Although railway is a responsibility of the federal government, John Rustad, MLA for Nechako Lakes, said he hopes to put pressure on the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) to implement moose fencing across northern B.C.
“The biggest thing I want to deal with [when it comes to CN], if we can have some political pressure, is to deal with the number of moose that are killed by the trains,” Rustad recently said in Burns Lake. “You have to think about fencing here.”
“We try to have a good relationship with them [CN] and we do push on some issues, but ultimately we [provincial government] don’t have a lot of authority [over railways],” added Rustad.
Since 2007, CN has been working with the provincial government, wildlife academics and other stakeholders to better understand moose-train collisions between Endako and Smithers, as well as between Prince George and McBride. Both of these regions have high moose densities relative to provincial benchmarks.
While collision levels between Endako and Smithers ranged from 36 to 71 in five of the past six years, deeper snow depths in the winter of 2014/15 resulted in an estimated 168 moose-train collisions.
Since the rail corridor between Endako and Smithers generally runs at lower elevations – which receive less snow than the adjacent landscape – in years with high snow depths (above 70 cm), more moose move to the valley bottoms, resulting in higher moose densities along the rail corridor.
Over the past few years, CN has also been testing the efficacy of moose fences near Burns Lake. In 2010 and 2011, three sites with high collision levels were selected for testing of fencing between Endako and Smithers. The proportion of moose-train collisions occurring within the fenced miles decreased 87 per cent following fence construction.
“Comparison of collision levels before and after fence installation indicates a notable decrease in moose mortality within the sections of rail with fencing compared to those without,” says a CN report. “Importantly, collision levels have not increased in adjacent, unfenced areas, suggesting that fencing has truly reduced the number of collisions, rather than simply displaced them.”
Burns Lake currently sees 24 trains per day, or one train per hour, according to CN police constable Jamie Thorne. With the ongoing expansion of the Port of Prince Rupert, the number of CN freight trains passing through Burns Lake is expected to rise.
Although CN announced an investment of $2.5 billion earlier this year to “harden its core infrastructure,” Kate Fenske, a spokesperson for CN, said she didn’t have any specific information for investments in northern B.C.
“CN is always looking for effective options but there is no fencing plan for 2017 at this point,” she said.
Part of CN’s investment includes approximately $1.6 billion on track infrastructure. The planned work includes the replacement of 2.2 million rail ties and installation of more than 600 miles of new rail, plus work on bridges, branch line upgrades and other general track maintenance.
The moose population in the Bulkley Valley Lakes District declined by 20 per cent from 2004 to 2011. Lake Babine Nation (LBN) Chief Wilf Adam said he has been particularly concerned about the moose decline in the region because LBN relies on moose for sustenance.
Last year the provincial government announced a new strategy to modernize aspects of wildlife management, which would initially focus on growing moose populations across the province. According to Dave Fyfe, former president of the Wildlife Stewardship Council (WSC), although the province was not particularly clear on how it would enhance the province’s moose population, the most important thing is that the province recognized the need for more engagement, particularly with First Nations.
This past winter, CN continued to monitor moose-train collisions between Endako and Smithers. A report on findings and results of the current year’s investigations is scheduled for this fall.
