Editor:
Why do we need to have grass in the highway ditches right up to the pavement edge? For numerous years we’ve lived with unseeded roadside while they twinned the highway to Lake Louise.
I often thought it did not look too bad, and it looked more natural in a mountain setting than a lush grassy shoulder. Wildlife cannot resist feeding on the lush grass, dandelions and flowers that receive increased sunshine and moisture as a result of the highway. No wonder they get killed.
I drove through Kootenay one evening last week, and just as the Outlook recently reported, there were white-tailed deer in abundance in the ditch, especially in the south end. Someone had thoughtfully mowed much of the long grass and it was remarkable how much more visible the deer were when standing in short grass and not half hidden where it had not been mowed.
With widespread removal of the forest cover as a result of the recent burns, grass and shrub growth is responding vigorously. Elk, deer and moose have an unlimited summer food supply. Their populations will likely increase, causing winter forage problems in the Columbia Valley and increased highway mortality, especially during the spring and fall months.
Those big ore trucks that roll through day and night hardly feel it when they hit a deer. They are not about to slow down to 80 kilometres or less to avoid hitting wildlife. Nor is the recreational weekend traffic from Calgary going to waste precious holiday time by slowing down for wildlife. Unless the animals can actually be seen in the distance.
There might be $5 million available to fence a three-kilometre hotspot, but the project has been delayed.
A partial fix that would cover a much larger area would be to spend that money on simply removing the topsoil for 10 or 20 metres back from the pavement edge. Nothing more than bulldozers and dump trucks would be required. Take away the topsoil and there will be nothing to entice the animals to the highway edge, and those grazing farther back will be more visible from farther away.
The topsoil can be stockpiled for a few years to see if this does in fact help, and if it does, then it can be used to rehabilitate disturbed areas throughout the park.
It is not a complete solution, but it is affordable and just might make a significant contribution to the reduction of increasing animal highway mortality.
Rick Kunelius,
Banff
