Editor: Re: More will be less for all of us in the end.
When I arrived here in the Bow Valley 30 years ago, Canmore was a small sleepy mountain town. It was a place where there was room for both humans and wildlife.
A discussion about the need of a wildlife corridor was not necessary in those days, simply because there was plenty of land for them to move through and spend time on.
Over the past years we have managed to greatly affect the lands surrounding Canmore. Being located at the gate to Banff National Park, it is apparent how crucially important this area is for the ecological, and therefore also economic health, of Canada’s premier national park.
The privilege of being able to live in such a splendid natural area also results in the great responsibility we all have to help conserve this landscape and all its non-human animals we are benefiting from in one way or another.
Many residents in the Bow Valley are fed up with a never ending stream of development proposals, which undoubtedly will destroy more land, further constrict wildlife movement and result in taking away more freedom for us humans (not give us more as the argument often goes).
In response to the great dissatisfaction of many Bow Valley residents about the proposed growth, the best possible outcome would be a moratorium that’s put into place to allow us to conduct a cumulative environmental impact assessment.
Such a study would look at the overall impact all these large-scale developments would have on our environment and on our quality of life. We have long passed the time where a serious discussion about limits and about what we want the Bow Valley to look like down the road is needed.
Because of all these human pressures, establishing a proper functioning wildlife corridor is the very least we can do, to honour the almost unlimited amount of tolerance wildlife is displaying in regard to the many hurdles we place in front of it for the sake of our ever increasing comfort and seemingly never ending need for more.
Make your voices heard if you want to make sure that grizzlies, wolves and butterflies will continue to roam this landscape for many years to come. You will help shape our future and by doing so, you give life and hope to the mystery called nature we all depend on.
Reno Sommerhalder,
Banff
