Royal Alberta Museum

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The purpose of this project was to devise a scheme that could be used to evaluate geological sites in Alberta, specifically for their educational potential and protective needs. Feedback from a broad spectrum of the geological community was used. Alberta's geology is so diverse that one system cannot hope to be ideal for every case.

Many more sites need to be evaluated to provide a truly adequate representation of each type of geological feature and to evaluate the sites' relative potential. Information about new sites and extra information about already evaluated sites might be obtained from a variety of sources. Such organizations as Parks Canada, Alberta Environmental Protection's Natural Areas Program and the Historic Sites Service of Alberta Community Development may be able to provide supplementary maps, air photos, land use and ownership records, past records, and so forth. As well, there are many geologists in Alberta who have extensive field experience and expertise in a wide variety of areas. Once a system is in place, it is hoped that these individuals will come forward with ideas and information on potential sites. Many of the geologists that gave feedback on the evaluations and sites for this project were reluctant to provide information regarding sensitive geological sites. This protective attitude, although understandable, might prove to be a problem in acquiring information for a large-scale geological inventory.

Ideally, all site information should be amalgamated at one source. One solution is to compile all information into a computer registry. If the system in this report were utilized, a suitable database could automatically adjust each site's ranking whenever a new site was entered into the inventory.