Crowsnest Pass Wildlife Mortality Report - Miistakis Institute for the ...

Miistakis Institute for the RockiesH IGHWAY 3 WILDLIFE MORTALITYCONTENTSIntroduction 1Methods 2Data Limitations 3Results 3Discussion 8Special points of interest:• The analysis includes mortalitydata from 1997-2004from the Alberta/ BritishColumbia border to Lundbreck.INTRODUCTIONThe Municipality of CrowsnestPass is situated in a rare east-westcorridor bisecting the CanadianRocky Mountains in SW Alberta.Highway 3, which runs the lengthof the Pass, is a major transportationroute supporting over 6000vehicles per day. Wildlife mortality,due to collisions with vehicles,has been identified as amajor human safety and wildlifeconservation issue on this 44 kmstretch of highway with approximately109 large mammal deathseach year. It is important thatdecision makers acquire informationon where wildlife are mostlikely to cross the road to ensure effectivemitigation measures are implemented. Thisreport highlights the results of an analysisof eight years of wildlife mortality dataBighorn Sheep Grazing close to the Highway (M. Quinn)(1997-2004) collected by Volker Stevins fromthe Alberta/ British Columbia border extendingeast to Lundbreck, Alberta.• Deer account for 88% ofthe mortality records.• An average of 109 largemammals are killed eachyear.• Ten high collision zoneswere identified in the studyarea.M ETHODSMortality data are collected daily alongHighway 3 by Volker Stevins, a contractorhired by Alberta Transportation to maintainHighway 3. Volker Stevin’s staff drivethe road in the morning and evening to removewildlife killed on the highway. Informationis recorded on the type of species,date (d/m/y), time (AM or PM), sex andlocation (distance from local landmarks) onhard copy forms. The majority of recordsare for ungulates. Alberta Fish and Wildlifeare contacted when a carnivore is killedand information on the event is enteredinto the ENFOR database at the Fish andWildlife office. ENFOR data were not includedin this analysis. Volkers Stevinsmortality data was obtained from AlbertaFish and Wildlife Blairmore office. The mortalitydata was entered into a GIS database.Location information was entered as a distancein meters east or west from specifiedlocal landmarks. Local landmarks were givena spatial location by driving highway 3 andusing a global positioning system (GPS) tomark their location. A route processing wizardin ArcGIS was used to accurately placeeach morality point the appropriate distancefrom the specified landmark. The resultingdatabase was used to create graphs highlightingthe total mortality per year, type of speciesand seasonal variations in mortality. Thespatial data were used to determine highmortality zones along Highway 3.

Page 2D ATA LIMITATIONSThere are a number of data limitations thatshould be considered when evaluating theresults of this analysis. The true accuracyof each morality point is unknown. Thedata collected by Volker Stevins is describedin meters from a local landmark.As with any study that relies on humanestimates of distance, we are not sure of theaccuracy level. Other studies have documentedmortality points within 250 m segmentsor 1/10 of a mile. In our spatial analysiswe also used 250 m segments to representhigh collision areas. Other data limitationsinclude missing data for the months of Apriland July 2001 and December and February2002. These data are missing from the analysisand represent an inconsistency and limitationof the database.R ESULTSMortality (Number of Animals)180160140120100806040200Mortality per Year (1997-2004)1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004YearM O R T A L I T Y P E R Y E A RThe mortality data indicate that over theeight year period (1997-2004) an averageof 109 animals were killed per year. Thisis likely an underestimate because thecalculation does not include animals(mainly carnivores) that are collected byAlberta Fish and Wildlife, animals thatare picked up by people for various purposesor injured animals that may wanderoff into the bush to die. Additionally,there are data missing for 2001 and 2002,resulting in a lower overall average peryear.A VERAGE MORTALITY PER MONTHMortalityvaries seasonallyin theregion. Themortalitydata indicatesthat monthsof higher collisionsincludeFebruaryto Apriland Octoberto November.Mortality (average number per month)14121086420Average Mortality per Month (1997-2004)Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecMonth

Page 4H IGH COLLISION ZONES ALONG HIGHWAY3To assess high collision zones along Highway3 the highway was divided into 187,250 m segments. The total number of mortalityrecords occurring in each segmentwas summed. The mean number of mortalityrecords per segment was 8.57, with astandard deviation of 7.5. The data rangedfrom 0 to 37 total mortalities per segment.To determine high collision zones, we comparedthe spatial pattern exhibited by themortality data with that expected from arandom distribution based on a Poissondistribution. Assuming a Poisson distributionand a significance level of 0.05, eachsegment is expected to have 0-14 mortalityrecords. This means that there is a 95%chance of a segment having between 0 and14 mortality records assuming a Poissondistribution. High collision zones weredefined as a minimum of 2 adjacent segmentswith 15 or greater mortality records.This analysis includes total morality (all species).Based on these criteria there are 10high collision zones in the study area fromthe Alberta/British Columbia border toLundbreck, based on the mortality datafrom 1997-2004. The graph below depictsthe segments along the y-axis and the numberof wildlife mortality records on the x-axis. The green line represents the cut off forexpected results assuming a Poisson distribution.High Collision Zones on Highway 34035Number of Animals per segment3025201510501 9 17 25 33 41 49 57 65 73 81 89 97 105 113 121 129 137 145 153 161 169 177 185Segment Number (250 m)

