Road kill driving national park animals to critical list

February 9, 2000
Source: Canada.com
Original story - link not found on May 4, 2002
By Reg Curren

Fences and special animal crossings have helped reduce road kill in Banff National Park, but they're doing little to eliminate what one scientist called a growing "wilderness ghetto" along the Trans-Canada Highway. Paul Paquet, a senior researcher with the Central Rockies Wolf Project and the University of Calgary, painted a bleak picture for wolves in the Bow Valley, the area especially affected by development around Banff, about 130 kilometres west of Calgary. "It's critical for wolves right now, some species are already absent like otter and badgers," he said. "This doesn't mean we won't have any wildlife in the Bow Valley or Banff National Park. "What it comes down to is a quality of life issue for these species. They live right now in an impoverished environment, a wilderness ghetto. "Humans live in impoverished environments and sustain themselves over time, but it's poor quality." There are only four wolves living in the Bow Valley - ideal wolf habitat that could support up to 20 - and Paquet places much of the blame for that on the highway. "The clear problem is that as the population has gotten smaller and smaller when you have highway mortality it has a disproportionate effect," he said. Paquet suggested a wide range of measures that could address wildlife mortality - from reducing the speed limit to 70 kilometres per hour to burying or elevating large stretches of highway. Scientists, park officials and environmentalists spent Tuesday presenting research on the effects of the highway, the railway and human activity on animal populations. Little of it points to a happy future. Mike Gibeau, a leading grizzly bear researcher, says solutions will be hard to come by without addressing overall human-use issues. "We have to get a hold on the amount of human use in the Bow Valley," he said. "Certainly just throwing more money to build bigger crossing structures is not going to be a complete solution because we still have the problem of getting bears to live in the valley." Gibeau said limiting human use is nothing new in many other U.S. and Canadian parks. "The onus is on us not to wait until problem has become extreme before we act." John Allard, acting superintendent for Banff National Park, called it a listen-and-learn session. "There seems to be some implications of human activity close to the (animal) crossings," he said. "Is there a way to make them more accessible (for animals), but also respect human use and access to the park?" Park officials estimate over four million people a year visit the Bow Valley and another five million driving straight through. There are built-in places along the busy Trans-Canada where animals can cross over or under to the other side. Parks Canada believes these are working. A total of 21,000 large animals - mostly elk and deer - have used them since monitoring began in 1996. But researchers point to the reluctance by bears, wolves and cougars to use the crossings as a huge failure. Ian LaCouvee, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific Railway, said animal hits remain a problem along the mainline. Two elk were hit as recently as Monday. He said CP has taken steps to reduce wildlife mortality, including ensuring grain spills - which attract elk - are vacuumed up almost on a daily basis. There's also a reporting system for crews to track wildlife hits. "What's happening today is a good positive step, getting together, co-operating and sharing information," said LaCouvee. "But the consensus among the whole group is that there are no easy solutions. It has been a problem long in the making, it's going to take a while to find a good solution." © The Canadian Press, 2000

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