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World Cup rugby star has valley roots
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A spot fire in the hills on the west side of Lake Windermere attracted the attention of onlookers on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 27th. Within hours, helicopters and planes arrived on scene to battle the blaze. For the full story, see page 7.
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More wildlife crossings announced for Kootenay Park ERIN KNUTSON Special to The Valley Echo Canada’s Minister of Environment, Leona Aglukkaq, Kootenay-Columbia MP David Wilks and Dr. Colin Carrie, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Environment and the MP for Oshawa, announced an investment to enhance motorist and wildlife safety through the construction of additional wildlife crossing structures in Kootenay National Park on Wednesday, August 27th at the Kootenay Warden Crossing Station. Carrie described the second phase of Parks Canada’s Conservation and Restoration Program as a 9.6 million dollar investment that will establish 6.5 kilometres of fencing and five crossings along one of the deadliest stretches of Highway 93. The monitoring of structures implemented by Banff National Park — an
international leader in highway-related The construction of overpasses and mitigation — set the precedent for the underpasses helped foster the intemodels to be established in Kootenay grated flow of vital habitats with the National Park, said Carrie. roads. Sustaining animal populations “Careful monitoring has shown the by allowing the animals to safely cross (current) underpasses have been under and over the highways proved used by a diversity of animals includ- to have merit, while establishing the ing deer, moose, wolves and bears. importance of new wildlife crossThese structures ing structures in support safe pasother areas. The Trans Canada sage, protect “The Trans CanaHighway model is a predator-prey reda Highway model lationships, and world-class example of how is a world-class exhelp to conserve infrastructure and human ample of how infrabiodiversity, while safety come together. structure and huprotecting wildDR. COLIN CARRIE man safety come PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY together life populations,” to resaid Carrie. store ecosystems,” In 1996, the Trans Canada Highway Carrie said. in Banff National Park established a The estimated cost for a moose colstate-of-the-art system that installed lision is $30,000.This number includes fencing on both sides of the twinned damages to life, vehicles and medical highway to keep wildlife from direct expenses. highway access. “The cost of these structures can be
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absorbed in the sense that they are built for the long term. It’s a long-term investment that adds up when the numbers of multiple collisions over a period of years is determined,” said Rick Kubian, resource conservation manager for Parks Canada. “There are three prongs to the project — the reduction in wildlife mortality, that’s the big one and over time relatively easy to measure. Secondly hand-in-glove with the first objective is the increase in driver safety, and our third objective is around connectivity,” he said. In scientific terms, this entails enabling wildlife to use the entire valley bottom without, or with minimal, interference. “That’s what these structures are about — we want a road that’s safe to drive on and one that people can move through efficiently and with minimum impact.” See A7
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