Highway 3 Wildlife MortalityPage 5H IGH COLLISION ZONES ALONG HIGHWAY 3A new project, “RoadWatch in the Pass”provides the communitywith an opportunityto report theirwildlife observationsalong Highway 3 usingan on-line tool.This project will provideanother valuableinformation source onwildlife movement andcrossing locations. Thewebsite is www.rockies.ca/roadwatch.F OCUS AREA OF HIGH COLLISION ZONE 3The map above depicts allhigh collision zones alongHighway 3. High collisionzones are defined as 2 ormore adjacent segmentswith 15 or greater mortalityrecords. The zones are labeledfrom 1 through 10.Zones 1-6 occur within theMunicipality of CrowsnestPass.The map to the right focuseson high collision zone 3 nearthe West Coleman assess.This type of information isuseful when consideringhuman safety issues in thePass, because it reflectswhere collisions have beenmost prominent in the lasteight years.

Page 6M ORTALITY OCCURENCES ALONG HIGHWAY 3The map to the left depictstotal mortalityper 250m segment.The red bars illustrateproportional mortality,visually highlightingthe high collisionzones.E LK HIGH COLLISION ZONESThe graph and maps represented on theprevious page depict total mortality (88%deer). Species can be assessed separatelyto depict species-specific high collisionzones. Elk account for 5% of the mortalityrecords and are a species of managementinterest. Thegraph below depictshigh collisionzones for elk5based on thesame methodologyused for the4total mortalityhigh collision3zones. The meanmortality per250m segment2was 0.223 with astandard deviationof 0.717.1Mortality recordsper segment0ranged from 0-4.Therefore anyMortality (Number of Elk)segment with 1 or greater mortality recordsoccurring in 2 or more adjacent segments isconsidered a high collision zone. Based onthese assumptions there are five high collisionzones for elk.High Collision Zones for Elk along Highway 31 8 15 22 29 36 43 50 57 64 71 78 85 92 99 106 113 120 127 134 141 148 155 162 169 176 183Segment Number

Highway 3 Wildlife Mortality Page 7E LK HIGH COLLISION ZONES ALONG HIGHWAY 3E LK FOCUS AREA OF COLLISION ZONES 3 AND 4The map at thetop of the pagedepicts spatiallythe high collisionzonesalong Highway3 for elk. All thefive zones occurwithin the MunicipalityofCrowsnest Pass.The map to theright focuses inon high collisionzones 3and 4.

D ISCUSSIONAtlas Sawmill in the Crowsnest Pass (M. Quinn)Miistakis Institute for theRockies,C/o EVDS, University ofCalgary2500 University Drive NWCalgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4T: 403-220-8968E: institute@rockies.caIt is important that decision makers andthe community of the Crowsnest Pass haveaccess to information regarding the locationof collision zones along Highway 3.This information is important when addressinghuman safety through the developmentof mitigation measures to reducevehicle and wildlife collisions. The collisionzones along Highway 3 identified bythe mortality data are based on 877 mortalityrecords from 1997-2004. Eighty-eightpercent of the records are comprised ofdeer. Zones of high collision may belinked to habitat variables or road characteristics,such as curvature and line ofsight. Characteristics associated with thesezones were not assessed in this report.The information presented in this report isACKNOWLEDGEMENTSimportant for decision makers to identifyboth general and species-specific movementareas. As an example, we highlighted highcollision zones for elk. There were 42 mortalityrecords for elk over the eight year period.There were not enough mortality records forBighorn sheep to run a similar analysis.The mortality data presented in this reportrepresents one information source of informationthat focuses on wildlife and Highway3. However, it does not contain sufficient informationfor carnivores. Other data sets thatprovide insight on crossing locations in thisregion will greatly enhance the knowledgebase needed by decision makers.The information in this unsolicited reportwas prepared for the community of theCrowsnest Pass.Miistakis would like to acknowledge the assistance of Jim Clark, from the Alberta Fishand Wildlife Blairmore office, Chester Markowski, from Volker Stevins ContractingLtd. and Janet Quinn from Road Watch in the Pass in providing Miistakis with themortality data.