Study shows proposed parks already heavily damaged by off-road use
Posted Sep 22, 2016 11:53 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Research using satellite images suggests that two parks proposed in southern Alberta are already so heavily used that they’re becoming useless to the grizzly bears they are supposed to protect.
The study found that less than half of the proposed Castle Wildland Park has enough undisturbed habitat to support the bears.
And almost none of a provincial park planned for the same area has any bear habitat left.
The report says the biggest source of the disturbance is from off-road vehicles.
The provincial government’s plans for the provincial park would still allow the machines, although no other such parks do so.
The study was done by Global Forest Watch Canada, which used satellite data to map features as small as 2 1/2 metres wide.
