BOW VALLEY – The Bow Valley human-wildlife coexistence roundtable is pushing for viable crossings for wildlife as part of the province’s plan to build a 10-kilometre wildlife exclusionary fence along the Trans-Canada Highway in Canmore.
The roundtable, which is made up of provincial, federal and municipal representatives, called for upgrades to existing culverts or bridge underpasses as part of the fencing project on the busy highway, as well as long-term potential for a purpose-built crossing structure near Harvie Heights.
The long-awaited wildlife fence to be installed on the Trans-Canada Highway will stretch about 10 kilometres from the Bow River highway bridge near the Three Sisters exit to Banff National Park’s east gate and is expected to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by as much as 80 per cent.
Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert, Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno and MD of Bighorn Reeve Lisa Rosvold, who are all members of the human-wildlife coexistence roundtable, fired off a letter to the province of Alberta on Monday (March 31) with what they called an “urgent request.”
While extremely grateful that the province is building the wildlife fence, which is scheduled to break ground this summer, the roundtable representatives argue there will be an “unfortunate adverse impact of the current fencing plan.”
“We believe that uninterrupted fencing will impede wildlife movement and create the unanticipated consequence of reducing wildlife populations,” wrote the trio to Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen and Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz.
Highways are barriers for wide-ranging mammals such as grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, cougars, deer and elk. These animals and others need to move through the landscape to access food, water, safety and mates.
Not only is the Bow Valley one of the most important regional wildlife corridors in Alberta and the broader Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) region, but it is also a busy thoroughfare with a staggering 34,000 vehicles buzzing through on the highway every day throughout summer.
The roundtable’s letter says the proposed fencing of the Trans-Canada Highway east and west of Canmore will certainly reduce wildlife vehicle collisions, improve human safety and reduce wildlife mortality, but will have “serious implications for wildlife movement and connectivity.”
“The Town of Canmore and its Bow Valley partners are concerned about having a 10-km span without any formal wildlife crossing structure around Canmore, extending from Banff east gate to the Bow River crossing,” states the letter.
“Adding new or retrofitting existing structures to enhance wildlife connectivity should be a priority for the Alberta government, and this should not wait for regular maintenance or structure lifespan upgrades.”
The roundtable representatives say the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and 1A Highway seems like the most logical place to start with upgrades to make the area passable for wildlife, while other crossings could include adding smaller culvert-type structures for small and mid-sized animals.
In the longer term, the human-wildlife coexistence committee suggests a future potential consideration could be to add a purpose-built wildlife crossing structure on the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately one kilometre southeast of Harvie Heights.
In addition, the committee calls for changes to the fencing plan for Highway 1A east of Canmore.
The roundtable representatives say that fencing the entire 1A highway, which they say is the current plan, seems an odd priority as Alberta Transportation Wildlife Watch data indicates there are only a couple high wildlife-vehicle mortality clusters on that road.
“This action could have catastrophic impacts on wildlife connectivity,” they add in their letter.
“Alberta Transportation should consider a more targeted fencing approach along the 1A and not fencing the entire highway. This would support both wildlife movement and human recreational access.”
For the 1A area east of Canmore, Krausert, DiManno and Rosvold also said science shows that vehicle-wildlife collisions would be mitigated by significantly reducing the speed limit to 60 km/h to the Graymont Quarry access Road.
“In addition to speed reduction, better signage and even engineering to improve sightlines would seem to be a more cost-effective and ecologically sensible solution,” states the letter.
Tim Johnson, Canmore-based landscape connectivity specialist with Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative, echoed the concerns raised by the human-wildlife coexistence committee about connectivity associated with the 10-km fence.
He said research of crossing spacing in the United States suggests an average of one crossing every 1.9 km, yet it was noted during the province’s October 2024 presentation to Canmore council that the project meets the standards of a crossing every two to six km to ensure wildlife movement and connectivity is maintained.
“However, although the fence will intersect with existing bridge and culvert structures in that 10-km stretch, without modifications to make these structures more amenable to wildlife passage, their effectiveness as functional crossing points is unknown,” he said.
Johnson said there is about a nine-km distance between the first underpass inside Banff National Park and what might be reasonably considered as the next functional underpass outside the park at the Highway 1A/Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail overhead.
“The 1A/CPKC bridge is an example of an existing bridge that would not need a lot of modification to be somewhat functional as a crossing point, once the fence is connected to it,” he said.
“The concern is that just putting up a standalone fence without any other crossing solutions is potentially going to have some adverse impacts on cutting off wildlife’s ability to move and also potentially exacerbating human-wildlife conflict.”
Johnson said Y2Y wants to make sure the project gets done right from the get-go for the benefit of both wildlife movement and their protection from being hit by a vehicle, as well as keeping people safe by decreasing collisions.
“We know the Canmore corridor is very complicated and complex, and it’s not necessarily possible to just put an overpass anywhere, but those retrofits of existing bridges and culverts are what we would hope to see as part of the fencing project,” he said.
In neighbouring Banff National Park, wildlife exclusion fencing that parallels the highway throughout the park has reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions by more than 80 per cent and, for elk and deer alone, by more than 96 per cent.
In addition to the fencing, there are 41 wildlife underpasses and seven overpasses along the Trans-Canada highway from the Banff National Park’s east entrance to the border of Yoho National Park, British Columbia.
The Outlook reached out to both Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas on Monday (March 31) for comment, but did not get a response from either ministry by press time.
Sarah Elmeligi, Banff-Kananaskis MLA, echoed many of the comments made by Krausert, DiManno and Rosvold, saying she raised the same concerns with the project team several months ago during a public consultation phase.
Elmeligi said it would also be more cost-effective for viable wildlife crossings now than in the future.
“That fencing solves the wildlife-vehicle collision risk, but it doesn't solve the connectivity issue so that’s why we always have fencing in conjunction with crossing structures,” she said.
“I’m concerned and I’m really disappointed and dismayed that we’re going to spend all this money building 10 kilometres of fence, but we’re not going to do it right so it just feels really counterproductive.”
Elmeligi said the project team suggested wildlife could use the human underpass by Cougar Creek.
“The whole point is to provide wildlife safe passage across the highway without people,” she said.
“I was very upset and I recommended that the project team spend some time on the ground in Canmore looking at that.”
Elmeligi said she also recommended the project planning team consider a pedestrian crossing at the Palliser lands across the four-lane highway as part of this fencing project.
“We know that people are jaywalking across the Trans-Canada Highway there. We know that it’s dangerous. Canmore is about to invest millions of dollars in building more housing there and we know that that will lead to more people jaywalking across the Trans-Canada Highway,” she said.
“When I suggested to the project team that they consider a pedestrian crossing or an overpass for pedestrians, they basically just said no. … I cautioned them that fence will be cut, I think probably within 24 hours of going up, because people are crossing there all the time.”
