Two discrete blocks of land have a surprising guardian angel looking after them.

North of the Opal NA is the Peaskie gravel mining operation. As they are lease holders of the natural area, for the past 6+ years they have restricted access to the area for all but foot traffic.

According to John, the retired police officer and part-time security guard, the area was previously ‘lawless’. Dozens of ATV users converged every weekend and there was widespread destruction. Since then, through education and enforcement, encounters have dwindled to almost nothing.

If you plan to access the area in any manner other than on foot, you need to contact the grazing leaseholder two weeks in advance. Assume this applies to the Natural Area and surrounding Crown Land.

Even so, and as a matter of courtesy, call the security guard on duty and let them know you are on site: 780-782-3436.

1. Inspection Report
2. Sound File
3. Images from Inspection

Inspection Report

Question	Q##	Response
		General Information
Date/Site/Submitter:	Q21/22/12	2024-03-09: Opal; Phrank P.
Guest Names	Q14
SAPAA Member	Q16	Yes
		Over all Impression of the Site
What is the Naturalness of the Site? 4=Great, 0=Terrible	Q31	3
How Natural?: comments	Q32	Since ATV’s have been discouraged, the naturalness of Opal is returning. The old ATV tracks make for good access.
		How was your visit to the PA?
Trip Duration	Q41	1-2 hours
Why Did you Go?	Q42	Other (see comments)
Visit Details	Q43	Opal Natural Area | YEG Ville
		What is in the Site?
Ease to Visit	Q51	Parking lot or parking for 2 or more cars, Entrance signs, information, etc.
Biological Observations	Q52	Lots of ungulate and snowshoe hare tracks/scat. Some evidence of coyotes (scat and tracks). Browsing on the young jack pines indicate an ungulate population. Birds were noted which likely over wintered or are on the return from the south.
Submissions to iNaturalist	Q53	No, did not see anything of note
Geological Observations	Q54
Designation as a Protected Area	Q55	Signage, Fencing, Other (see comments)
Comments	Q56	The leaseholder, Peaskie Minerals, has hired a security firm to keep motorized traffic out of the NA.
		Human Activities/Disturbances
Agricultural Activities	Q61	None noted
Resource extraction	Q62	Mining (e.g. gravel)
Motorized disturbances (ATV or vehicle activity).	Q63	Off Highway Vehicles (e.g. quads, motorbikes)
Animal or self propelled activities	Q64	Hiking Trails, Biking Trails (e.g. mountain bikes), Bird Watching, Botanical pursuits (e.g. plant identification), Snowshoeing
Gathering and Dumping Activities	Q65	Garbage dumping
Infrastructure encroachment	Q66	None Noted
Comments	Q67	Old ATV tracks. One small garbage dump, along with a possible food cache, that was at least six years old (based on the expiry date of the milk carton, December 2017). Otherwise, the site is slowly returning to a natural state.
		What Needs to be Done?
Remediation/Protection Activities Needed	Q71	Cleanup, Signs, Continued Monitoring
What Have you Done Recently to Help the site?	Q72	Visit and Submitted This Report!
Nearby Stewards?	Q73	In addition to the Peaskie Minerals, there are a number of nearby farms as potential stewards.
Comments	Q74
Last Words	Q82	Opal was a very pleasant surprise. I only managed to get to the easterly portion and a future trip will try to access the westerly block of land.

Sound File

The Government of Alberta’s Chief Scientist office requests that we collect a sound recording from sites. Not much to hear, which is a good thing! Collected 2024-03-09, coordinates provided in the sound file.

Images from Inspection