The Bow Valley remains an area of interest not only for people, but also wildlife who regularly navigate the region’s important corridors.
While transport trucks and trains flying west to east, or vice versa, on the Trans-Canada Highway and rail lines are vital for transportation and economic stability in western Canada, so too are the wildlife crossings for several species.
The potential of vehicle and wildlife collisions has been a regular possibility as roughly 34,000 vehicles travel the Trans-Canada Highway each summer day and the Bow Valley will remain for the foreseeable future one of the most important wildlife corridors in western North America.
The need is glaring for further mitigation to prevent vehicle and wildlife collisions and a light has been shined on the necessary infrastructure along Canada’s longest highway.
In Banff National Park, its six overpasses and 38 underpasses along an 82-kilometre stretch of highway provide a successful outcome of what could be in providing safe passages for both people and wildlife.
A 2012 study Highway Wildlife Mitigation Opportunities for the Trans-Canada Highway in the Bow River Valley not only indicated problem areas from Banff National Park’s east gate to Highway 40, but provided a blueprint moving forward.
In recent years, the provincial government has stepped up in prioritizing different ways to mitigate vehicle and wildlife collisions, particularly with such incidents costing hundreds of millions annually in insurance claims across Alberta.
The province has committed to building a long-discussed and much-needed fence along the Trans-Canada Highway from the Bow River bridge in Canmore to connect with Banff National Park’s east gate. With construction set to launch in 2025, vehicle and wildlife collisions are expected to drop as much as 80 per cent.
A pair of new wildlife crossings – an underpass east of Elk Run Boulevard outside of Canmore and an overpass near Gap Lake – will further reduce risk for people and wildlife along Highway 1A. The plans are designed to retrofit existing structures and add fencing to the proximity.
The Smith Creek area structure plan will also have a wildlife crossing as part of the provincially-approved wildlife corridor.
The G8 Legacy Project near Dead Man’s Flats has significantly helped reduce wildlife and vehicle collisions since being completed about two decades ago.
The Stoney Nakoda Exshaw Wildlife Arch has been mired in numerous delays since ground was first broken. The $17.5 million project had design and safety concerns pop up last year, leading to it falling behind its fall 2023 opening.
Earlier this year, the schedule was pushed back further to summer 2024 and again to Oct. 31, 2024, as concrete finishing and other structural work is needed, while landscaping will take place in 2025.
Despite it not yet being opened, the province has stated deer, coyote, elk and lynx have skipped the line to make use of it to get across the busy Trans-Canada Highway.
Though it will take several years for grizzly bears, black bears and cougars to trust the crossing, it’s inevitable as shown by other completed overpasses as wildlife adapts to a new safety net.
Other areas such as the Crowsnest Pass are badly in need of wildlife overpasses and underpasses to mitigate collisions between vehicles and wildlife on Highway 3.
Regardless of the government of the day in charge of decision-making, wildlife crossings are vital to the flow of both vehicle traffic and wildlife movement.
In the Bow Valley – which will continue to have its population grow and the volume of tourism expand in the coming years – they’re critical and essential in protecting both wildlife and people.
As development takes place throughout the valley, so too must the crucial wildlife corridors.
