Construction of a 10-kilometre stretch of wildlife exclusion fencing along the Trans-Canada Highway through Canmore breaks ground next summer but with no new crossing structures to help wildlife reach important habitat on both sides of the Bow Valley.
During an update from the province on Oct. 15, Canmore’s council pressed the project representatives on other initiatives that could be considered to deal with potential problems, such as wildlife connectivity on both sides of the highway.
“I hope you take away the level of interest that we have to make sure the fence works to not only protect wildlife and people on the highway, but also to make sure we don’t become a barrier for movement of wildlife through implementing that one solution,” said Mayor Sean Krausert.
“I hope you hear both the balance that we are very grateful that this project is happening and our questions … as council we think of what could potentially be a concern that arises. The more that can be taken care of or thought of at the front end, then hopefully we have less problems at the back end.”
The long-awaited wildlife fence to be built along the Trans-Canada Highway will stretch about 10 km from the Bow River bridge to Banff National Park’s east gate and is expected to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by as much as 80 per cent.
Not only is the Bow Valley one of the most important regional wildlife corridors in Alberta and the broader Yellowstone to Yukon region, but it is also a busy thoroughfare for people with a staggering 34,000 vehicles buzzing through on the highway every day throughout summer.
Stephen Legaree, environmental specialist with Alberta Transportation, said the fence is expected to guide wildlife to existing safe crossings along the highway, but there are no plans for any additional crossings to be built.
He said industry standards call for crossings every two to six kilometres, but he added an underpass located a couple of hundred metres inside Banff National Park is being taken into account as part of this fencing project.
In addition, Legaree said there is an existing culvert structure near Harvie Heights and wildlife will also be able to cross at Highway 1A where it loops underneath the Trans-Canada Highway as well as underneath the Bow River bridge just west of the turnoff to Three Sisters.
“The wildlife fencing is intended to guide wildlife to see crossing opportunities, in this case, Highway 1A as well as the Bow River,” he said during Canmore’s committee of the whole meeting.
“We are already meeting the industry standard for crossing frequency for large, medium, and small-bodied animals.”
Highways are barriers for wide-ranging mammals such as grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, cougars, deer and elk. These animals and others need to move through the landscape to access food, water, safety and mates.
Coun. Tanya Foubert expressed concern about wildlife connectivity, too.
“Now the elk choose to live in our town to avoid predation … and so the stretch of highway that’s directly adjacent to the services of the town of Canmore and the overpass is where the elk tend to cross,” she said.
“They’re not going outside town to find ways to cross. Is the idea that they’re going to follow this fence line to the Bow River or another underpass?”
Maria Didkowsky, a provincial senior wildlife biologist, said it will take time for animals to learn where to go.
“We’d expect that they would use these other sites even if they weren’t their preferred location currently,” she said.
Coun. Wade Graham pressed the issue of a wildlife overpass or underpass if wildlife don’t use the existing crossings as anticipated.
“We’re all very excited to have this project happening but the devil’s definitely in the details,” he said.
“I was wondering if wildlife movement is deterred in a negative way, is there funding to support an actual wildlife overpass through that 10 km’s?”
There was no commitment from the province. Legaree replied: “If an issue is identified in the future, the government of Alberta will evaluate it at that time.”
Didkowsky said there will be long-term monitoring associated with the fencing project, but she could not say what that will look like at this stage.
She clarified there will be no radio or GPS tracking collars placed on elk to determine if they are using the existing crossings to get back and forth to habitat on both sides of the highway.
“We’re still exploring the best options for a long-term monitoring program,” Didkowsky said, noting collars are short-lived and expensive.
“Based on cost and time that goes into that, there’s other methods that can get us that long-term information without putting dollars out, so we’re exploring the costs-benefits of different types of monitoring programs that could provide that information.”
Graham raised concerns about animals finding their way onto the wrong side of the highway.
“What staffing resources are available to help manage that when that does happen?” he said.
The province said there is no contractor or staff available 100 per cent of the time, but said the hope is wildlife use the wildlife jump-outs – an earthen ramp to let animals get back to the safe side of the fence, with a concentre barrier blocking them from returning to the highway.
“Parks Canada has shown very good effectiveness of wildlife escape features such as these ones,” Legaree said.
“There’s a whole bunch of them, especially in areas where there might be wildlife intrusions.”
In addition, while there are no plans for the fence to be electrified to deter bears from climbing over, Legaree said the fence is being designed to minimize that, by way of a cantilevered component.
“Essentially at the top of the fence you have a return arm hanging out back towards the habitat side so it should help reduce the number of incursions for bears that are trying to climb that fence,” he said.
In neighbouring Banff National Park, wildlife exclusion fencing that parallels the highway throughout the park has reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions by more than 80 per cent and, for elk and deer alone, by more than 96 per cent.
In addition to the fencing, there are 38 wildlife underpasses and six overpasses along an 82-kilometre stretch of highway from the national park’s east entrance to the border of Yoho National Park, British Columbia.
According to the latest mortalities statics available from the province, there were about 400 recorded carcasses from the Banff east gate to just past the Kananaskis River for Highway 1 between 2016-23. These statistics also include the 1A and few outliers like Spray Lakes Road and other local roads.
James Herian, the fencing project manager with Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors, said construction of the fence along the highway through Canmore is expected to start in summer 2025.
“Completion probably be done by the end of 2025,” he said.