EDITOR,
Re. "Whistler groups working to keep bears away from highway" (Whistler Question, May 19).
This is great to hear interested groups meeting to discuss this topic. Keep in mind, however, that there are a long list of species getting killed on the highway as well as bears. From a human safety perspective, I suppose hitting a bear head on is the most likely to cause us injury (along with deer causing that air bag to go off).
So how many deer, skunks, raccoons, mice, squirrels, bobcats, snakes, frogs (well, very little remains of the red-legged frog in the Pinecrest area at all), just to mention a small few, end up as road kill?
The truth is that we don't know because most don't have the potential to leave people injured or dead, and most are run over without the driver even knowing about it. All of these species play an equal role in the ecosystem. I will argue that a red-legged frog run over in the Pinecrest area is as important as that bear that just damaged your SUV near Whistler, and that bobcat that got whacked in front of the Squamish Adventure Centre.
So how did we end up turning the Sea to Sky Highway into a death trap for wildlife? The answer is the centre divider that was laid down. This, coupled with the fact that MOT did not install any wildlife fencing.
Wildlife fencing, folks. It needs to be installed from Horseshoe Bay right up to Pemberton.
I have included some photos of some of the carnage this new highway has caused. Editor, you probably can't publish them because of their graphic nature. But feel free to pass them on to the officials responsible for building the "greenest Games" to date.
John Buchanan99roadkill.ca
Squamish
