The Importance of Conservation
Banff is home to a diverse range of wildlife and every animal, plant and insect plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy ecological balance in the National Park.
Banff National Park conservation supports this balance when confronted with disturbances like human activity such as tourism and transportation along highways. Wildlife can become endangered due to habitat loss, climate change and invasive species, but the efforts of conservationists will often reverse the damage through various methods.
What Species Are Endangered
As of March 1st 2023 according to the Government of Canada, there are as many as eight endangered or threatened species in Banff National Park. Bull Trout for example are threatened by dehabitation, illegal fishing and invasive species brought in by people with unclean clothes and gear that enter Banff's waterways. When species become threatened or endangered, conservation becomes essential to bring the populations back to normal levels.
Current Threatened and Endangered Species
Threatened
- Bull Trout
- Westslope Cutthroat Trout
- Barn Swallow
- Bank Swallow
Endangered
- Banff Springs Snail
- Little Brown Myotis
- Whitebark Pine
- Black Swift
Areas of Conservation
Rivers, Lakes and Aquatics
The health of the waterways often reflects the health of the park, water transports nutrients and keeps interconnected ecosystems thriving. Banff conservation has restored the fish populations in the last 100 years by introducing millions of fish until 1988 after overfishing and poor management.
An interesting dynamic between conservation and tourism in the past saw the introduction of brook trout by the thousands in Devon Lakes in the 1960s. This was in the hopes of attracting fishermen to the natural park and promoting new species to repopulate the lakes.
Unfortunately, the non-native trout drove out the native bull trout in surrounding rivers by competition for food and habitats. Now most areas have a host of native fish populations and a healthy, balanced ecosystem or conservationists are actively working to create a thriving environment.
Fire and Wildfire Managment
Wildfires are dangerous and damaging when uncontrolled and can decimate an ecosystem and surrounding communities without proper care. But when controlled, fires can renew an ecosystem by burning old and dead matter like fallen leaves and trees and return the nutrients from those plants back to the soil to help new life grow. This is why a controlled fire benefits the health of Banff’s National Park and maintains a balance between old and new life. These kinds of fires are purposefully started for this reason and are called prescribed fires.
Parks Canada often enforces rules and regulations during different periods of the year when it is hot and dry to keep human-made fires to a minimum. Some of these regulations include:
- Having fires in designated pits or boxes
- Making sure that firepits are completely extinguished
- Purchasing a fire permit before using a fire pit
- Don’t leave a fire unattended
Some areas are even specific as to whether or not campers can have fires or not. Following these rules is essential to preventing human-made uncontrolled wildfires.
The Balance with Tourism
Park tourism is an essential economic industry that funds conservation in Banff National Park. However, despite the benefits of tourism there is still a delicate balance between people and wildlife that conservationists work around to maintain the park and its ecology.
A primary example of this balance is how hiking trails are open and closed for certain seasons as a way to prevent human and wildlife interaction. Bears are one of the many animals that people do not want to meet in the middle of the forest. Changing the hiking season to avoid the bears' feeding and hibernating habits keeps people and bears safe from conflict and allows both to enjoy the trails.
A Review: Compromise and Solutions
Smother Nature: The Struggle to Protect Banff National Park is a Canadian Geographic article written by Ryan Stuart about the overwhelming tourism industry that is becoming a problem for not only wildlife and the people running the park but also tourists themselves. Banff National Park has the largest tourist numbers compared to most other national parks around the world and the issues of overcrowding in the tourist areas reflect that. Banff National Park makes and spends most of its money on tourism because it makes most of its money on tourism. Conservation is secondary, the parks organizations only spend half as much money towards conservation and even less towards establishing new parks and historical sites. There have been multiple efforts throughout the last few decades to ensure that tourism doesn’t overwhelm the park but year after year Banff’s tourism continues to increase and “at a certain point, too many people is still too many people”.
One of these methods is using tour buses to shuttle large numbers of people into the park to limit the number of cars that are going into the park. Cars take up a lot of space and parking lots take up even more space. The use of buses eliminates a large number of parked cars in Banff National Park and limits the need for even more parking lots to make up for the rising tourism. Conservationist Harvey Locke was consulted about the different methods that would work best to meet the needs of both tourists and the park and stated that new parks would be the most effective method to manage this issue.
This article goes in-depth about the history and structure of the organizations that make Banff National Park the way it is. It takes into account national and international influence, COVIDs impact on tourism during lockdown, the land divides used for zoning wildlife and people as well as expert opinions on the topic. Overall Smother Nature is a good article to learn about the issues surrounding the balance of tourism and wildlife in Banff and what efforts have been taken to conserve the environment.
Highways and Wildlife Overpasses
The Trans Canada Highway is a major transportation corridor that has a large volume of cars and trucks passing through Banff National Park every day. While smaller and lesser-used roads might not cause a significant problem for wildlife, the Trans Canada Highway presents a challenge for animals that need to cross for food, water, shelter and other habitat necessities. A method developed over twenty years ago is the wildlife overpass, a stretch of land built over two road tunnels, that allows animals to migrate safely over the highway.
What You Can Do To Help
Prevention is another key factor to Banff National Park conservation and is something that all visitors and tourists can do. This is important to keep the park healthy on a day-to-day basis, and includes:
- cleaning up garbage
- limiting human and animal interaction
- staying in designated tourist areas or paths
- listening to regulation and guidelines
By working with and listening to conservationists, researchers and park enforcement we can maintain the natural balance and beauty of Banff National Park for all to enjoy.
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