Latest news with #FriendsOfKananaskis
CTV News
29-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
G7 sustainability effort sees Kananaskis Village bear-proofed
A grizzly bear feasts on buffaloberries along Smith Dorrien Trail in Spray Valley Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country in July 2021. (File Photo/Rocky Mountain Outlook) A group of students and scouts from southern Alberta are bear-proofing areas around Kananaskis Village ahead of next month's G7 Summit. More than 200 local teens have been plucking buffaloberry bushes in May in an effort to detract wildlife from venturing into the space. The bright red berries are very popular with bears. Trevor Julian, executive director of the non-profit Friends of Kananaskis Country, is leading the charge. 'We're partnered with Global Affairs Canada,' he told CTV News. 'They reached out wanting to do a bit of a legacy project, something good for the environment left behind, and we pitched this to them. Now we're working together, engaging students from the Bow Valley and Calgary and some scouts to come out and do this work and learn a little bit about the environment.' Friends of Kananaskis Country typically focuses on trail maintenance but couldn't pass up the opportunity to make the forest that much better, too. Julian jokes launching the project under the G7 banner was a nice excuse to do something that will primarily help the village long after any delegates have left. That's because security barriers and wildlife fences have already been erected around the area, and the buffaloberries are still about a month away from blooming. Digging the plants out of the ground will keep the immediate area clear for up to 10 years. Students have been focused on pulling roots near the hotel, the staff residences and along a main trail in Kananaskis Village. 'I think it's really good for us,' said Crescent Heights Grade 10 student Alexander Scott. 'We get work experience, and it's obviously really good for the park because they keep the bears away from the buildings. 'It's just overall fun.' 'I think it's great that we get to come out here and enjoy the nature,' said Grade 11 student Ayna Spahic. 'And I'd probably be in bio class or in physics, doing some science stuff. I'd rather be out here!' The work is being done in 10 days across three weeks. It wraps up the first week of June. Leaders arrive in K-Country on June 15.
CBC
24-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Bow Valley kids picking berries to keep bears away from G7
Social Sharing There surely won't be lions or tigers at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., next month, and officials are doing their best to keep bears away, too. As many as 5,000 participants are set to descend on the area in a few weeks, and officials are already working to install security barriers and clear out the area of anything that might attract bears to keep both people and the animals safe. Earlier this week more than 200 local kids began plucking buffaloberry bushes around Kananaskis to detract bears from venturing into the area. The bright red berries are quite popular with bears. "The buffaloberries haven't been cleared out of the area in and around Kananaskis Village for about 15 years. So there's quite a lot of them," said Trevor Julian, the executive director of Friends of Kananaskis Country. The non-profit, which primarily maintains trails around the area, was approached by Global Affairs Canada last year for ideas on how to help with the environmental sustainability of the summit. Removing the buffaloberry bushes was their idea. "That's what we'd suggested to them, that it would be a worthwhile activity to do. It would, one, have the potential to reduce human-wildlife conflict, but also to engage the public and students in it," Julian said. The students, along with a Scouts Canada group from Calgary, took three days this week pulling the bushes right down to their roots — as the berries haven't bloomed yet. They have another four days of work lined up for next week, and another three days the first week of June. "We reached out to schools to see who was interested in participating, doing some service, learning a bit more about the environmental and wildlife conflict," Julian said. Bear killed at G8 The efforts to minimize the wildlife-human contact at the summit come after some lessons learned in 2002, when Kananaskis hosted what was then known as the G8 summit, before Russia was expelled. In 2002, a bear ventured too close to leaders in a tree and was tranquilized. "They shot [it] so it would fall into a net then be moved to a safe place," said John Kirton, a political science professor and the director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. "But [the bear] missed, fell to the ground and died." Officials from Alberta's Ministry of Public Safety also have plans to erect fencing around bear attractants, as well as electric fencing to keep bears out. "Wildlife is expected to be present in the surrounding environment, and the primary focus will be on the prevention of any close encounters between wildlife and the event's key facilities or areas frequented by attendees," said Sheena Campbell, the director of communications for the ministry. "Staff have and continue to provide guidance on the development of strict protocols for managing food attractants, ensuring that these attractants are properly stored and disposed of to prevent any accidental attraction of wildlife." Julian said delegates will also receive a crash course on wildlife awareness. "Training the delegates — you know, people who aren't used to being in bear country where you're essentially among grizzly bears and black bears — what's the best things you can do to avoid conflict and then also what you should carry. For example, bear spray if you're out in the wilderness and things like that," Julian said.
