A natural area providing drinking water, recreation, timber, oil and gas resources could die the proverbial death by a thousand cuts if current trends are maintained, a researcher told a group of concerned residents and volunteers.
“A lot of impacts in the area have already happened,” said Cornel Yarmoloy, environmental scientist with ALCES Landscape and Land-Use Ltd.
As a result of human activity, the Ghost watershed, a 1,000 square kilometre area extending from the Ghost River reservoir west of Cochrane to Banff National Park, could be damaged beyond repair, he added.
On Feb. 5, Yarmoloy presented the results of a cumulative effects study for the area he conducted using the company’s computer software named A Landscape Cumulative Effects Simulator (ALCES).
The model allowed Yarmoloy to project the effect of the current uses in the area 60 years into the future.
During the presentation hosted by the Ghost Watershed Alliance Society in the hamlet of Benchlands, Yarmoloy said nature could take up to 100 years to repair damages being done by increased motorized recreation activity.
“It is a busy landscape,” he said.
The Ghost-Waiparous area has become well known for intensive use by motorized recreationists, which in past years severely affected the local ecosystem.
Yarmoloy said while 300 kilometres of approved ATV trails exist, as many as 2,700 kilometres of linear features are in fact used by off-road vehicles.
“ATV use is okay if it happens on designated trails,” he said. “But not on 2,700 kilometres.”
Yarmoloy also found sediment loads in water streams to be higher than expected, which he attributed largely to ATV activity.
Marina Krainer, a director with the watershed society, said enforcement in the area, which in 2005 was conducted by three full-time officers, has been reduced to the equivalent of one single officer working half time.
“You do not bump into (enforcement officers) anymore,” said Yarmoloy, who has also been a long time recreational user in the area.
Linear features that criss cross the landscape at a rate of five kilometres per square kilometre should be reduced to a more sustainable rate of 1.2 kilometres per square kilometre, Yarmoloy said.
Clear-cut logging also threatens animals that rely on large patches of forested areas to avoid predators, he added.
Yarmoloy said the combined results of the activities would increase mortality in native fish species and grizzly bears, which could begin to die at rates up to six times their natural rate.
Random camping combined with lack of restroom facilities adds large loads of uncontained human manure being dumped in the region, Yarmoloy added.
“I was just dumbstruck by the lack of public toilets,” he said.
Calgary’s senior water quality and regulatory analyst John Jagorinec said the city has a stake on the Ghost watershed, which contributes eight per cent of the city’s drinking water through the Bow River.
“I can’t emphasize enough how much a healthy riparian system can determine water quality,” he said.
Mike MacDonald, who lives in the village of Waiparous, said a balance should be found to allow the area to continue providing its ecological resources in a sustainable manner.
“Future generations should be able to enjoy it too,” he said.
Mark Bennett, executive director of the Bow River Basin Council, attended the presentation and said the group will support the recommendations contained in the report.
“If there is a way we can help we will do that,” he said. “We are all together in the watershed.”
Heinz Unger, chair of the Ghost Watershed Alliance Society, said the study has brought awareness of the state of the watershed to a new level, beyond emotional claims.
“There is data, facts and professional scientific evidence that we have a problem here,” he said.
“The eastern slopes are too fragile to support the level of activity that we have imposed on it for the last 20 years.”
That enhanced awareness poses a challenge but also an incentive to all those who use the watershed to use it responsibly, Unger added.
“Many are attracted to this area because of its natural values such as esthetics and wildlife,” he said.
“I see an opportunity there.”
