Innovation Anthology #567:
Access management works and gating roads does protect wildlife like elk and grizzly bears.
That’s a major result of a five year study supervised by ecologist Dr. Mark Boyce.
He holds the Alberta Conservation Association Chair in Fisheries and Wildlife at the University of Alberta.
Called The Montane Elk Project, this collaboration between industry and several universities was recognized with the Shared Footprints Award at the 2013 Emerald Awards for Environmental Excellence.
DR. MARK BOYCE: It’s very dramatic. The response by the wildlife is remarkable. If we have fewer than 12 vehicles per day on a road, and so this can be industrial use or whatever, the elk and grizzly bears are all over those roads. But when you exceed that threshold, they avoid those roads by as much as 2 kilometers. And so there are vast areas of habitat that are lost as a consequence of having ungated roads where there’s unbridled recreational use of the roads.
According to Dr. Boyce, the study demonstrated more than 90 percent of people will respect gates to protect wildlife.
Listen to the full interview with Dr. Mark Boyce at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Program Date: 2013-06-20