String theory posits that tiny actions in obscure places can have momentous effects in distant time and space — the proverbial butterfly alighting on a flower in the Amazon rainforest can trigger events that eventually bring down an empire.

Some say that’s rubbish, and it probably is. But I can show a line of robust if figurative twine connecting a hand-painted sign in the pine forests of Alberta’s foothills to the future investment returns of oil and natural gas exploration companies.

Not long ago, I was mountain biking with a buddy along one of our favourite trails near Elbow Falls in Kananaskis Country. Our minds were free, enjoying the sights of the foothills: gurgling streams and clear rock pools, delicate leaves of the aspens, emerging wildflowers in lush meadows and the ubiquitous lodgepole pines swaying in the summer breeze.

And thus the string begins: from the mountain biker to the lodgepole pines to red-painted sawn discs of wood hung every mile or so, reading “Save Kananaskis.”

It was an unsolicited reminder of the burgeoning conflict between environmental groups and the Alberta government over plans to log portions of “K-Country.” The logging aims to forestall the looming infestation by the mountain pine beetle. Having devastated huge areas of mature lodgepole forests in British Columbia, the uncountable multitudes are leaping over the Continental Divide into Alberta. One approach is simply to watch millions of pine redden, die and succumb to wildfires. Since their destruction is assured, they might as well be logged, hastening by years the happier process of replanting.

This idea has upset Alberta environmentalists and, apparently, many recreational park-goers from Calgary, Edmonton and surrounding towns. Hence the campaign, which includes highway billboards, to “save” Kananaskis.

But from what? Not the pine beetle — it’s coming, regardless. Presumably, from logging. But this assures a lingering and unsightly death. Some environmentalists have begun denying the pine beetle will be much of a problem, but I’ve seen with my own eyes dead forests by the square mile in B.C.

The fanatical few hard-core greenies seem to have garnered sympathy in downtown Calgary. Many urbanites are convinced K-Country is some kind of United Nations park, reserved for the enjoyment of city-dwelling day trippers. In truth, most of it is multi-use, as provincial parks cover only portions. Logging and resources exploration have a far longer history here than recreation, and remain legitimate activities. The mountain bike and hiking trails the urbanites have come to regard as their birthright began as forestry roads or oil and natural gas seismic lines.

Now, the string connects all our points: where do the urban oil and gas accountant, the financial controller, the human resources director — all those who work in the glittering towers that oil and natural gas built — where do they think the stuff comes from?

Alberta’s best remaining natural gas discoveries will occur in the geologically rich corridor between the Prairies and the Rocky Mountains. These are the future new pools that must be found if the province’s massive infrastructure of extraction, processing, marketing and long-distance shipping — upon which hundreds of thousands of people depend for their prosperity — is to be maintained. More and more people seem utterly clueless about this basic connection. Hence, their demand that K-Country be ruled off limits to anything but their weekend fun.

If an increasing number of people are essentially irrational about logging already doomed trees, what will they say to future oil and natural gas drilling? K-Country is the scene of the rich Moose Mountain oil project, developed in the 1990s, as well as a huge, 40-year-old sour-gas field around Plateau Mountain.

Opponents are working to wall off the foothills to resource development — and they’ll use any means, including a nasty little proxy such as the mountain pine beetle.

If they succeed, Alberta’s oil and natural gas exploration companies — from tiny start-ups to giants like Talisman Energy Inc. — will lose their richest drilling grounds, stalling their growth in Alberta.

And investors will lose one of their best sources of growth. IE