Pilot project launched to reduce wildlife train deaths shows promise in Banff, park officials say

A pilot project in Banff National Park that is using escape trails and other spaces cut alonga rail lineto reduce wildlife mortality rates is showing promise,Parks Canada says.

Researchers are two years into a five-year project withan objective to findways to reduce wildlife deaths along the train tracks.

West of the Banff townsitewhere the tracks curve through thick forests andsteep hills they have cut about 38 kilometres of trailoff of the rail line, and others that run parallel to it.

The idea, park officials say, is to provide wildlife with potential escape routes from trains, and a network of alternative pathways through the area.

"You have to recognize that they will select to use the rail at times, so what we are trying to do here is to reduce the probability that they'll get struck," Parks Canada Resource Management officer Dave Garrow said.

"So [we're] giving them options off of the rail, to travel outside of the rail corridor and as well as giving them a higher success rate of leaving the rail under duress."

Cameras show wildlife moving off tracks

The areas where the trails have been cutincluderough terrain and other features that mean fewer route options for animals, park officials said.

The behaviour of the wildlife,and theiruse of the trails,are being monitored by trail cameras that have captured a variety of animals using the parallel paths in the area and some to escape passing trains.

Parks Canada Resource Conservation Manager Bill Hunt told CBC News that though it isstill early for the project, the initial results are promising.

"Our sample sizes aren't large enough yet to get significant results, but the initial results are showing that that wildlife are using the parallel trails once we clear them out. We're starting to see quite a bit of additional wildlife use there," Hunt said.

"We're seeing camera images showing wildlife coming off the railway, sometimes under duress leaving the railway tracks, so that's encouraging to see those."

And because the strategy has minimal impact on rail operations andis relatively low maintenance, it could eventually be replicated along other sections of the railway if it works, park officials said.

Pilot project backed by years of research

The project is one of the wildlife management initiatives to come out of a recent study involving Parks Canada and the University of Alberta looking at wildlife deaths on railway tracks.

It examined646 wildlife deaths on railway tracks in Banff and Yoho national parks in Alberta and British Columbiabetween 1995 and 2018: 59 bears; 27 wolves, coyotes, cougars and lynx; and 560 deer, elk, moose and sheep.

"The top predictor was train speed," said lead author Colleen Cassady St. Clair, a biological sciences professor at the University of Alberta. "Next was distance to water, then the [amount of] water near the site and then curvature in the tracks."

Train speed and track curvature, she said, make it difficult for wildlife to detect trains, while being close to water hinders their ability to get off the tracks before being hit.

The studywas published inNature's Scientific Reports in November of2020, and built upon a five-year research project funded by Parks Canada and Canadian Pacific Railway from 2010 to 2015 that focused on grizzly bears being struck by trains in the same two parks.

It concluded that giving grizzlies better travel paths and sightlinesalong the railway was the best way to keep them safe.