BANFF – Parks Canada is essentially looking at a cap on summer use at Sunshine Village.
Parks Canada’s recently released draft site guidelines call for monitoring to develop maximum visitation numbers for the Sunshine Meadows area to guide long-range planning for summer use in the sensitive alpine region.
Officials say summer use will continue in a fashion and at a level that doesn’t compromise habitat effectiveness and movement of wildlife like grizzly bears and wolverines, or the fragile Sunshine Meadows area.
Sheila Luey, acting superintendent of Banff National Park, said more restrictions may be imposed if monitoring indicates unacceptable levels of environmental impacts due to human use.
“Going forward, for all intents and purposes, the future would be what we’re seeing today,” she said.
“There’s an added provision for monitoring in case the impacts of summer use are having a detrimental effect on the local environment.”
Tourists catch a bus or ride the gondola to the upper village to access the meadows for hiking the trails, as well as take a sightseeing ride on the Standish chairlift to a viewpoint.
The footprint of summer use is limited to the gondola base area, the hotel, food and beverage outlets and Standish chairlift in the upper village and the Sunshine Meadows area with access to designated trails only.
Draft site guidelines, which set the future course for use and development at the resort, limit development to structures or activities necessary to mitigate the effects of current human use levels, such as outhouses, hardening of trails and rest stops.
No additional permanent summer use facilities or attractions in the base area will be considered, while large-scale public events and the use of the Sunshine access road as a venue for events hosted by the ski area will not be allowed.
In advance of a long-range plan, Sunshine can extend the length of the summer season from July 1 to September 24; however, hours of operation, use of the Standish chair, trails or commercial facilities may not change from what existed in 2016-17.
Hikers will be encouraged to travel in groups of four to minimize disturbance to sensitive wildlife species. Early season and off-trail travel will continue to be discouraged through public communications, operational protocols, and closures and restrictions.
Dave Riley, Sunshine's chief operating officer and senior vice-president, said that upon the review of the documents, they have identified some gaps in Parks Canada’s draft site guidelines relating to both winter and summer use.
"We are developing a website which will explain these issues to all Canadians. That website will be released before the public comment period expires so the public is fully informed on the issues and can comment appropriately," he said.
Reg Bunyan, of Bow Valley Naturalists, said summer use and limits on summer use are a major concern.
Bunyan said BVN questions the ability of both the Sunshine ski area and Parks Canada to realistically manage large numbers of summer use visitors both within and outside the lease area.
“Undoubtedly Sunshine needs a certain number of visitors in order to make running the gondola economically feasible,” he said.
“But it may well be that the social and ecological carrying capacity of the meadows is far less then Sunshine’s desired economic threshold for running the gondola.”
Bunyan said the alpine meadows at Sunshine are not the rocky hardened landscape of the Sulphur Mountain gondola.
“No matter how good the messaging is about ‘staying on trail’, at a certain level of crowding visitors will seek some personal space away from the narrow trails, resulting in vegetation impacts and the potential displacement of wary wildlife such as goats, wolverine and grizzly bears,” he said.
To read the draft guidelines and provide comment, go online at www.talkwithparks.ca.
