Editor: Our highways can be safer for both people and wildlife. Vehicle collisions with animals are dangerous, expensive and a threat to wildlife and people’s survival.
Unfortunately, these accidents are likely to become more common here as Bow Valley vehicle traffic, visitation and development continue to grow.
However, there are proven ways to reduce the risk and the terrible costs to both humans and wildlife.
Wildlife crossing structures and fencing in Banff National Park are a world-renowned success story that have reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions with elk and deer by up to 96 per cent, protecting humans and ensuring that Alberta’s iconic wildlife species survive and thrive.
Yet on the 39-km stretch of the highway immediately east of the park gates to Highway 40, there are approximately 48 wildlife-vehicle collisions each year. The impacts of death, injury, and trauma are impossible to measure, but the monetary cost to society is in the range of $750,000 annually – and that’s only accounting for collisions involving deer and elk.
The Bow Valley is one of the busiest transportation corridors in the province and is also a rare east-west wildlife corridor. The highway runs through prime low-elevation habitat and is a significant barrier to movement for large mammals such as grizzlies, wolves, deer and elk.
Reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions would make our roads safer and improve habitat connectivity and the ability of wildlife to travel between the protected areas of Kananaskis Country and Banff National Park.
Currently, Alberta Transportation is reviewing draft designs for a wildlife overpass and related fencing at a high-collision site east of Lac Des Arcs called the “Bow Valley Gap.” This would be the first wildlife overpass located outside of a national park in the province, putting Alberta at the forefront of innovation in wildlife-vehicle collision mitigation.
Although funding for the actual construction of this project has been included in Alberta Transportation’s five-year budget, the ongoing wildlife-vehicle collisions in the region and their related costs present a compelling argument for inclusion of construction funding in the upcoming 2019 provincial budget.
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative has long advocated for additional fencing and crossing structures throughout the Bow Valley, and will continue to do so. However, more immediate measures in the Canmore area should be considered in the short-term.
These could include enhanced warning signage, wildlife detection systems and a reduced speed limit from the park gates to the Bow River Bridge.
You can show your support to make the Trans-Canada Highway safer for drivers and wildlife. Talk to or write to your local and provincial representatives. Visit y2y.net/tch to learn more and send a letter to the Province.
Hilary Young,
Senior Alberta program manager
Y2Y Conservation Initiative
