Jasper National Park has recently been given $1.7 million by the federal government towards improving ecological integrity. It is spending it on trying to sort out the mess in the critical montane ecoregion. Proliferating trails used by hikers, mountain bikers and horses in this area are fragmenting critical bear habitat  and preventing wolves from gaining access to the growing ungulate populations. Trail use in the park is extremely controversial - mostly due to many local users who feel they have the right to go anywhere and think nothing of cutting new trails.

The 2000 Jasper National Park Management Plan proposed designating trails for mountain bikes. Five years later none have been designated although this is the norm in other mountain parks and in US national parks. In many US parks mountain bikes are banned altogether.

Parks Canada's proposed project will take the place of the now defunct Jasper Trail Stewards Committee which accomplished nothing in its three-year existence except altercation over the trail designation issue. To try to avoid a repeat of that performance, park managers have opted to spend over $200,000 of the $1.7 million to hire a project manager to do the job for them. Whoever takes on this job will need the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon to bring any semblance of order to an issue which has grown increasingly divisive over the years.

Apparently a planning committee and a steering committee will be formed and "community awareness activities" will take place. The project will take three years and at the end of it Parks foresees a trail system that "balances the needs of trail users and the protection of wildlife and habitat". The project - according to the local newspaper - will "upgrade, reconfigure and expand the 190 kms of trails surrounding Jasper townsite".

What the montane ecoregion and its wildlife really needed was some firm decision-making by park managers now. Instead of this we will have another three years of local "stakeholder" discussions while trails continue to proliferate and wildlife is increasingly excluded from this critical habitat.

The final expense of reclaiming the network of unofficial trails and repairing the damage to others will be enormous. Whether the integrity of the montane ecoregion will be improved remains to be seen.

Trail Images