Jim Pissot, for The Calgary Herald

Published: Friday, July 07, 2006

If Bob Dylan’s album, Blood on the Tracks, had included his famous refrain, “the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,” he could not have penned a more apt prediction of when the Canadian Pacific Railway might take meaningful steps to stop killing grizzly bears in Banff National Park.

In the past five years, CP Railway trains have killed four grizzly bears, including three females. None of the five cubs orphaned when their mothers were killed have survived to adulthood. With nine dead bears on their corporate record, the Canadian Pacific trains now are the number one cause of human-related grizzly bear mortality in Banff National Park. This year got off to its bloody start in early June when a young black bear was killed on the tracks in adjacent Yoho National Park.

So what additional steps is Canada’s icon railway company taking to stop killing grizzly bears and other wildlife along its bloody tracks in our national parks? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

Eight years ago, the Canadian Pacific Railway invested in a vacuum truck to remove spilled grain from between the rails and worked with grain loaders to address loading practices that might cause grain to be spilled. This was a promising start. But these efforts have proven inadequate as spilled grain continues to attract grizzly bears and other wildlife to their deaths on Canadian Pacific Railway tracks.

Periodic surveys find abundant grain, and even bear scat filled with grain, along the tracks in Banff National Park. Grain farmers claim that more than $10 million worth of grain is spilled annually from rail shipments. Since 2000, railway deaths and associated losses of grizzly bear cubs account for more than 60 percent of all human-related grizzly bear mortalities in Banff.

Blood on the tracks within Canada’s premier national park is a national disgrace.

Death between the rails is avoidable in our national parks. The Canadian Pacific Railway should take three steps necessary to conserve grizzly bears and other wildlife in our mountain parks. First, ensure that no leaking cars transport and spill grain through our national parks. Then, do everything within reason to remove the abundant grain that now rests atop cross ties and ballast (crushed rock that supports the rails) within Banff and Yoho national parks. Finally, convene a workshop of practitioners and other experts to assess what else might be done to reduce the number of collisions between trains and wildlife.

The watchword on the Canadian Pacific Railway’s web site is Ingenuity. So when will Canada’s best known railway apply a little ingenuity to conserve our country’s icon grizzly bears in Canada’s premier national park? Until they do, there will be a lot more questions than answers blowin’ in the wind.

Jim Pissot is executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada. This piece was co-signed by eight other high-profile wildlife advocates.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=c4ba09c1-4b44-43ab-b68d-ef134d5c886f

© The Calgary Herald 2006