section5-03a

Throughway Management

Minimize Environmental Impacts of Highways

Many of Canada’s national parks are transected by highways. These routes contribute to habitat fragmentation, direct and indirect wildlife mortality, and pollution. In 2000, the Panel on the Ecological Integrity of Canada’s National Parks highlighted this stressor. In response Parks Canada committed to developing a reporting and associated performance measurement framework to monitor and mitigate the impacts of through highways in national parks.

The framework, shown in Table 35, was completed in 2006 and is now being implemented in the 16 national parks that have through highways. Through the ecological integrity monitoring and reporting program, each national park identifies and addresses specific impacts of these highways, which include wildlife mortality, barrier effects on animal movement, invasive alien plants and road salt.

Table 35: Framework For Reporting On Ecological Impacts of Highways

Indicator	Measures
Highway construction and maintenance	Number of projects subject to environmental assessment and approval.
Viability of wildlife populations	Number of road kill by type of animal
Habitat connectivity	Number of animals using passages by age, gender
Pollution of Ecologically Sensitive Areas	Number of approved Salt Management Plans Salt usage Number of Parks with identified areas vulnerable to road salt
Vegetation (Quality of Roadside habitat)	Kilometres of highway with native vegetation restored or exotic plant species removed

Specific attention is being paid to wildlife mortality (10 parks), barrier effects on animal movement (11 parks), invasive alien plants (11 parks) and road salt (7 parks). Every year, the Agency reports on selected measures.

Table 36 summarizes ecological indicators of highways in national parks. Eighty per cent of these incidents resulted in confirmed mortalities, while ninety-five per cent involved big game species such as deer, wolf and bear. Though it is too early to examine trends in highway collisions, it is clear that parks differ in the intensity of this stress on wildlife populations as shown in Table 37.

Table 36: Ecological Indicators of Highways in National Parks

National Park	Wildlife Collisions	Habitat Fragmentation	Invasive Alien Vegetation	Road Salts
Banff	o	o	o	o
Cape Breton Highlands	o	o	o	o
Forillon	o	o	o	o
Fundy	?	o	x	?
Gros Morne	o	o	o	?
Jasper	o	o	o	o
Kootenay	o	o	o	?
Kouchibouguac	o	o	o	o
L’Anse aux Meadows*	?	?	?	?
Mt. Revelstoke and Glacier	o	o	o	o
Pacific Rim	o	o	o	x
Prince Albert	o	x	x	x
Riding Mountain	o	o	o	o
Terra Nova	o	o	o	o
Waterton Lakes	o	?	o	?
Yoho	o	o	o	?

Key:     o = Known impact     ? = Impact unknown     x = No impact
* L’Anse aux Meadows is a national historic site.

Table 37: Number of Wildlife Collisions on Through Highways in 2005 and 2006

National Park	2005	2006
Banff	23	19
Forillon	2	5
Jasper	104	128
Kootenay	42	62
Kouchibouguac	3	6
Prince Albert	5	7
Riding Mountain	12	7
Terra Nova	5	6
Waterton Lakes	9	12
Yoho	22	20

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