The Southern Canmore Region provides important habitat for a
variety of wildlife species. At least two at risk species,
grizzly bears and wolverines (AEP 1996), have been recorded in
and around the area, as have several other carnivore species of
regional management concern, including lynx, cougar and wolves.
Important elk and bighorn sheep habitat also is located within
the Southern Canmore Region (BCEAG 1999).
Because the TransCanada Highway acts as a barrier to wildlife
movement, the Southern Canmore Region is a critical wildlife
linkage in the Bow Valley for species moving between the
Kananaskis Valley and Banff National Park and beyond. All other
Bow Valley wildlife movement routes between these two locations
force animals to cross the TransCanada Highway, the CPR
mainline, the 1A Highway and the Bow River. The Southern Canmore
Region is also a critical part of a larger system of movement
corridors that provide connectivity for wildlife populations
through the Yellowstone to Yukon Ecoregion. But future plans for
this area have the potential to severely and permanently
compromise the function of this critical wildlife movement
corridor.
In this assessment, the science-based guidelines and
standards developed by the Bow Corridor Ecosystem Advisory Group
(BCEAG) are used to evaluate the design and functionality (i.e.
viability) of the designated wildlife corridors and habitat
patches in the Southern Canmore Region. The BCEAG guidelines and
standards are analogous to a "building code" for
achieving functional, viable wildlife corridors and habitat
patches.
BCEAG is a partnership involving the Government of Alberta,
the Town of Canmore, Banff National Park and the Municipal
District of Bighorn. BCEAG’s overarching goal is to facilitate
the coordination of responses to environmental and resource
issues (BCEAG 1999). In 1998, as part of an effort to ensure the
viability of a system of wildlife corridors in the Bow Valley (BCEAG
1998), BCEAG developed and issued a set of science-based
guidelines for the design and assessment of wildlife corridors
and habitat patches. In 1999 the BCEAG wildlife corridor and
habitat patch design guidelines received a Premier’s Award of
Excellence. They were acknowledged by the Government of Alberta
for providing "clear and consistent standards for wildlife
corridor design, and for the acceptable development activities
in and near these corridors" (www.gov.ab.ca/PAO).
Despite the existence of these award-winning guidelines,
their approval by all of the agencies participating in BCEAG,
and their inclusion in Canmore’s Municipal Development Plan
(1998), they have not yet been applied to any wildlife corridor.
This report is intended to rectify this situation. The BCEAG
guidelines set out minimum acceptable design standards regarding
corridor width, slope, hiding cover and other critical design
specifications for achieving functional wildlife
corridors. Therefore, the BCEAG guidelines and standards
represent the de facto means for determining whether the
design of a corridor is functional, including those currently
designated in the Southern Canmore Region.
Most of the designated corridors in the Southern Canmore
Region were designed in the early 1990s by Three Sisters
Resorts. They were based on hiding cover (vegetation used by
animals to provide security) and non-winter, thermal cover
(vegetation used by animals to ameliorate the effects of
weather) specifications for deer and elk in Washington and
Oregon. These specifications were intended to be applied in the
non-winter months in a remote forestry setting with minimal
human activity. They are inappropriate for an urban area like
Canmore with abundant human activity, the critical winter
period, and the many other wildlife species, besides deer and
elk, that use the area.
By contrast, the BCEAG framework adopts a multi-species
approach to wildlife corridor design that is based largely on
studies carried out in the Bow Valley, including long-term field
studies of wildlife movements in and around the Town of Banff,
particularly in the winter. It takes into account the
requirements of wary wildlife species (e.g. wolves) that are
less able to adapt to human development and activity than are
deer and elk. BCEAG's approach also addresses the concern for
human safety that arises when wildlife movement routes are
blocked by settlement. As the guidelines state, "having
functional corridors would also allow individual animals to
safely negotiate their way around highly developed areas thereby
reducing the likelihood of human/wildlife conflict" (BCEAG
1998:1). (Near Rundleview in Canmore, a wildlife corridor is
blocked by a nearby reservoir (the Rundle Forebay) and wildlife
are forced to move through the neighborhood. This is potentially
dangerous for both people and wildlife.)
Primary Multi-Species Corridor Results: When evaluated
with the BCEAG scientific and methodological framework, the
existing Primary Multi-Species Corridor in the Southern Canmore
Region fails to meet minimum standards regarding width, length
and slope, and is predicted not to function as intended (Maps 1
and 2). Hiding cover values were generally adequate (Map 4),
with the exception of the extensive fairway development at the
Stewart Creek Golf Course – much of which has been constructed
within the Primary Multi-Species Corridor itself. Aside from the
high levels of human use associated with the golf course, the
inadequate hiding cover, combined with the steep slopes (Map 3)
to the south, essentially truncates the corridor at the golf
course. At Wind Ridge and above the Peaks of Grassi subdivision,
steep slopes seriously compromise the functionality of the
Primary Multi-Species Corridor (Map 3). Also, the high human use
associated with the Peaks of Grassi subdivision – which is
functionally a part of the Primary Multi-Species Corridor –
runs contrary to the BCEAG guidelines for human use and further
jeopardizes the corridor’s viability at that point. Because
much of Canmore's future growth will occur parallel to the
Primary Multi-Species Corridor’s length, pressures on the
corridor will increase dramatically in the future. This corridor
requires substantial mitigations (Map 1 and 2).
