Canmore Wildlife Crossing Study

The Trans-Canada Highway is the primary east-west connector through the Province of Alberta. Like many other human infrastructural elements, the Highway’s location tracks across what was native habitat and serves to fragment what were once continuous large landscapes. In creating this division the movement of entire populations of animals are disrupted and in some cases have reduced home ranges thousands of kilometers wide to mere islands. Wildlife crossings are a tool for helping to reestablish these connections, bringing with them an increased level of safety for human commuters on the roadways below.

Working with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, Living Habitats prepared a Conceptual Crossing Study for a location near Canmore, just outside of Banff National Park. The study focused on “at-risk” species as well as target species in the region, overlaying their habitats with the roadway network to identify potential high-efficacy locations for wildlife crossing structures within the Province.