Scott Hayes | [email protected]
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A recent announcement about restricting personal vehicular traffic at a popular tourist destination in Banff National Park has some wondering if the same tactic will be used in Jasper National Park.
Two weeks ago, Parks Canada said that it would be closing access to personal vehicles on Moraine Lake Road near Banff starting this summer.
The move is a result of safety concerns and negative experiences that have been caused by demand for parking at all hours of the day, including overnight campers. Access to the site going forward will now only be by Parks Canada Shuttle, and other forms of mass transit including commercial buses and taxis.
This leads Joe Urie, guide and co-owner/operator of the Jasper Tour Company, thinking about the possibilities going forward for roads leading to Angel Glacier or up Maligne Lake Road too.
鈥淚t can be organized chaos up there,鈥� he said.
Urie said that even Moraine Lake isn鈥檛 the first time that Parks Canada has restricted traffic. Something similar has been in place for Lake O鈥橦ara near Lake Louise for several years by his recollection.
He described that functioning as capacity-based access, meaning once a certain number of vehicles has been reached then all others must park and get on a shuttle bus.
He also described it as a way of creating a major problem for visitors to see specific places. The potential is there for someone to be turned away.
鈥淵ou came all the way from Australia to see one of those places, and you get there on that one and only day in your two-week holiday that you have to spend to go up there and Parks Canada's standing at the head of the road saying, 鈥楽orry, not today.鈥� You're out of your mind. What do you mean 鈥榥ot today鈥�? You advertised for me to come here to see this, and you're telling me now that I can't. Insane.鈥�
Regardless of how it impacts people, his primary concern is for the wildlife, noting that they are the mainstay of his business. Having tour operators take visitors up and down these roads would still work in terms of providing safe and authentic interactions with nature. It would nonetheless interfere with the wildlife.
The example he gave included a bear on the other side of the Maligne River. Because it would be safe, and another bus was several minutes away, the tour operator could stop and let the guests out of the vehicle to take photographs.
鈥淭hose animals have not been harmed or hampered with. Nobody's gotten in their space and 99 per cent of the time, nobody gets hurt. But what they don't realize is that they impose themselves on that animal and the animal has gone off when it needs to be there feeding. It's there for a reason.鈥�
Urie suggested that closing off Maligne Lake Road could be a helpful tool if Parks Canada decides to repopulate caribou herds in the Maligne Valley.
In the end, he still offered his support for the general idea of traffic restrictions, although he would hope to have Parks Canada ask him for his input before making any decision.
鈥淭here's got to be some compromise,鈥� he said, suggesting that massive federal budget cuts around a decade ago resulted in a drastically-reduced complement of staff, meaning much fewer trained Parks employees 鈥渕aking sure that humans were behaving and that the animals were safe.鈥�
鈥淚n 2017, when the park saw like two million people pass through, I think they had nine [staff]. That basically means that 90 to 95 per cent of these wildlife encounters, there's no one there to monitor it. If you want to stick with the model that exists then you better put more power on the ground: get more people out there.鈥�
Parks Canada has not indicated that it plans to restrict traffic in Jasper at this time.
鈥淧arks Canada鈥檚 first priority in park management is maintaining or restoring ecological integrity,鈥� Parks Canada stated in a prepared statement to the 51暗网.
鈥淛asper National Park, with its approximate 2.5 million annual visitors, utilizes a number of strategies to ensure positive visitor experience while maintaining this integrity.鈥�
It suggested that visitors make responsible choices with a mind to managing their risk by planning ahead using the鈥� page on Jasper National Park鈥檚 website.
Parks Canada later submitted this statement:
鈥淭he decision to restrict private vehicles on the Moraine Lake Road in Banff National Park was made due to operational constraints faced when trying to manage an ever growing number of private vehicles attempting to access the lake from Lake Louise Drive, where Parks Canada has had to actively manage an increasing amount of traffic since 2018. The operational reality in Jasper National Park is different.鈥�
