Visitor dismayed by changes in parks

My family and I visited Jasper and Banff National Parks for the first time in 1979. We enjoyed the spectacular scenery and the abundant wildlife. We’ve spent 12 vacations in these magnificent mountain parks.

Over the years, however, we began to notice changes taking place and not for the better, unfortunately.

Banff became overdeveloped and ongoing commercialization took place at a huge cost to the environment. Its wildlife population is fragmented and in trouble. Some people refer to Banff as Disneyland North and scientists wonder if the park will be a nature preserve or a fancy resort for rich people over the long term.

The same disaster is currently taking place in Jasper.

Parks Canada allowed a commercial company to build the Skywalk, another expensive tourist trap. Once the plan for a hotel at Maligne Lake had been rejected, Parks Canada thought of tent cabins. Now they are constructing the Jasper-Icefields bike trail, which is damaging prime grizzly habitat.

Just as we thought things couldn’t get worse, we read that an Indigenous band was permitted to shoot several elk, deer and sheep.

I don’t understand why speed limits are not enforced on the Yellowhead Highway and why are there no buffer zones around the national parks? Once bears, cougars or wolves cross park boundaries, they run the risk of being caught in a trap.

Kees Kunst, Oudenbosch, Netherlands