Three Sisters Mountain Village has officially submitted its final alignment proposal of the Smith Creek wildlife corridor for approval with Alberta Parks and Environment.
The Smith Creek Along Valley wildlife corridor is the final corridor to be designated in the overall development area as set out in a 1992 Natural Resources Conservation Board decision which gave approvals for a recreation and tourism project. It connects to the current along valley corridor, Wind Valley and Bow Flats habitat patches and the G8 legacy underpass and represents 174 hectares of private land.
A condition of the NRCB’s tourism resort approval was the detailed design and provision for wildlife movement corridors and a wildlife aversive conditioning plan – which require provincial approval.
QuantumPlace principal Chris Ollenberger, authorized agent for TSMV, said a lot of time and effort has been invested into the process of delineating the corridor, including discussions and feedback with the province, the municipality and TSMV’s community advisory group.
In late 2016, Ollenberger told a group of local builders and developers that TSMV has invested $3 million so far in the process of creating an area structure plan for Smith Creek, an amendment to the ASP for the Resort Centre and submitting the wildlife corridor alignment.
He said the dimensions of the corridor which, at its narrowest, is 470 metres wide below the 25 degree slope line, are appropriate for the functional movement of wildlife throughout the area.
“Functionality is absolutely important to Three Sisters,” Ollenberger said. “We believe the corridor we proposed to the province will be functional and the biggest issue is really not topography or 25 degree slopes, the number one issue by far is human use management.
“We can provide all the land and make lines on the map to protect corridors, but if people still wander throughout the woods with their dogs off leash dispersing wildlife from the corridor, then anything Three Sisters does in terms of land dedication and protection of corridors won’t be effective.”
Ollenberger said while the corridor alignment meets all the requirements set out in the Bow Corridor Ecosystem Advisory Group guidelines on wildlife corridors, those recommendations (which were not mandatory for TSMV to follow in Smith Creek) were not a driver of the design.
Instead, he said the design was 90 per cent driven by input from the community through an advisory group formed at the beginning of the process, the province of Alberta, Town of Canmore administration and council.
The community advisory group was formed to provide feedback on how the Smith Creek lands are to be developed, including feedback on recreation, wildlife, housing and commercial opportunities.
Part-way through the process, wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer resigned from the community advisory group process, saying he did not feel input was being received or welcome.
Heuer and Yellowstone to Yukon program director Stephen Legault were part of a community open house on the Three Sisters development in 2016. Both spoke about the scientific basis behind the need for a corridor that is at least 450 metres wide and below a 25-degree slope.
Legault said Tuesday (Feb. 28) the most important factors about the application for the corridor is whether it is wide enough and on terrain at low enough slopes on the landscape to allow different species to navigate their way through the east-west layout of the Bow Valley.
“Does it consider everything we need to consider in order to make sure wildlife survives in perpetuity in the valley? Part of that comes down to how we measure the 25 degree slope line,” he said.
Ollenberger, however, disagrees with Legault’s interpretation of what is the most important factor for corridor functionality. While the Y2Y director says it is slope – or the steepness of the terrain in the wildlife corridor – Ollenberger points to the fact that residents of the community are wandering through designated corridors unchecked as the biggest risk to wildlife movement.
They also disagree on where the 25-degree slope line is located. Ollenberger said TSMV knew the issue would be significant and sent crews out into the landscape to map the slope line, along with naturally occurring wildlife trails that currently exist.
“This (25 degree slope) line was not hand sketched onto a map using old topography, but was actually drawn in the field to determine accuracy,” Ollenberger said.
The recommended way to manage people, though, is also expected to be a controversial proposal, with TSMV setting out in its wildlife mitigation plan fencing of the entire developed area.
Ollenberger said the fence is less about keeping elk and bears out of the residential neihbourhoods and more focused on human use management. He said people in the corridor have a detrimental effect on wildlife movement and that is why TSMV feels its corridor proposal alignment is appropriate and fencing needed.
Legault said TSMV’s corridor application does not represent what a “reasonable person” would call a 25-degree slope line. He said it is significantly further up the mountainside than what Y2Y has provided through a GIS analysis.
“Our line is different than Three Sister’s line,” he said. “Our belief right now is the measurement Three Sisters is providing is a measurement not realistic in the context of how wildlife would use the landscape.”
While the Town of Canmore is the development authority for TSMV, it is the province, and Alberta Parks and Environment in particular, that has the jurisdiction and authority to review and set wildlife corridor boundaries.
The Rocky Mountain Outlook has made multiple requests to Alberta Parks and Environment for an interview on the process of approving the final wildlife corridor required by TSMV as per the NRCB decision. Provincial officials have not yet granted an interview with anyone involved in this process.
The province officially received the application for the corridor on Jan. 26 and after four weeks of review to determine if the application was complete, launched a public input process.
The province has begun a public comment period on the application by Three Sisters, which can be found at www.aep.alberta.ca, with input being accepted until April 20. An open house has been planned by TSMV for March 16 at the Coast Hotel in Canmore from 3-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.
The application contains multiple submissions, including an evaluation on the wildlife corridor by Golder and Associates.
