A pilot project to expand an off-leash dog area in Canmore has hit a bump in the trail just two weeks in – somebody has vandalized signage and infrastructure installed by the municipality.
The off-leash dog area at Quarry Lake is a popular spot for dog owners to take their four-legged family members and many users have asked for an extension of the off-leash area along a one kilometre loop to a nearby pond.
Town of Canmore sustainability coordinator Lori Rissling Wynn said the one-year pilot project launched mid-August with trail markers installed on the pathway and a buoy in the dog pond area to delineate where canine aquatics are permitted.
The goal of the pilot project, said Rissling Wynn, was to respond to an expressed need in the community for a trail and water spot for off leash dogs in that area in hopes that by providing that the number of people walking their dogs off leash in the adjacent habitat patch would be reduced.
“It was allowing that use to happen by satisfying that need and in return we are hoping people don’t walk their dogs off leash in places we don’t want them to,” she said. “That includes the area to the west toward the forebay, which is the remainder of the habitat patch. You can be in that area, but must have your dog on leash.”
The importance of the entire area for wildlife was demonstrated at the beginning of August with a closure in place by Alberta Parks to restrict use while bears were in the area due to an abundant buffalo berry crop.
Those berries are a critical source of food for grizzly and black bears and Rissling Wynn said the municipality has removed shepherdia bushes from the wooded area in the middle of the dog park, pond and trail loop. As a result, she said, Alberta Parks did not oppose expanding the off-leash area for the one-year trial period.
“They were comfortable with that because we do shepherdia removal in the middle of that one-kilometre loop trail. So we have been addressing buffalo berries in that part of the habitat patch, but not the rest of it,” she said.
Even with attractant management, stakeholder consultation with dog park users and Alberta Parks, Rissling Wynn said sometime in the past two weeks, three of nine trail markers were removed and the buoy in the pond unhooked.
“Our hope is that it doesn’t happen again and that people respect the infrastructure that is put in for the pilot,” she said. “I would love to be able to chat with those who are doing these things. I would like to understand what they are uncomfortable with and if we can somehow address those issues.”
A similar incident recently occurred in the Eagle Terrace area on lands owned by the Alberta Conservation Association and registered with a conservation easement.
Rissling Wynn said the association has identified trails on its lands that should be maintained and others to decommission in order to manage human use in that wildlife corridor.
She said the reduction of linear trail densities in that corridor was communicated through signage installed by the Alberta Conservation Association and it too was vandalized recently.
“It is pretty unfortunate that within a period of a couple of weeks of having these signs installed they have been vandalized,” she added. “We are trying to reduce the trail density and be good stewards of the land. There is no restriction to access, but we are asking people to use specific trails and keep their dogs on leash.”
