Vern Emard, a 62-year-old mountain man, is taking on a company owned by the richest Australian in a new Alberta coal battle. Emard leads the way up a rickety plywood ramp to his 'palapa' - a shelter on his remote property. From atop the roof, he gestures towards Grassy Mountain, a rocky peak in the southern Alberta Rockies. Emard prefers to be lower down, nestled among the trees along Gold Creek, where he and his father built a cabin in 1993.
He spends more time in the palapa lately due to pack rats in the cabin