Every year in B.C., hundreds of bears and other large wildlife will die on highways and other roads.
Less often discussed publicly, however, is the toll that train collisions along Canada’s national railway corridors take on unsuspecting animals feeding or wandering on the tracks — including in Rogers Pass.
In a statement to Black Press Media, Parks Canada said 13 bears have died since 2015 in relation to the railway running through Glacier National Park. Twelve were black bears, the other a grizzly.
“Parks Canada works hard to protect the species that live in Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks and takes wildlife mortality on transportation corridors seriously,” the federal agency said. “Despite best efforts and prevention, rail strikes, and vehicle collisions are still a reality within the national parks.”
It added that it relies on train operators to report wildlife strikes, but continues to investigate how both parties can improve monitoring and reporting on the tracks.
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CPKC representative Terry Cunha told Black Press Media that the company similarly continues to work with Parks Canada and other experts to reduce wildlife conflict, though train-bear collisions remain a complex problem with no simple solutions.
“We focus on mitigation efforts within our existing right-of-way, including investing in targeted vegetation management along our tracks to decrease attractant species close to the railway, support wildlife sightlines and provide room for wildlife to safely exit the tracks,” Cunha said.
Colleen Cassady St. Clair, a University of Alberta biological sciences professor, said her 2020 findings from Banff and Yoho national parks found that collisions are likelier to happen with bears when trains are moving at faster speeds, around bends and near water bodies.
“They can not slow down quickly or change their trajectory,” St. Clair noted, adding that railways can lure bears as convenient travel routes that are generally far from humans and can also yield vegetation and spilled grain from train cars.
“There’s a lot of grain spilled on the tracks and incentive for bears to eat it,” she said.
In recent years, St. Clair reported CPKC is taking strides to replace older and leaky train cars that were spilling some of an estimated 110 tonnes of grain in Banff and Yoho national parks each year.
Yet, she said railways face less public pressure than highways to mitigate wildlife mortality because, while motor vehicles are often damaged and passengers sometimes injured in collisions with large mammals, hefty locomotives and their operators ride away unscathed.
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No silver bullet exists for how to slash train-bear collisions in Rogers Pass, and research has also found that bear deaths from train strikes often go unreported because the animals will leave the scene and succumb to their injuries elsewhere.
“It’s like a silent killer,” University of British Columbia wildlife scientist Clayton Lamb said. “The public proper doesn’t know much.”
In the Elk Valley, an area where nearly half of fatal train-grizzly collisions in B.C. happen, Lamb has spent years recording vehicle-wildlife collision data and observed that “all groups have tried to take different angles to solve this.”
Without consistent engagement by rail operators, though, he said working toward solutions has been challenging.
“Besides the study, not much has changed on the ground,” Lamb said.
Human transportation corridors already challenge bears with habitat fragmentation, and St. Clair said it’s not feasible to fence off a railway, which she explained would destroy prime bear habitat at the bottom of mountain valleys.
And while snowsheds over the Trans-Canada Highway have proven effective at reducing collisions with mountain goat, and so have wildlife crossings in Banff for a myriad of species, Lamb said overpasses are hard to justify economically, especially for railways.
Morerover, Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen said that having underpasses built below the railway likely wouldn’t attract grizzlies.
“You really have to think of those landscapes differently,” he said. “It’s a really unique challenge.”
As well, wildlife crossings or exclusion fencing wouldn’t suit the unique topography of these landscapes, Parks Canada said, noting the steep narrow valleys, dense vegetation, deep snowpack and structural threat of avalanches.
“Ensuring landscape connectivity and reducing wildlife mortality are key priorities to improve ecosystem health in Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks and Parks Canada is exploring mitigation measures that would be feasible in these unique landscapes,” the agency added.
READ: Grizzly bear conflict continues to worsen: BCWF
But even if trains can’t slow down and manmade exclusions can’t divert wildlife from railways, St. Clair said early-warning systems of flashing lights and bell noises would give bears more advance notice, and more time to flee the tracks.
In another 2020 study, she and colleagues found warning systems prompted coyotes, bears and other large animals to clear the railway 62 per cent faster.
Petryshen further hopes to see protection of wildlife around the tracks prioritized under Canada’s Railway Safety Act.
For Lamb, more solutions may come with increased public awareness and collection of train-bear collision data.
“It’s that old saying, you can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he said.