Parks Canada is creating a twenty-kilometre long reduced speed zone on the Icefields Parkway this week to reduce the chances of vehicle related caribou mortality this winter. It’s a move that’s long overdue, according to the Jasper Environmental Association.

Motorists will be required to reduce their speed to 70 kilometers per hour on the stretch of Highway 93 between Poboktan Creek and Beauty Creek. The area is part of the winter range of the South Jasper woodland caribou herd. Eight caribou have died  on that stretch of highway in the past decade, according to Wes Bradford, wildlife conflict specialist for Parks Canada.

A series of roadside signs will inform drivers that they are entering an area where caribou travel as well as emphasizing the new speed limit. In addition, digital signs will display information on the speed zone and most significantly, indicate the traveling speed of oncoming traffic.

These digital signs are an essential part of ensuring that drivers follow the new speed limit, Bradford said. In the permanent wildlife speed zone east of Jasper on Highway 16, the digital signs have recorded a major reduction in traffic speed. 

“The signs have data loggers that record the speed of each vehicle whether the sign is turned on or not,” Bradford said. “When the sign is off, the average speed is 81 kilometers but when they are turned on, that drops to 65.”

Self-policing will likely be essential to the success of the speed zone, as the RCMP will have a limited presence in the area.

“They are aware of the zone, but we know they won’t be able to spend a lot of time there,” Bradford said.

The speed zone will be in effect from the end of this week until the beginning of May, corresponding to the months that the caribou spend time at lower altitudes. There will be a similar set of signs placed on the Maligne Lake Road, but as the speed limit is already 60 km/h there will be no further reduction. There have been no caribou deaths on that road, Bradford said.

The new zones will be complimented by the experimental use of lithium chloride as an additive to the usual salt and sand combination used on roads throughout the Park. Contained in a special tank on the outside of the sanding trucks, the substance will be sprayed on to the mixture before it is released on to the road in the reduced speed 

areas.

The lithuim chloride is intended to discourage the caribou and other animals from coming onto the highway to lick the salt left behind in the snow removal process.

“If they eat it, it stings their mouths,” Bradford said. “It’s just not palatable.”

The speed zones and the lithium chloride approach are part of Parks Canada’s broader Caribou Recovery plan. Bradford is confident that the new steps will help.

“Spring vehicle skiing traffic has increased on the 93, all traffic volumes in Jasper National Park have increased,” he said. “Speed zones alone have reduced wildlife mortality by twenty to twenty five per cent in Jasper.”

Jill Seaton of the JEA also believes the speed zone will help and is pleased that the digital signs will be in place to inform drivers on their oncoming speed.

“I’m sure some people are going to slow down...and this is great,” she said. “If you can’t slow your speed from ninety to seventy to save a species at risk, then there’s no hope.” 

She’s less convinced about the need to remove the lower speed limits in May.

“It depends on what’s happening in the alpine,” she said. “(The caribou) can be around the road into June. Once you’ve got a speed limit on the road, why take it off for five months?”

Seaton also wonders why has it taken Parks until 2005 to implement a lower speed limit in the area when her organization has requested such a move for more than a decade.

“The JEA sent a letter to Parks thirteen years ago,” Seaton recalled. “March 20, 1992. I even remember the date.”

At the time, an ongoing study by the Canadian Wildlife Service was making recommendations to ensure the long-term survival of the Park’s woodland caribou population. The southern population in particular was in serious decline. The JEA suggested that Parks implement some of these recommendations, including reduced speed limits and controls to human activity by designating caribou conservation areas in the Tonquin and Maligne valleys.

“They (Parks) did nothing,” Seaton said. “They didn’t lower the speed limit, they did not create any conservation areas and they put no limits on human activity.”

Another ongoing concern from the JEA’s perspective is the fact that the Maligne Lake Road stays open in the winter time, allowing human access to important caribou ranges. With no snow on the road, wolves also use it to access caribou populations that would otherwise be harder to prey on during the winter months

“It’s one of the biggest sticking points,” Seaton said. In November of 2002 a report in the Edmonton Journal indicated that Parks planned to close the road in the winter for the next two years. As Seaton remembers it, just three days later another story appeared that refuted that claim and confirmed that the road would remain open year-round. 

“Parks listens to the business people,” Seaton said when asked why she thought the closure decision was reversed so rapidly. “National Parks...take up only three percent of Canada, so if we can’t save a species here...where can you?”