Banff tourism boycott urged
‘Animal murders’ prompt Internet call to action
Cathy Ellis, with files from Wendy-Anne Thompson.
For The Calgary Herald
Friday, January 10, 2003
A German Web site and international e-mail campaign is calling on tourists to boycott Banff National Park in light of recent wolf deaths, being referred to as “animal murders.”
Hundreds of e-mails are being sent to federal and provincial land managers, echoing recent calls for a buffer zone around national parks to protect wide-ranging wolves from hunting and trapping pressures on provincial lands.
The letters raise concerns over animal deaths inside and outside Banff, but in particular point to the recent legal trapping deaths of two Bow Valley pack wolves just outside protected park boundaries in B.C.
The authors of one e-mail sent to a local hotel threaten to cancel plans to visit Banff and to ask their travel agencies to boycott the park “with its animal murders” unless wolves are protected.
“If no further measures are taken, we will recommend our customers not to travel to Banff National Park or any other Alberta park until something has been done,” says a letter on the Web site www.wolfmagazin.de/Protest/protest.html.
Banff’s tourism and business community is angered by the protest, calling the letter-writing campaign an example of “ongoing Banff bashing.”
Business officials say the letters are laden with wrong and misleading information, adding the trapping deaths were legal and outside park boundaries.
“This is clearly unproductive and no doubt planned to hurt tourism,” said Julie Canning, spokeswoman for the Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment, a business lobby group. “The first thing we need to do is determine who they are and who they’re linked to in the Bow Valley. This is another example of ongoing Banff bashing that has to stop.”
Carolyn Callaghan, research director for the Central Rockies Wolf Project, said the protest campaign is independent of the Bow Valley-based group.
“We work very co-operatively with various groups, but this protest is obviously an indication of the sensitivity to this issue internationally,” added Callaghan. “Hopefully it will encourage governments to co-operate on wolf management in this region.”
Parks Canada spokeswoman Marjorie Huculak said the agency’s local and national offices have received more than 200 of the form letters in recent days.
“We’re beginning to develop a response letter so we can clarify to the letter writers about the incidents and Parks Canada’s commitment to wildlife protection,” said Huculak.
A national conservation organization is distancing itself from the boycott.
“We’re always glad to see people paying attention to ecological issues and we have no position on what they are doing,” said Dave Poulton, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Calgary-Banff chapter.
The alpha male of the Bow Valley pack, known as Storm, and his eight-month-old son Yukon were killed last month in legal traps on the outskirts of B.C.’s Kootenay National Park.
One letter calls for closure of the scenic Bow Valley Parkway from dusk to dawn to protect the pack’s remaining two wolves, a young female and her eight-month-old pup.
Another reads: “Unfortunately the last time I came to Banff, I hardly saw any animals at all besides seeing quite a few dead ones near the Trans-Canada Highway.”
“I as a tourist want to see animals that are alive and not dead. That’s why I come to your country and especially to your beautiful national park. If there are no more wolves left, there will be no reason to come to Alberta anymore,” states another excerpt.
The Web site asks writers to address e-mails and letters to Banff National Park superintendent Bill Fisher, Premier Ralph Klein, the Banff/Lake Louise Tourism Bureau and federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps.