Banff National Park of Canada

Park Management

Trans-Canada Highway Twinning

The Banff Wildlife Crossings Project Report, 2002

THE FUTURE

Highways and Wildlife in the Mountain Parks

Transportation poses some of the most severe land use conflicts in the mountain park region and the entire Yellowstone to Yukon region. There has been a 40% increase in Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) traffic in the last 10 years. Problems of transportation impacts on wildlife are only beginning to be addressed with sound data for management concerns. These problems will not be solved after five years of research.

Banff National Park in the Bow Valley possesses the only large-scale complex of highway mitigation of its kind in the world. This by default allows Banff to be in the forefront of highway mitigation research. The significance of the structures and research around them has resulted in Banff leading the world in mitigation performance research, design criteria, and connectivity studies for wide-ranging animals at a landscape scale. The research in Banff has proven to be of worldwide importance. The quality of science and contribution it has made to this critical and emerging field of applied ecology in a mere five years is undisputable.  

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