BOW VALLEY – While litter along trails and overflowing garbage cans at popular day use areas are becoming a common scene in the valley, organizers of a regional volunteer cleanup event held over the weekend were hoping to change that with little bit of hard work.
The Kananaskis and Canmore Klean Up event ran Aug. 6-10 and was open to anyone who wanted to lend a helping hand throughout the region, including in Bragg Creek and Banff National Park.
Organizers Sarah Kuindersma and Glen Gorrie put together 400 prizes for participants in the hopes of inspiring more people to get involved. Both have noticed how popular Alberta's parks have become this summer, which has also resulted in increased littering.
"I have been seeing an increase in the usage of the pathways, but also an increase of garbage on the trails," Kuindersma said. "Not only is it not nice to see the garbage, but it is a hazard for wildlife."
Kuindersma reported that upwards of 80 groups – or approximately 320 people – took part in the event throughout the region. Images of the efforts undertaken can by found under through #KleanUpKananskis on Instagram.
While she said there was a great response to get involved, it is also frustrating to know that for some of areas that were cleaned up, trash was found on them the only a day later.
"Overall my feelings are conflicted," Kuindersma said in an email. "I was blown away from the support, but saddened with how much trash was collected, but happy there is that much trash now off the trails."
Kuindersma also attended a recent cleanup event organized for Abraham Lake north of Saskatchewan River Crossing and helped collect 170 bags of garbage with 80 other volunteers at the beginning of July.
Her concern for how garbage is affected wildlife played out after the event ended.
Fish and Wildlife subsequently issued a closure after a bear was able to gain access to unattended food at a random camping site on July 28. Other campers also witnessed the bear regularly entering campsites in the area over several days.
According to communications advisor Shawna King, Fish and Wildlife captured the male black bear on July 29 and the area was reopened the next day. The bear, however, was killed and the incident is a reminder of why it is important to keep food away from wildlife.
"Having a habituated large animal in high use recreation areas is a serious public safety concern, especially when the animal is not shy of humans and even willingly approaches them," King wrote in an email to the Outlook.
"Bears that show this sort of behaviour are at an increased risk to injure or kill someone. For these reasons, officers had to make the difficult choice to put this bear down to prevent future public safety problems."
Preventing wildlife from accessing human food and attractants is key to reducing human wildlife conflicts in bear country.
"We are entering their home and we are the ones bringing this trash in and the unfortunate part is that the bear pays the price for it," Kuindersma said. "This year, there has just been so much garbage especially on the trails. I am really concerned for the wildlife."
Kuindersma, an Okotoks resident, and Gorrie spend a lot of free time recreating in the mountains and felt the need to do something about the increasing amounts of garbage since the parks reopened from the coronavirus lockdown.
"Every spare moment that I have, I am out there," Kuindersma said. "As soon as I had the idea, [Gorrie] has been helping me along with it."
