15 August 2007
Safety of Grizzlies Takes Priority for Airdrie Woman
Airdrie Alberta - Airdrie's Stacey Ball has been working
tirelessly for four years to save the lives of grizzlies and other wildlife living and travelling along railroad tracks, especially in
the Rocky Mountain national parks.
A volunteer with Defenders of Wildlife Canada, Ball and her colleagues have been in contact with numerous representatives from CP Rail
about the issue of bears - and other animals, such as elk and coyotes - being killed by passing trains in the Banff region.
"There's a huge problem and it needs to be dealt with," Ball said. "It's a phenomenon unique to our bears here."
One of the issues is that grain spilled along the tracks attracts bears to feed. "Up to 40 CPR trains pass through Banff National
Park every day," she said, adding that the trains carry such loads as grain, potash, and forest products. "When grain spills
out of those railway cars, it conditions those bears. "There's not much of a real incentive to stay away from the tracks,"
she added.
Trains stopped in sensitive wildlife areas are another issue.
Earlier this year, three black bear cubs and their mother foraging for grain along the tracks in Banff actually got aboard a stopped
train. When the train began to move, the mother jumped off, but the cubs were carried to Field, B.C. "Fortunately, the cubs were
noticed by a train crew passing the other way and removed from the train in Field by Parks Canada wardens," Jim Pissot, Defenders
of Wildlife Canada executive director, said in a press release.
While the cubs were reunited with their mother, the incident is indicative of the issues facing wildlife in the region. "The
Canadian Pacific Railway should find another place to park grain trains when waiting for other trains to pass," Pissot said.
"CP Rail knows that storing or stopping grain trains in the parks is bad for bears."
The habituation of bears to grain on the tracks is something that is unacceptable to Ball. While she gives kudos to CPR for looking at
ways to address the problem - such as cameras under hopper cars to check for grain leaks and CPR's recently announced $20 million
investment to repair and retrofit defective grain cars - she is afraid that the solutions won't be reached quickly enough.
"At the end of the day, what do you have? You have dead bears," she said. "Somebody has got to take responsibility and I
think that it's time that we all have to step up to the plate."
Raised on a First Nations reserve in Ontario, Ball has been taking an interest in her environment since she was a young child. For her,
each individual has an important role to play. "I've been involved in conservation, on and off, since I was nine years old,"
Ball said. "It's my responsibility to take care of the environment."
When it comes to the environment, Ball is a big proponent of education. "I think it's a key component in educating people from a
very young age," she said. "Education and research is really where I want to focus all my efforts." The plight of
wildlife, especially grizzlies, in Alberta has stirred her heart. "We have 500 grizzlies left in the province of Alberta,"
she said. "The grizzlies don't have a whole lot of habitat." When such animals are killed, it is considered as a loss to the
ecosystem and that loss is exactly what Ball is trying to prevent. As such, she is encouraging everyone to educate themselves on the
issues surrounding environmental management in general and the close-to-home grizzlies issue in particular.
She is also asking people to write letters to CPR and to government departments responsible for wildlife and the environment. As people
become more involved, their voices will be heard. "It speaks for itself," she said.
Ultimately, Ball would like to see everyone - CPR, Defenders of Wildlife, environmental experts, appropriate government officials -
sitting together at the same table and coming up with solutions. In the meantime, she is putting her energies toward educating the
public, as well as lobbying the powers that be in both the rail industry and government.
Ball also has a personal goal, one that speaks to her passion for wildlife. "Eventually, I'd like to have a rehabilitation centre
built especially for grizzlies," she said.
|
