Photo: Jana Malinek

Reconnecting the Rockies

Canada’s Southern Rockies is one of the most important landscapes in North America for wildlife. The Elk Valley provides a critical wildlife passageway. It connects protected areas between Banff National Park and Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park, arguably the most important North-South wildlife corridor on the continent.

Cutting an aggressive line through these connected landscapes in the Elk Valley is Highway 3, a busy corridor for interprovincial traffic, as well as a steady stream of trains on the nearby Canadian Pacific rail line. Traffic on the Elk Valley’s Highway 3 is up 24% in the past 10 years, and increasing use by transport trucks amplifies the lethal nature of this route. Each year, hundreds of wildlife are killed along this stretch of highway. Making wildlife a priority in this region means finding a way to get animals safely across the road.

Wildsight works collaboratively with like-minded nonprofit organizations, government agencies and the public to promote a science-based approach to safe wildlife crossings on Highway 3. Detailed research has led to the identification of 10 top priority sites for wildlife underpasses and overpasses, based on the potential to reduce wildlife deaths and improve driver safety, combined with cost and feasibility considerations.

Our goal is to protect wildlife in the Elk Valley, keep drivers safer, and provide a strong example to the rest of BC of how we can build a future that works for all living things that share these spaces.

Keeping People Safe and Wildlife Connected (PDF)


Reconnecting the Rockies news

A remarkable, research-driven project is underway in the Elk Valley right now to help protect vulnerable species. Home to iconic, wide-ranging animals like…Read more 
British Columbia has more than 600,000 kilometres of resource roads. Every year, an additional 10,000 kilometres are added. These roads are constructed primarily…Read more 
If you drive enough on a provincial highway, it seems inevitable you will collide with an animal some day. It seems everyone has a story…Read more 
One doesn’t have to drive Kootenay roads for long to know we have an issue with wildlife collisions on our highways. Animal carcasses at…Read more 
Two-hundred and forty dead animals are removed from Highway 3 through the Elk Valley every year, including deer, elk, moose and even bears. A…Read more 
“There was a time when most things were nature, most was habitat. And you were trying to connect a couple of towns by a road…Read more 
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Join The Team

Want to protect wildlife, clean water and wild spaces? Volunteer with us! Wildsight volunteers are a very special group of people who give generously of their time to stuff envelopes, attend rallies, help run events, put up posters, keep tabs on forestry practices in their communities and participate in citizen science initiatives.

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