View
from the West
CANMORE, Alta.- IT TOOK
the forces of nature hundreds of millions of years to shape Western Canada's Rocky
Mountains, but a development push from modern man is drastically reshaping one
mountain community and its wildlife habitat over little more than the next decade.
Canmore is enduring a growth spurt that would rip the insides out of even
the most well-adjusted teenager. Less than 11,000 people live in the town, which
sits beside Banff National Park, nestled in the Bow River Valley under the watchful
guard of Three Sisters Mountain. Half of the people who call Canmore home
have made the pilgrimage here within the last five years. Now Calgary real
estate company TGS Properties Ltd. wants to triple the town's population. TGS
breathed new life into Canmore's private development plans in 1999 when it paid
$12 million to a financially troubled company for a half interest in 1,455 hectares
known as the Three Sisters Mountain Village. The Stewart Creek Golf Resort on
the site opened last summer. If TGS's plans go through, the property would also
support 4,200 new homes, two new golf courses and a resort village. The
project will virtually define the town's future shape. The Three Sisters' massive
tract of forest makes up 80 per cent of Canmore's developable land. And
conservationists say the development, particularly the golf courses, would do
irreparable harm to the region's migrating wildlife. The town began to
wrestle with these questions in 1992, when the provincial Natural Resources Conservation
Board looked at how development would affect the Three Sisters tract. Its report,
released the following year, allowed for development on 730 of the property's
1,455 hectares but insisted on conditions. It required that corridors be set aside
so the region's grizzlies, elk and cougars could maintain their habitat, which
stretches from Kananaskis Provincial Park in the east to Banff in the west, and
beyond. TGS says it has followed these conditions in its plans for the
total property. A primary wildlife corridor for carnivorous animals such as bears,
wolves and cougars has been reserved on the edge of the Three Sisters property.
Secondary corridors through the golf courses would be a thoroughfare for ungulates
- including elk, moose, deer and the snowshoe hare. The fairways themselves are
being classified as part of the corridor. Provincial authorities say the
corridor plan meets the guidelines' criteria. Meanwhile, a report commissioned
by the province on the impact of golf course development on wildlife, has found
that animals and golfers can co-exist, but are fundamentally at odds. The report
was done by the Miistakis Institute for the Rockies, an ecological consulting
group. ``Golf courses and wildlife corridors are compatible as long as
nobody plays golf,'' says Heather MacFadyen, a community health-care researcher
who moved to Canmore from Calgary a year ago. ``They can't co-exist any more than
you could have a wildlife corridor down Main Street. There are people in it.''
Canmore was removed from the protection of Banff National Park in 1930
so industry could further mine the Bow Valley's coal reserves. In 1951, a hydro
generator was commissioned on the nearby Spray Lakes. When mining died in 1979,
the town dried up with it, shrinking to about 2,000 people. But the 1988 Winter
Olympic Games turned the tide, when the cross-country ski events were held at
the Canmore Nordic Centre. The picture is brighter still today. With the
picturesque tourist town of Banff developed to the limit, the lump-of-coal Canmore
is being turned into a Rocky Mountain diamond. But will the pressure of
that transformation be too much to bear for a small mountain town with a folksy
rough edge. Tourism has been identified as the key to Canmore's future. Hikers,
mountain-bikers, skiers and golfers visit year 'round. Mayor Ron Casey
says the town must first decide what kind of place it wants to be, and use that
as a framework for how much future development to approve and when. ``We need
development to occur, but we have to understand why people come here. It's the
natural environment around us and the small town community feeling we have. If
we destroy the wildlife or the community, then we've lost a piece of the puzzle
that makes us attractive. It's an extremely delicate balance.'' Canmore
draws more than tourists. Many people have moved from Calgary to enjoy mountain
life and make the daily 100-kilometre commute to work. Canmore is also the favoured
bedroom community for people who work in Banff, 20 kilometres west on the Trans
Canada Highway. Still others, from places like Toronto and Texas, have bought
vacation homes that average $300,000. Ian Hogg, vice-president of TGS Properties,
is anxious for municipal approval and a final go-ahead from the province so he
can get the first 256 lots and show homes up for sale this summer. He says his
company has met every condition laid out by the conservation board and accuses
the development's critics of NIMBYism. ``There are a lot of people who claim knowledge
but can't back it up with science. We're trying to establish some science,'' he
says. ``We have an intensive wildlife-monitoring program with staff biologists
budgeted about $250,000 a year. If we find we're having an impact as development
proceeds, we'll bring the science to bear.'' Gareth Thomson, education
director for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness society, says the TGS plan has
a potentially fatal flaw that's not unique to Three Sisters. If you take a national
park and surround it by development, the park starts to function as an island
- a virtual Alcatraz for its native species, he says. ``That's what's at risk
for any park in North America.'' While Canmore is not pristine wilderness,
it has wildlife that are vulnerable. ``We're trying to plan for the future here.
We're talking the next 100 years, so you need to be careful. There is a strong
possibility of loving this place to death. ``All of the work we've been
doing for decades goes for nothing if Three Sisters fumbles the ball, if wildlife
can't get across Three Sisters property. And they won't do that if there are golf
courses in those darn corridors. Let's call them habituated elk corridors, because
those are the only animals that will use them.'' In Banff, there are about
80 incidents a year of elk, weighing up to 1,000 pounds each, charging or being
aggressive with humans. It's common to see dozens of them lounging on the
fairways at the Banff Springs Hotel golf course. On the Three Sisters property,
bears were spotted at least twice in the past two weeks roaming Stewart Creek
Golf Course and were steered back into the woods by conservation officers. Mountain
bikers and hikers who use primary corridor land are as much at risk as golfers.
``Nobody has had the opportunity to fully assess these wildlife corridors,''
Casey says. ``But once you have development, you aren't going to undo the development.''
At an open house on May 23, a draft Conservation Easement Agreement that
the province had negotiated with Three Sisters Inc. was unveiled. As well as plans
for the wildlife corridors, it outlined ecological monitoring programs, including
animal migration and a Wildlife Human Interaction Prevention (WHIP) plan that
would allow conservation officers to restrict human access if there are problems
with wildlife. The provincial government is assessing public reaction. Dave
Ealey of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, a provincial government department,
says there's nothing wrong with the TGS plan. ``Detractors may not want
development, but this is private property.''
Chris
Welner is a freelance writer based in Calgary. |
