BANFF – A draft management plan for Banff National Park seeks to tackle congestion and over-crowding at iconic Lake Louise and Moraine Lake to improve the experience for visitors and protect treasured wildlife.
The draft plan, which was released on April 14 for public review, considers paid parking at Moraine Lake, which follows an earlier announcement by Parks Canada to trial paid parking at Upper Lake Louise from mid-May to mid-October this year.
The document also calls for vehicle restrictions at certain times of the year, or day, on the busy roads leading to the two lakes, which cut through critical movement corridors for wildlife such as grizzly bears.
Parks Canada officials say the Lake Louise area strategy focuses on an enhanced transportation system, as well as ways to manage the type, amount, timing, and location of human activity in areas that are ecologically sensitive, or contain important wildlife habitat.
“The Lake Louise area strategy will focus on two key objectives: improving ecological integrity and enhancing the quality of visitor experiences,” states the 45-page draft management plan.
Over the past decade, visitation to Banff National Park has increased by 30 per cent to more than 4.1 million visitors a year, with the Lake Louise area seeing unprecedented growth in visitation.
According to Parks Canada figures, the annual two-way traffic volume on Lake Louise Drive was 2.1 million vehicles in 2019, up from 1.2 million vehicles in 2010 – a 75 per cent increase.
“Summer visitor use of four popular hiking trails increased by 156 per cent, and a fall increase in trail use of 400 per cent was observed in Larch Valley,” states the draft plan.
“While summer continues to be the busiest period in the Lake Louise area, the shoulder seasons of late spring, early fall and winter holidays have all seen a surge in visitation requiring Parks Canada to manage traffic in the area on a year-round basis.”
A key recommendation in the plan includes implementing vehicle access restriction on Lake Louise Drive and Moraine Lake Road, as required, to reduce disturbance to wildlife during sensitive periods.
Specifically for Moraine Lake Road, the plan suggests using shuttle scheduling and traffic restrictions during dawn and dusk to allow wildlife to use and move through a critical wildlife corridor.
Parks Canada will also evaluate the feasibility of relocating the park-and-ride lot located several kilometres east of the hamlet of Lake Louise on the Trans-Canada Highway to the Lake Louise ski hill.
They say the planned parking lots at the ski hill, under already approved plans, will eventually accommodate up to 3,000 private vehicles and 50 tour buses. Fewer than 500 spaces are required to support the ski area’s summer program.
“The potential for these lots to play a role in alleviating some of the traffic challenges in Lake Louise will be investigated,” states the draft management plan.
“The current park-and-ride does not meet Parks Canada’s expected level of service, nor does it have sufficient capacity.”
Parks Canada will also work with the Lake Louise ski resort to build a wildlife underpass on Whitehorn Road, which leads to the ski hills and runs through a critical wildlife corridor.
Shuttle scheduling and traffic restrictions are under consideration to maintain low-disturbance periods for wildlife on Whitehorn Drive during dawn and dusk, and spring and fall, to allow animals to move more freely through the corridor.
In addition, the draft plan says human use within key wildlife habitat will be managed to reduce the potential for displacement of wary species, or the likelihood of animals becoming habituated to people.
“Special attention will be given to grizzly bears, a species of special concern, that utilize the area as part of their core reproductive range,” states the draft plan.
Conservationists are still wading through the draft document, but say overall impressions are relatively positive with the plan containing meaningful ecological objectives and targets, particularly for wildlife and aquatics.
Reg Bunyan, vice-president of Bow Valley Naturalists, said the plan also acknowledges a number of the visitation, ecological and landscape-level concerns BVN has raised over the past decade.
“Our biggest concern is the draft plans focus on the busiest areas of the park and the lack of any mention of landscape-level visitor capacity limits and management strategies,” Bunyan said.
“With a plan that has a 10-year shelf life, combined with projected visitation increases and the Alberta government’s priority of increasing future tourism, it’s important for Banff National Park to at least start thinking beyond just putting the annual Band-Aid on the Lake Louise and Minnewanka areas.”
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is cautiously optimistic about the direction in the draft plan, noting it is good to see more emphasis on managing visitation and ecological integrity.
“There’s a bit more recognition that the volume of visitors creates an impact that needs to be strategically considered in management planning and management actions,” said Sarah Elmeligi, national park program coordinator for CPAWS.
“CPAWS has been advocating for Parks Canada to more strategically and holistically address visitor use management for over a decade, and so I am very happy to see some significant strides forward in that regard.”
The management plan also has a section on the Lake Minnewanka area, which is estimated to see roughly one-quarter of the park’s annual visitation – about one million people – and has seen a 50 per cent increase in traffic in the last 10 years.
Though not providing any specifics, the plan considers potential development or redevelopment proposals, as well as consideration of the type, timing, distribution and amounts of recreational and visitor use in the area.
More specifically, the plan indicates Parks Canada will consider a multi-use connector trail between the Two Jack Lakeside and main campgrounds with Johnson Lake, Cascade Ponds and Banff and Lake Minnewanka.
Like BVN, CPAWS also has concerns that the management plan places emphasis on managing the busiest areas of the park – Lake Louise and Lake Minnewanka – and not some of the less travelled areas, including the backcountry.
Elmeligi said it’s critical these busier and more crowded front country areas are managed, but added there are visitation impacts in other areas of the national park such as Egypt Lake, as just one example.
“It’s a really popular backcountry spot right in the middle of grizzly bear habitat – declining grizzly bear habitat security because of backcountry use,” she said.
“I am not quite sure how visitation in these areas that are outside of these focus management areas is going to be addressed.”
Specifically to the Lake Louise area strategy, CPAWS acknowledges Parks Canada is trying to find a way to manage surging visitation and restore ecological integrity, including in the two through-valley wildlife corridors on either side of the Trans-Canada Highway.
But Elmeligi questions some of the more specific actions recommended in the draft management plan, including a proposed shuttle bus stop at the Paradise Valley trailhead.
Over the last couple of decades, she said a lot of work has gone into improving habitat security for grizzly bears in Paradise Valley, such as trail realignment and restrictions on camping and hiking at certain times of the year.
“A shuttle stop would mean the Paradise Trail is going to become as busy as the Larch Valley trail,” Elmeligi said, noting past research indicated Paradise Valley has some of the most productive grizzly bear habitat in the area.
“I understand they are trying to distribute human use across the landscape, but actually trying to refocus some of the people into Paradise Valley reduces grizzly bear security.”
In releasing the draft plan on April 14, Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, officially launched Indigenous and public engagement on the draft management plans for all mountain national parks.
"The mountain national parks are iconic Canadian treasures, internationally renowned for their marvellous landscapes, amazing visitor experiences, and incredible biodiversity,” he said.
“Management planning in the mountain national parks is an opportunity for the public to help shape the future of these special places so that we can protect and enjoy them for generations to come.”
Parks Canada asks the public to provide feedback to [email protected] until July 7. A virtual meeting will be held at a yet to be determined date for additional public feedback.
Parks Canada could not provide a spokesperson to speak to the draft Banff National Park Management Plan until Thursday (April 22), after the Outlook’s print deadline.
