Environmental groups welcome Parks Canada buyout of Jasper Park backcountry lodges

The two lodges were on habitat used by caribou for calving, rearing and rutting, and added to pressures the animals were facing from predators.

Environmental groups are welcoming Parks Canada’s buyout of two businesses in Jasper National Park’s Tonquin Valley, a scenic and heavily visited destination also used by vanishing caribou herds.

“That’s a good step forward,” said Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association. “It’s really positive to reduce recreation pressures year-round for caribou.”

Late last year, Parks Canada reached a deal with both Tonquin Valley Adventures and Tonquin Valley Backcountry Lodge to buy all the infrastructure and fixed assets of the businesses and to end their occupation licences.

The businesses had operated for many years and were part of a long tradition of horsepacking into some of the most beautiful and accessible backcountry in the Rockies.

However, the Tonquin Valley is also crucial habitat for one of Jasper’s dwindling caribou herds. Parks Canada says the Tonquin herd is down to nine breeding females – too few to produce enough calves to increase the herd.

Campbell said the two lodges were on habitat used by caribou for calving, rearing and rutting, and added to the pressures the animals were facing from predators.

“There are definite indications that the combined effects of trails and infrastructure adds up to be a disturbance,” she said. “It can displace (caribou) from prime habitat.”

Parks Canada has been slowly closing winter access to the Tonquin for years.