Environmental Emblems


Lodgepole Pine

Tree

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta variety latifolia

In the early 1900s, the lodgepole pine was primarily used to make railway ties. Today it plays a major role in Alberta’s forest industry and is manufactured into poles, posts, pulp, plywood, mine timbers and other lumber products.

(adopted May 30, 1984 due to the efforts of the Junior Forest Warden Association of Alberta).

Alberta Wild Rose

Flower

Wild Rose, Rosa acicularis

The wild rose grows almost everywhere in the province, brightening the countryside with flashes of pink.

(adopted 1930).

Rough Fescue Grass

Grass

Rough Fescue, Festuca scabrella

Alberta has the largest area of rough fescue grassland in the world and is the only place in North America that hosts the plains, foothills and northern kinds of rough fescue. Rough fescue provides excellent year-round forage for wildlife and livestock, and is a symbol of Alberta’s prairie heritage and the need for the conservation of our rich biodiversity of native grasslands.

(adopted April 30, 2003 due to the efforts of the Prairie Conservation Forum).

Petrified Wood

Stone

Petrified Wood

Commonly found in gravel pits throughout Alberta, petrified wood is the result of the deposit of microcrystalline quartz in the pores and cells of the fallen trees of the Cretaceous and Paleocene times, 60 to 90 million years ago.

(adopted 1977 due to the efforts of the Alberta Federation of Rock Clubs).

Last reviewed/revised: December 1, 2011