Lake Louise Ski Resort investigated for alleged removal of endangered whitebark pine

Lake Louise Ski Resort is in court for allegedly removing endangered whitebark pine treesfrom the land on which it operates.

Parks Canada has been looking into theremoval of treesfrom the back side of the Lake Louise leasehold in Banff National Park and resort spokesman Dan Markham said it will work with officialsas the investigation continues.

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Markham said it's standard practice toremove trees and brush on resort land, but employees may have removed some whitebark pine by mistake.

The potentially problematic removal of trees was first noticed when resort employees and Parks Canada officials did a walkaround of the area in the summer of 2014, Markham said.

There is a chance the removal of trees happened before the species was listed as endangered in 2012, he said.

Markhamsaid the matter has been before the courts since September 2015but has been repeatedly put over pending new information.

At the moment, the resort iswaiting on results from DNA testing of trees in the area before it determines its next steps.

"We run a number of environmental programs on the resort, including whitebark pine preservation, so once we have all the answers to all the situations, we'll work with Parks Canada to come up with a solution," Markham said.

Thatcould include "some form of reparation program," headded.