Rockies see more visitors, more conflict with wildlife
Summer has just ended, but it’s already going down as one of the busiest ever for the national parks in the Rockies.
Preliminary numbers show that Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks recorded five per cent increases in visitors, while Waterton Lakes National Park saw an eight per cent increase from April to July.
“It was a fairly busy year,” said Locke Marshall, visitor experience manager with Waterton Lakes National Park, where there were 261,136 visitors in the four-month period.
In Banff, which set records last year, the visitation numbers from April through July increased 4.7 per cent to 1.57 million — up from 1.49 million in 2015.
Michael St. Denis, visitor experience manager with Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay national parks, said it was a busy summer.
“We’ve noticed more people,” he said, noting they’ve had additional staff in both Lake Louise and Field, B.C., to deal with the influx.
Yoho and Kootenay national parks saw increases of 5.3 and 4.7 per cent — up to 278,000 and 246,000 visitors respectively.
The August and early September numbers haven’t been finalized, but officials expect the numbers will continue to show an upward trend as Albertans stay closer to home during an economic downturn, and international visitors flock to the Rockies to take advantage of the low Canadian dollar.
It’s the third summer in a row that the national parks in Alberta have noticed a spike in visitation, and they’re likely to be even busier next year when entry is free to mark the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation.
Although good for the lagging economy, the increased tourism has caused traffic congestion in areas such as Lake Louise — the most visited spot in Banff National Park.
It has also led to conflicts between people and wildlife, particularly in Banff where officials were dealing with the Bow Valley wolf pack after several of its members got into food and garbage at campsites and in the townsite.
Two of the wolves were shot and killed as a precaution.
“There was a big effort going into that, in terms of managing that conflict,” said St. Denis, noting the human-wildlife conflict team was busy dealing with bears and wolves, and wildlife guardians were trying to educate visitors on how to prevent conflict.
Marshall said Waterton also saw an increase in people seeing wildlife, particularly bears due to a good berry crop.
“That was a bit of a challenge,” he said, noting they managed to get through the summer without any major issues.
Katie Morrison, conservation director with the southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said there are challenges and benefits that come with increased visitation.
“It’s great that people are getting out into the national parks,” she said, “but it’s also somewhat contrary to what we’re hearing from Parks Canada that we need to be increasing visitation rates and all of that with commercial development.
“It’s especially important, if we are getting these higher numbers, to be managing our parks appropriately and making sure that any tourist developments or programs are in line with the park’s first priority with conserving ecological integrity and conserving nature.”
Morrison suggested officials need to be prepared to manage the expected increase in visitation next year.
“When it comes to wildlife conflicts, they need to make sure that education is in place and then enforcement,” she said, noting the conflict with the wolf pack might have been prevented had people been more responsible at their campsites.
Officials said they will continue to educate visitors about how to deal with wildlife, but they are still determining how to best handle next year’s anticipated visitor increase.
“We have done some preliminary planning,” said Marshall, noting they are looking at increasing capacity and working to manage expectations of visitors by suggesting they come at different times of year other than the already busy summer months.
Both Waterton and Banff officials said they will also be meeting with the communities to come up with some strategies for 2017.
“Next year is going to be exciting and a good year to help people connect to Parks Canada places,” said St. Denis.
“In some locations, like (Banff ), we’re going to have some work to do in terms of helping manage that visitation that is going to be here.”