In the Backcountry

The backcountry of the mountain national parks provides habitat vital to many species and supports a variety of quality visitor opportunities. There are over 2,000 kilometres of trails laid out in a complicated network with multiple entry points leading to dozens of remote campgrounds and a number of alpine huts, cabins and backcountry lodges. Consequently, managing the backcountry is a labour intensive operation. It’s also a labour of love. The backcountry is synonymous with the wildness national parks are mandated to sustain and protect. This wildness or ecological health, in turn, sustains the wilderness experiences visitors have come to expect.

• Planning, Design and People
• Research
• Day Use Trails
• Overnight Backcountry Facilities
• Privately Operated Backcountry Facilities
• Warden Presence in the Backcountry

Let’s look at some ways we manage the backcountry to provide wilderness experiences while addressing protection of both people and bears.

Planning, Design and People

Backcountry recreation specialists, facility managers and planners work with trail crews, contractors and non-profit groups every summer to maintain and improve the trail and campground system. Ecological integrity and bear safety are paramount in their efforts.

Grizzly bears are especially sensitive to human disturbance – they need large areas of secure habitat to successfully reproduce and raise their cubs. Managing wilderness in protected areas is often about managing people; human use management is a current topic in many national parks in Canada and the United States. With respect to bears, there is no "blanket approach" to management. Rather, different trails and areas are assessed for a variety of factors, such as the bear(s) involved; the seasonal quality of bear habitat; the level and type of use the area receives; and research or analysis that apply.

Tools to manage human use range from simple changes such as improved signage and education to more active measures such as trail hardening, trail reroutes, adding, removing or relocating infrastructure, group hiking, quotas, permits and seasonal or temporary closures. What is done in one place to protect people and bears can be very different from what is done in another, but all have common ends – to protect ecological integrity and maintain valuable visitor opportunities within this context.

Research

Research, both ecological and social, is an important component of park management and helps us evaluate and adapt our management actions to meet park goals and objectives. In the backcountry, trail counters and cameras are used to gather essential baseline data for long-term management of the backcountry. Should you observe a trail counter and/or camera, please help ensure it serves its purpose by continuing along past it. Trail cameras are one means to identify wildlife and human use of an area or trail. You may also meet staff conducting park surveys on trails. If your schedule allows, your participation in such surveys helps us better manage these special areas.

Day Use Trails

Trails re-routes, such as the one completed in McArthur Pass in Yoho National Park in 1999, reflect an effort to lessen the likelihood of an encounter with a bear in an important wildlife movement corridor. Research results, park management goals, and visitor concerns are all considerations for re-routes.

In areas identified as favoured bear habitat, such as avalanche slopes and shrubby meadows, vegetation is regularly brushed out along the trails to improve sight lines for both bears and hikers. This may also improve a bear's chances of hearing and smelling approaching hikers, especially if the hikers are travelling in a close group and making noise at regular intervals.

Overnight Backcountry Facilities

As budgets allow, campgrounds of yesteryear undergo improvements where the sleeping area is separate from the cooking area. In concert with bear aware camping practices, this approach helps ensure that a bear is not drawn to tent sites in the sleeping area by food and garbage odours. An integral component of the cooking area is at least one "food storage pole". Campground design and food storage poles, in conjunction with responsible camper practices, help minimize the chances a bear will be attracted to a campground by odours, and also help ensure a bear has much less chance of receiving a food reward should it wander through.

Every backcountry campground is equipped with at least one storage facility that allows campers to hoist their food, garbage, toiletries, cooking clothes, and other potential bear attractants by means of wire ropes. Hanging at least four metres above ground level and well away from adjacent trees, this aerial storage of "human stuff" helps ensure meandering bears or other wildlife never get a "food reward" that will trigger undesirable habits. Backcountry campers are advised to store their food, toiletries and garbage in resealable containers that further contain odours in their backpacks.

Privately Operated Backcountry Facilities

Under Leasehold Agreements or Licences of Occupation, private operators manage a number of backcountry huts and lodges in the mountain national parks. These operators work closely with us to ensure food and garbage does not attract bears to their operations. They also play an important role in educating their clients about how they can enjoy the park with a minimum of impact on the land and its wildlife.

Warden Presence in the Backcountry

Several wardens work in the backcountry throughout the hiking season; they patrol by foot and on horseback. Though tasked with a wide variety of duties, they respond to any recent reports of bear activity that may need intervention or simply observation. During their patrols, they meet many hikers and exchange information, including bear sightings and other wildlife observations.

To enable both routine and emergency preparedness, the mountain national parks maintain a network of mountain-top VHF radio repeaters which receive regular service. In times of public safety responses, this level of communication has proven to be priceless. Cell phones do not work reliably in our mountainous region.