It’s 18 kilometres of prime white water that has been closed for seven years, but even after such an extended period, one user lobby group is continuing to ask why Parks Canada won’t revisit the decision.

“Basically we would like to see a meeting put together with Parks Canada and the river outfitters association just to review what has happened,” said Mark Howe, the Jasper representative for AMPPE (the Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment). The river was intially closed to watercraft due to concerns over the degradation of harlequin duck habitat, and Parks has gone on the record to say that they will not look back at the closure choice in the absence of new scientific information. AMPPE claims that a study completed in the year 2000 fits the bill.

“We are still trying to push the issue,” said Howe. “We feel there is new scientific info out there since the closure.”

The study in question was based on observations of ducks on the Bow River in Banff National Park, and concludes that the population there did not have the severe negative reaction to water-borne disturbances that a study of the Maligne River population indicated.

“There are some significantly different results,” said Howe. “We’d like to review it. Parks would probably say they have reviewed it, but it would be good to have a discussion. Maybe there are some lessons to learn, maybe not.”

Parks is well aware of the study Howe is citing, but according to Shawn Cardiff, the integrated land use planning specialist for Jasper National Park, it won’t make any difference to the current approach.

The study’s author, Cindy Smith, wrote specifically that her results were reflective of the Bow River environment and warned against interpreting the study too broadly, Cardiff said. 

“The Bow is a fairly wide river and the Maligne is quite narrow,” he said. “It’s a very different environment.”

Given that the Maligne River plunges steeply down a narrow valley, the ducks had little warning when a raft would pass, and nowhere to go to avoid it. In sixty per cent of observed cases, harlequin ducks on the Maligne River took flight when encountering watercraft, Cardiff said.

The applicability of the Bow River study to the local situation forms the heart of the issue, said Howe.

“That’s the crux. We think that we have new scientific data and Parks isn’t accepting it.”

AMPPE also questions what impact the seven-year closure has had on the harlequin population in the Maligne Valley. Cardiff insists that boosting population numbers was never the intention of the decision.

“The decision was not based on population numbers; it was focussed on preserving important harlequin duck habitat,” he said. What has happened to the population since 1998? Cardiff’s answer was firm, but decidedly non-specific.

“Parks has gathered numbers through the course of the study done in the 90s and through the work done by volunteers. Following the formal study we instituted our own monitoring. Those inventories haven’t told us anything that’s going to improve or change our management,” he said.

Gord Ruddy, a Jasper birder who has been observing the harlequin population on the Maligne for more than twenty years, has no qualms about filling in the blanks left by Parks. There were 13 birds in 1999 and now, he estimates that there are more than 40 individuals that return to the river each nesting season. In Ruddy’s mind, there’s no question that the closure of the river has allowed the population to grow.

“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “It’s real simple — on that particular piece of river you have a choice. You can either have harlequin ducks or rafting. That’s been cleanly and clearly proven by science.”

Ruddy repeats Cardiff’s assertion that the ducks on the Maligne River were easily stressed by raft traffic.

“When the rafts go through there for the first time the ducks fly for twenty minutes, then the second time for two hours, and then four,” Ruddy said. This is a major concern because the ducks need to conserve as much energy as possible for the nesting period, when the female must remain stationary for many hours at a time. Flight from the river also leaves the ducks on Maligne Lake, where food sources are not abundant.

Will the mid-Maligne closure ever be re-examined? Ruddy has his doubts. 

“The river’s not ever going to re-open,” he said. Under the current procedure, if a group wants to do further study, it must fund this research itself. Cardiff is less absolute about the future prospects for further discussion about rafting on the river.

“We would consider that, if a stakeholder group has a sound scientific study design to research the decision. In the interim we are not championing any change in course of action ourselves,” he said. It’s not a certainty who would have to pay for any further studies, Cardiff added. The next opportunity for a wide ranging discussion on river use in the park will come as part of the full management plan review scheduled for 2008, he said.

If the rafting outfitters want to discuss the Maligne closure then, it wouldn’t surprise Cardiff.

“In my experience with Parks Canada, it’s one of the more contentious and debated issues I’ve come across,” he said. If a debate is ever re-opened, Gord Ruddy will be there too, arguing to keep the 18 kilometre stretch of the Maligne River closed.

“There are some things worth fighting for,” he said. “Having a viable population of harlequin ducks on the Maligne River is worth it.”