Portal:Geography/Featured article/9

Banff National Park, Canada's oldest national park, was established in 1885 in the Canadian Rockies. The park, located 120 kilometres (80 mi) west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 sq mi) of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley. The Canadian Pacific Railway was instrumental in Banff's early years, building the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise, and attracting tourists through extensive advertising. In the early 20th century, roads were built in Banff, at times by war internees, and through Great Depression-era public works projects. Since the 1960s, park accommodations have been open all year, with annual tourism visits to Banff increasing to over 5 million in the 1990s. Millions more pass through the park on the Trans-Canada Highway. The health of the park's ecosystem has been threatened by heavy visitation. In the mid-1990s Parks Canada responded by initiating a two-year study thath resulted in management recommendations and new policies that aim to preserve ecological integrity.