Stewart Primary Wildlife Corridor Results: The Stewart
Primary Wildlife Corridor has two main deficiencies: lack of
hiding cover and insufficient width. Unlike the Primary
Multi-Species Corridor, steep slopes are not a concern. However,
51 per cent of the existing Stewart Primary Corridor is
non-functional due to extensive golf course fairways and other
developments that lack acceptable vegetative hiding cover (Map
4). A recent Alberta Environment map shows this corridor
gradually narrowing to 19 meters at the TransCanada Highway
underpass. We suspect this funnel shape, which is not shown on
other maps, is a drafting error, but it nonetheless represents a
serious deficiency and needs to be corrected. The BCEAG minimum
width is 350 meters – the minimum required to
"buffer" wary wildlife species (e.g. lynx) from human
activities.
Wind Valley Primary Wildlife Corridor Results:
Providing that the current corridor location is optimal, and
providing that the width of the Primary Multi-Species Corridor
is increased as per BCEAG minimum standards (Map 2), the Wind
Valley Primary Wildlife Corridor requires only minor BCEAG
prescribed mitigations to reach the BCEAG minimum standards.
Hiding cover is generally sufficient and slope is moderate. To
meet BCEAG minimum standards for hiding cover, however, the
power line right-of-way within the corridor will require special
management (Map 4).
Grassi Secondary Wildlife Corridor Results: The
Grassi Secondary Wildlife Corridor fails to meet any BCEAG
minimum standards for a secondary wildlife corridor and hence is
not presently viable (Map 1). The corridor is particularly
deficient in width and hiding cover: 47 per cent of the corridor
is currently non-functional because of cleared openings (e.g.
mine scar, roads, power line right-of-way, etc.— see Photo 1).
The addition of the fairways that Three Sisters Resorts proposes
on their 1998 and 1999 maps (UMA 1998 and 1999) would compound
the corridor’s current shortcomings by increasing the cleared,
non-functional area of the corridor to 68 per cent.
Three Sisters Secondary Wildlife Corridor Results: Both
the east and west portions of the Three Sisters Secondary
Wildlife Corridor fail to meet BCEAG minimum standards for
adequate hiding cover. Currently, about 40 per cent of both the
west and east routes lack adequate hiding cover (see Photos 2
and 3), rendering both corridors non-functional (Maps 1 and 4).
The addition of proposed golf course fairways would further
compromise their functionality.
Grassi Lakes Local Habitat Patch Results: The
Grassi Lakes Local Habitat Patch is 1.43 km2.
According to BCEAG standards, a local habitat patch needs to be
a minimum of 4.5 km2 to function as intended.
Additionally, the effectiveness of the patch is compromised –
as with the secondary corridors – by open clearings that
reduce hiding cover (Map 4). As the Grassi Lakes Local Habitat
Patch is a popular recreational area, hiding cover for wildlife
is crucial.
The results of this assessment are clear. The wildlife
corridors in the Southern Canmore Region consistently fail to
meet the minimum standards for functional, viable corridors set
by BCEAG. This failure has the potential to severely impair the
movement of wildlife in the Bow Valley between the Kananaskis
Valley, Banff National Park and beyond, and could have adverse
effects on the regional populations of wide-ranging, wary
species such as wolf, grizzly bear, wolverine and lynx. Failure
to provide a network of viable corridors through the Southern
Canmore Region is predicted to significantly contribute to
further impairment of the Bow Valley ecosystem.
Most of the designated corridors in the Southern Canmore
Region require substantial mitigations to meet the BCEAG minimum
standards (Map 1). Adoption of BCEAG-prescribed mitigations will
significantly improve the corridors’ chance of success.
Furthermore, given that the total potential human population
(residential, visitor overnight, and day use) in the Southern
Canmore Region alone could reach an estimated 20,000 people per
day by the year 2015, it would be necessary not only to meet the
minimum standards set out by BCEAG, but to exceed them if viable
wildlife movement corridors are to be achieved.
This assessment, using the BCEAG scientific framework,
identified major deficiencies in the wildlife corridors in the
Southern Canmore Region. The next step is to refine this
assessment and develop solutions based on the BCEAG guidelines
and standards to address these deficiencies, a process that will
require the involvement and commitment of various stakeholders.