LAKE LOUISE – Lake Louise Ski Hill is likely going to have to create and implement a recovery plan for whitebark pine on its leasehold as part of its sentencing for cutting down a number of the endangered trees in 2013.
A recovery plan for the species, which was listed under the Species at Risk Act as endangered in 2012, was mentioned several times during sentencing hearings for the company after it pleaded guilty last year to charges related to the destruction of the trees.
Judge Heather Lamoureaux has asked defence counsel for the ski hill Alain Hepner and Crown prosecutors Eric Eacott and Jane Conly to submit written arguments with respect to sentencing by the end of September, including the possibility of a remediation plan. Her decision is expected sometime in November.
Dan Markham, spokesperson for the ski hill, said the company has been working on a remediation plan already.
“We are pleased that the judge has asked for a remediation plan with the written submissions, as a plan has already been in the works as part of our overall SARA strategy,” Markham said.
Throughout five days of testimony, the Crown argued the ski hill was aware that whitebark pine was a species that needed protecting, but the company’s management team lacked oversight on the mountain.
“(The Crown is) not arguing (cutting of the trees) had an impact on the overall population, however, there are reasons to be concerned about the cutting of whitebark pine in the national park,” Eacott added.
Environmental manger at the ski hill Veronica Whitney-Crosland testified the company has surveyed the lease area to identify whitebark pine trees. They have mapped the locations and begun to install interpretive signage to identify the trees for the public.
Whitney-Crosland testified compliance with the regulations of the park is a top priority at the ski hill. All staff, third party contractors and volunteers are put through training before they come onsite, which includes the fact there are ecologically important species present on the leasehold.
“Everyone is aware of the species at risk at Lake Louise and they have become more informed with the training,” she said.
Judge Lamoureux said she requires detailed information about what Lake Louise was doing to preserve whitebark pine tress on its lands prior to 2013 and what it has done since being charged with destroying trees that summer.
“To be very clear, there is a difference between remediation following a charge, and existing programs,” said the judge. “This is very relevant to the quantum of the fine.”
The charge Lake Louise pleaded guilty to under the Species at Risk Act carries a maximum fine of $300,000 per tree, and the charge under the Canadian National Parks Act they pleaded guilty to carries a maximum fine of $250,000 per tree.
Rick Kubian, Parks Canada acting superintendent for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, told the judge he made a presentation to Lake Louise Ski Hill representatives in April 2013 that detailed the changes to the Species at Risk Act, including that whitebark pine was listed as endangered.
Kubian said it was one of several presentations related to development of the site guidelines for the ski area’s future use.
“We wanted to make sure the SARA-listed species were given adequate consideration and the ski area leadership understand SARA is part of the legislation we need to enforce and to give more consideration than they had in the past to listed species,” he said. “Every species in the park is important and we don’t take removal of any of them lightly.”
The cut trees came to the attention of Park Warden Paul Friesen and his supervisor, Jim Mammalis, in September 2014 when they conducted a site visit to Ptarmigan Ridge.
“We went to the site and we started walking … after 100 to 150 metres, we came to an area where we saw stumps on the ground,” testified Friesen. “It became apparent quite quickly that it was along a travel path.”
The area cleared was 300 metres long and five metres wide and, in addition to whitebark pine, larch, fir, and spruce were found cut and the trees ranged in size. Friesen said 132 trees were counted by himself as cut on the site.
Fire and vegetation specialist Jed Cochrane testified when he visited the site in October, 2014, he identified 58 stumps that were whitebark pine, but he would estimate that came from 38 trees. Whitebark pine can have multiple stems growing from the same tree.
The trees were cut a year before by trail crew supervisor Bradley Eliason, who testified about his entire summer working at the ski hill in 2012.
Eliason testified during that summer his work on the hill included removing vegetation at multiple locations and the project along Ptarmigan Ridge had been on his list for several weeks before he was able to complete the tree clearing.
“That little piece of terrain has been talked about for many years,” he said. “There was at one point a straight shot to the powerline, but it was overgrown and forced skiers and snowshoers in and out of an avalanche closure area next to it.”
Eliason said while he worked on the trail crew at the ski hill, he received no information about species at risk or how to identify them, and was unaware of any permits or paperwork needed to do tree clearing inside the national park.
Parks Canada ski area coordinator Lee Smith testified that his role was to work directly with each ski hill located inside the national park on a variety of daily operating and long term planning issues and projects.
Within his role, he would issue restricted activity permits to the ski hill. Those permits allow staff to conduct work that would otherwise be prohibited in a national park.
For example, the regulations of the national park act prohibit the destruction or harm of flora or fauna, but ski hills need to do regular clearing of vegetation on leaseholds.
Smith said of all the vegetation clearing work done by Eliason’s team during the summer of 2012, no restricted activity permits were obtained by Lake Louise and no projects were discussed with him.
“I was never given the opportunity to assess this project and determine if that many trees actually needed clearing,” said Smith, adding he would regularly help each skill hill in the national park every year with their project lists and the permitting process. “That is why this particular incident is so surprising.”
Whitebark pine is a high-elevation, five-needle conifer species that has seen declining numbers due to multiple factors.
A qualified whitebark pine expert, fire and vegetation specialist, Cochrane said the introduction of a blister rust to Western Canada 100 years ago is one of the biggest threats to the species. The rust causes mortality in 90 per cent of trees that are infected.
So far, trees in the Canadian Rocky Mountains have fared well, although mountain pine beetle also affects the species.
Cochrane said part of the restoration work he is doing is to identify and protect trees that may have natural resistance to blister rust and use their seeds to grow new trees and plant them.
“That is the biggest thing we are doing for whitebark pine in terms of our conservation and restoration program.”
This involves caging trees in high alpine locations to prevent the Clark’s Nutcracker from harvesting all the cones. The bird is specially connected to whitebark pine, as it has to open the seeds and cache them in the ground in order for them to grow.
“The birds are not 100 per cent dependent on whitebark pine, but whitebark pine are 100 per cent dependent on the Clark’s Nutcracker,” Cochrane said.
The tree likes a lot of sun, which means it has struggled as the forest around it grows older with a lack of wildfire on the landscape. The trees are slow-growing and take 30 to 50 years before they can reproduce.
“When we haven’t had fire, we see less new growth of whitebark pine,” Cochrane said.
Cochrane and Smith told the judge they met with representatives at the ski hill in June 2013 to discuss whitebark pine being listed under SARA the year before.
David Day testified for the ski hill about the process to implement its site guidelines, approved in 2015, and develop a long-range plan for the future. The work on the guidelines and long-range plan includes how the ski hill addresses species at risk on its leasehold.
Day, who can include a period as superintendent of Banff National Park on his resumé, was hired by Lake Louise to undertake that process. He said a preliminary long-range plan was submitted to Parks Canada recently and is undergoing a detailed impact assessment.
“We have to demonstrate we can develop what is within the guidelines and stay within the environmental assessment,” he said. “And in a broader way, we have to be able to demonstrate we can deal with species of all kinds, including species at risk."
