Bear-attracting buffaloberry bushes to be torn out at 4 mountain campgrounds

Parks Canada is moving ahead with plans to remove bear-attracting buffaloberry bushes from four popularcampgrounds in western Banff, Kootenay and Yoho National parks.

"Just like we manage garbage and human food and make sure that's not available to bears in our campsites, we also want to manage natural attractants so that bears aren't lingering and foraging right in the campsites where people are camping," said wildlife ecologistSeth Cherry.

Work began Mondayand will take about two weeks to complete, he said.

• Education key to keep visitors safe, wildlife alive in national parks, biologist says
• Legacy Trail reopensdespite grizzly bear still feeding nearby

The buffaloberry bushes are to be removed from the Lake Louise RV campground in Banff, as well as the Marble Canyon campground in Kootenay and the Kicking Horse and Monarch campgrounds in Yoho.

All four are considered frontcountry campgrounds, Cherry said, meaning they are easily accessible by motor vehicles and typically see many more visitors than the parks' more remote backcountry campgrounds.

"Our berry season is overthis year, but the idea is to remove them now and then in the future, they won't be there," he said.

Negligible impact on bears' food supply

The four campgrounds occupy about 20 hectares in total space and the buffaloberry bushes cover about 10 per cent of that land, Cherry said.

The loss of food for grizzlies is negligible,he added.

"There shouldn't really be any nutritional consequences for bears in our parks," Cherry said."We're talking about a very small fraction of a per cent of the total grizzly bear habitat within these national parks that would be made up byfrontcountrycampsites."

Clearing buffaloberry bushes from these types of campgrounds is "pretty standard," he added, and has happened elsewhere in the mountain parks, including Jasper and further to the east in Banff, nearer the townsite.

"It's something we've done in the past and we'll continue to do in the future."

• MORE PARKS NEWS |Parks Canada bans wildlife photographers from using radio receivers to locate animals
• MORE PARKS NEWS |Mountain guide nearlykilled by falling boulder determined to walk and climb again