AWA Wilderness & Wildlife Defenders: Help Needed: Resort Lodge Planned in Caribou Habitat

December 10, 2013

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• Action Alerts
• Caribou
• National Parks

Maligne Tours Ltd. has submitted a “Conceptual Proposal” to Parks Canada that includes the construction of a 66-room resort lodge on the shores of Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. This despite the fact that the proposed site is in the middle of habitat for the threatened woodland caribou, and even though the Management Plan for the park directs against allowing overnight accommodation in this part of the park. The period for public comment on this proposal runs through December 15: AWA believes we all need to let Parks Canada know that this project does not belong in the Maligne Valley, and that we are requesting that they reject the proposal.

As regular readers of the Wild Lands Advocate will be aware, Maligne Tours Ltd. has submitted a “Conceptual Proposal” to Parks Canada that includes the construction of a 66-room resort lodge on the shores of Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. This despite the fact that the proposed site is in the middle of habitat for the threatened woodland caribou, and even though the Management Plan for the park directs against allowing overnight accommodation in this part of the park. The period for public comment on this proposal runs through December 15: AWA believes we all need to let Parks Canada know that this project does not belong in the Maligne Valley, and that we are requesting that they reject the proposal.

The Issues

AWA objects to this proposed resort for several reasons, summarized as follows:

• Approval of this project would be another egregious example of the commercialization of our National Park system, following hot on the heels of the questionable 2011 approval of Brewster Canada’s “Glacier Discovery Skywalk” in the same park. It would speak to an apparent shift in priorities toward commercial development over the provision of ecological protection. This even though according to the 2001 Canada National Parks Act, “maintenance or restoration of ecological integrity, through the protection of natural resources and natural processes, shall be the first priority of the Minister when considering all aspects of the management of parks.”
• The 2010 Jasper National Park of Canada Management Plan, which describes the “intended future condition” of the Maligne Valley as offering “excellent opportunities (…) to see wildlife and enjoy unspoiled wilderness scenery and pristine waters.” A resort of this nature does meet the description of “unspoiled wilderness scenery and pristine waters.” The same management plan states that “No new land will be released for overnight commercial accommodation outside the community.” This would preclude the approval of a project such as this.
• The proposed location for the lodge is adjacent to the Maligne Lake Outlet, which is designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Site, for reasons related to its “(importance) for harlequin ducks, particularly during the pre-nesting period. Harlequin ducks require special management due to their sensitivity to human-caused disturbance, narrow ecological requirements and low reproductive potential.” A hotel in operation 24 hours a day, hosting up to 130 guests plus staff, and its associated services, cannot help but create that “human-caused disturbance” that is so problematic for this species.
• It is not only the harlequin ducks into whose habitat this development will intrude, but also the threatened grizzly bears, and especially the woodland caribou. The maligne herd now only numbers a small handful of members and this lodge site is right in the middle of its range. Woodland caribou have been spotted in the Maligne Valley, along the access road and at the day-use area, in all months of the year save July and August. It is clear that this area forms a crucial piece of their dwindling habitat. This fact is well known by parks staff and managers, indeed interpretive signs in Maligne Valley and at the lake emphasize the vital importance of this area to Alberta’s dwindling caribou population.
•  A development of the type described in the Conceptual Proposal would be at odds with other management actions taken in Jasper National Park within the past year. The recent closure of certain backcountry ski areas within the boundary for the protection of the Brazeau, Tonquin and A La Peche herds was a welcome move. However it would be difficult to reconcile the conservation intent of that action with the detrimental result of permitting this lodge to the survival of the Maligne herd. If those other woodland caribou herds are so worthy of protection then clearly so would this one.
• Maligne Lake is no place for a hotel of the type proposed, or for overnight accommodations of any kind. AWA believes that Parks Canada needs to reassure Canadians that protection of ecological integrity is still the priority in Jasper National Park and we are asking them to reject this Conceptual Proposal.