| Re: "Small -town growing pains", by Adrian Morrow, News, June 21 - 27, 2007
As a representative of one of several conservation organizations in Canmore and the Bow Valley, I think that it is important to realistically assess municipal and provincial progress in protecting wildlife corridors connecting the Wind, Bow and Spray Valleys. These corridors make it possible for wildlife to move through these valleys while limiting the risk of injurious or fatal interactions between wildlife and people.
Providing these corridors in south Canmore is the legal responsibility of the developer under the 1992 decision of the Natural Resources Conservation Board on the Three Sisters Resort, and in 1998 the province participated in the development of scientific standards for determining the width, slope and hiding cover necessary to facilitate wildlife movement in the Bow Valley. However, it was left to Canmore Council, supported through the public hearing process and the persistent advocacy of conservation groups and the Canmore public, to broker a compromise that would be acceptable to all parties.
Currently, approximately one-quarter of the 13- kilometre wildlife corridor connecting the Nordic Centre Provincial Park with the Wind Valley, Dead Man's Flats and Pigeon Mountain meets scientific standards for a functional wildlife corridor.
Until such time as the province increases the remaining three-quarters of the corridor to the minimum functional width of the first quarter, there is much work to be done.
Heather MacFadyen,
Steering committee member,
Bow Corridor Organization for Responsible Development
Canmore
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