From trails and education to signage and four legged friends, a variety of options to deal with human use in wildlife corridors and habitat patches that surround Canmore were floated at a recent open house.
The recommendations came out of the recent work by a human use management review committee established by the Town of Canmore.
Sustainability coordinator Lori Rissling Wynn said while there are some new ideas, a lot of work was done to review past reports and recommendations and takes them to the next level.
“We are imagining this as reinvigorating and refreshing all that work that has been done in the past, but still honouring what has happened to date,” she said. “I think you could consider it as the next stage of the evolution of looking at these issues.”
Development planner Kate van Fraassen said reviewing past work on the issue brought different themes out in the process as to where energy should be focused.
“There has been a lot of work done in the whole Bow Valley and in Canmore over decades around wildlife corridors and specifically around human use, so we started with all the past work and there are a number of recommendations that were already there,” she said. “The town is human habitat and we are right up next to wildlife habitat, so what can we do in human habitat to make it clear how we as humans should behave when we are going through our fuzzy neighbours’ spaces?”
Rissling Wynn said the open house and online survey on the issue is meant to bring the issue up again in the community; to take a fresh look at it and get feedback.
“The community has such a strong interest and there are core values around sustainability and environment and humans and recreating, so all those things come into play with this particular issue,” she said. “We have a commitment to engaging the public and hearing from the public with respect to these issues that is a prime tenet of planning.”
Areas included in the survey are: education and trails; signage and dogs; enforcement and vegetation management; research and monitoring and miscellaneous.
There are a few recommendations that may raise eyebrows in the community. Under miscellaneous it suggests to review where geocaching sites are located near Canmore and, if they are inappropriate, request removal.
Another recommendation is to develop signage such as cutouts of carnivores and place them in the woods to remind people the species use the areas regularly.
Rissling Wynn said the suggestion is not meant to be cheeky, but a reminder there is wildlife also using the landscape at the same time.
“The idea of large silhouettes of animals would just be a visual reminder to people that these species are out here and we need to remember that for those folks that aren’t familiar with this area, they may not know they can be on a trail. But if you see a big cougar it is a good reminder to pay attention and stay on the designated trail,” she said.
Like all things regarding wildlife in the valley, a large focus is on education and creating awareness among residents and visitors.
“There are definitely people who feel they don’t want to be limited in their use and enjoyment of the landscape,” Rissling Wynn said. “We need to acknowledge that and it is a difficult thing to overcome.”
Changing behaviours is challenging, said van Fraassen, but hopefully through community feedback on the ideas out of the human use review, some level of change will be achieved.
“It is paradigm shift or behaviour changes; really, whether it is on the small scale in your own individual life, or on the broader scale community-wide, it is hard,” she said.
Go to www.canmore.ca/humansandwildlife to take the survey online.
