Jasper’s trail reconfiguration and restoration project is marching ahead, despite a recent setback of the petty criminal persuasion.

One of the project’s 17 monitoring cameras was stolen last week, and while Parks won’t reveal the exact location that was hit, one thing is clear — having to replace the technology won’t help the project achieve its ambitious goals.

“It was on the Pyramid Bench, along an unofficial trail,” said trails project manager Jennifer Dubois, who also declined to put a price tag on the camera replacement.

“ I’d prefer not to comment on that,” she said. “But I will say that having to replace them is a loss for the rest of the program.”

It’s very clear that the camera was removed or vandalized, as other cameras have been damaged by wildlife in the past, Dubois said.

“Some animals like to chew on the straps,” she said, adding that whoever took the camera knew exactly what they were doing.

“There is signage on the camera.”

To the uninitiated, the monitoring devices bear little resemblance to a camera, instead looking like a well-camouflaged feeder for futuristic robot birds. Or something like that.

This isn’t the first time humans have interfered with the monitoring cameras. Last year, two cameras were removed from unofficial trails, but Dubois doesn’t believe that the particular location has anything to do with the acts of random unkindness, as she phrased it.

“We have nothing to suggest that these have been targeted attacks,” she said. Later in her interview with the Fitzhugh, Dubois took pains to underline the fact that there are no compliance activities associated with the trails project cameras found along unofficial trails, nor anywhere else.

“Under no circumstances will the images from the cameras be used to identify individuals. We’ll never be publishing images in any format.”

Indeed, the image quality produced by the cameras is so low that it is sometimes difficult to identify what activities trail users are engaged in as they pass by the unblinking eye.

Beyond the cost of replacement, the ‘disappeared’ camera means a loss of important monitoring data that is helping trails project researchers come up with an accurate picture of human and wildlife use patterns throughout the trail network.

 “The images produced by the cameras are processed by two researchers, who are looking for location, time and species, and in the case of human use, trying to identify activity,” Dubois said. The data collected by the cameras is dumped on a weekly basis, so there is not a complete gap in the record in the affected location, but it will take about two weeks to install a replacement camera, meaning that nearly a month’s worth of monitoring information has been lost.

Dubois also had a word of warning for whoever removed the camera. The RCMP was successful in determining the location of the two cameras that were stolen last year, and this camera is equipped with the same tracking technology.

Minor disruptions aside, Dubois is happy that there will be some actual trail work beginning next month, as the project continues to work on issues facing the entire network.

The trails to be upgraded make up the so-called “easy trail” system. There are plans to create formal trails between the townsite and Old Fort Point, the Whistlers and Wapiti campgrounds, and the Moberley Bridge.

“There’s recognition that these trails are really needed and they’re not in critical wildlife corridors,” Dubois said. “It’s also providing a level of trail that’s really missing in the system.”

There are unofficial trails already in place, so the upcoming work will involve widening and formalizing these routes, Dubois said. 

“It would hopefully begin in mid-to-late June.”

In the case of the trails that pass through areas closed for elk calving season, the permanent trails will be routed to avoid these spaces, she added.

As for the remaining trails in the nearby network, discussions are advancing apace with the working group, Dubois reported.

“These trails are our first priority but as things go forward, we’ll start to look at some of the longer-term work that needs to be done in other places.”

Recently, the project played host to a delegation from the International Mountain Biking Alliance, which provided input and expertise in terms of trail design and needs for the bike users in Jasper.

“It was a very productive session,” said Dubois. “We’re moving along in a timely fashion and I’m happy with the progress. We really need the fall and the winter to focus on the rest of the network.”

As part of this in depth look at the entire network, Dubois is planning for broader public consultation.

“I would see a series of targeted open houses, for user groups as well as for multi-users,” she said, although a firm strategy for conferring with the public has yet to be developed. Watch this space.