Maintaining ecological integrity while providing
satisfactory recreation opportunities is a particular
challenge in some of the older mountain parks for
two reasons: 1) these particular parks contain settlements,
and 2) the location of townsites and most
human use is concentrated in the valley bottoms and
low lying areas, which also contain precious ecological
areas. When these settlements are of significant
size, as in Jasper, Alberta, residental recreational
demands augment the stresses associated with regular
human use by visitors considerably.