 19 6 76.0%

1890 27 6 21 22.2%

1891 34 4 30 11.8%

1892 22 0 22 0.0%

McArthur totals 192 53 139 27.6%

Miller, W. H. Grande Cache 1928 153 unsorted historic plates in 1928 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

Nichols, D.A. Palliser-Kananaskis 1916 39 23 16 59.0% 1 historic plate in 1915 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

Pekisko Creek 1915 47 17 30 36.2%

Nichols totals 86 40 46 46.5%

Nidd, M.E. Grande Cache 1946 207 unsorted historic plates in 1946 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

Willmore 1944 17 2 88.2%

Royal Engineers

International Boundary Commission 1861 1 1 0 100.0%

1874 1 1 0 100.0%

Wheeler, A. O. Canadian Irrigation Survey 1895 4 4 0 100.0%

7 unsorted historic plates in 1895 survey.

1896 6 6 0 100.0%


37

1897 15 15 0 100.0%

1898 35 32 3 91.4%

1899 32 23 9 71.9%

Crowsnest Survey 1900

204 unsorted historic plates in survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

Inter Provincial Boundary Survey 1913 12 12 0 100.0%

1914 68 21 47 30.9%

1915 69 37 32 53.6%


1918 5 5 0 100.0%

27 unsorted historic plates in 1918 survey. Plates not hi-res scans.

1921 1 0 1 0.0%

1922 4 0 4 0.0%

1923 7 7 0 100.0%

1924 9 4 5 44.4%

Railway Belt/Rocky Mts. 1903 67 0 67 0.0%

1904 1 1 0 100.0%


1906 9 9 0 100.0%


Wheeler totals 344 176 168 51.2%

All surveyor totals 1286 607 679 47.2%


38

Good candidate for focused work

Close to completion

Figure 1 gives a quick snapshot of the four surveyors that MLP and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources Management have

primarily concentrated on. Their work makes up the bulk of the Alberta-focused images in the current MLP assets.

Figure 1: Survey completion data for Alberta images taken from four key historical surveyors represented in the

current MLP collection.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Bridgland McArthur Nichols Wheeler

Surv

ey s

tati

ons

Key historical surveyors in the Alberta Rockies and Foothills

Station completion data for Alberta images

Stations to be completed

report on the mountain legacy project - alberta · 2017-06-16 · smoked out by many large forest...

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