Watch out for Elk on the Sea to Sky Highway. That is the message Squamish RCMP is passing on to people driving on Highway 99.
The local police say they have seen an increase in calls for Elk on the highway around Squamish and are reminding the public to keep an eye out for them while driving in the corridor.
Last month, Squamish RCMP received a report of four Elk trying to cross the highway at Highway 99 and Commercial Way. Police attended to ensure the Elk were a safe distance from the highway.
That is what a local business owner will be doing after recently seeing an Elk standing close to the Squamish Adventure Centre and seemingly trying to cross the Highway.
The owner of Bisla restaurant said he was going home to Brackendale after closing his restaurant at 10 pm when he noticed a big animal just a few yards from the adventure centre.
“There are no lights there and I first thought it was a deer, but then I later realised it was an Elk. It was standing very close to the Highway, and it could have easily veered on to the front of my car,” he said.
When Bisla came back an hour later to pick up staff from his downtown restaurant, he noticed the animal was still standing there. “It’s quite dark around that area and there could easily have been a serious accident,” he said.
Eight months ago, a serious accident involving Elk seriously injured a motorcycle drive in Squamish. In August last year, police reported of a motorcycle colliding with an Elk that was moving southbound on Highway 99 south of Industrial Way.
Emergency services quickly attended and provided medical attention to the injured motorist but the Elk was killed in the collision.
The Roosevelt Elk was introduced to Squamish valley in 2006 and into the Mamquam River Watershed in 2011. The largest of the four remaining North American elk subspecies, they play an important role within the forested ecosystem but they have fallen prey to vehicles on Highway 99.
Over the past few years, there have been several sightings of elk near Highway 99. Since 2011, five elk have been struck by vehicles, four of which died from their injuries, according to District of Squamish.
In 2015, the district installed two signs on the Highway to make motorists aware of these big animals, one on the northbound lane near the Cleveland Avenue intersection as well as at the southbound lane near the Mamquam River Bridge.
The signs were installed to help mitigate vehicle-wildlife collisions along Highway 99 and protect the local elk population, but a local environmentalist said the district could do more on mitigating the conflict by providing wildlife corridors.
Rachel Shephard of Squamish Environment Society recently raised the issue with the district, but she couldn’t be available for an interview by the time of publication. She wants the district to allocate funds to define and then research wildlife corridors.
“Provision of wildlife corridors has been an OCP policy for as long as I can remember and the new OCP carries this forward. But there is never any money allocated in the budget to do anything,” she wrote.
“With the pace of development in Squamish, the issue is becoming critical. If we don’t identify and protect wildlife corridors now, they will be gone.”
Dave Colwell says
Since these were introduced into our valley they have been increasing rapidly and the above problem will get worse. Not sure how much data is available or even been collected on their predators here which amount to Man, Cougars and Wolves; but something will have to be done. It seems that we are killing two of them every time they encroach on our territory! Perhaps more hunting tags need to be issued for elk! Personally, I question why it was even necessary to introduce them in the 1st place….but who am I?
David Lassmann says
I have heard that some Elk were introduced somewhere near the the Forestry Office and the Civic Centre. If this is true that was obviously a bad idea. More likely they were introduced into the Upper Squamish and have migrated from there. Wildlife is poorly equiped to deal with high speed highways. No doubt wildlife can travel up and down the Squamish valley with no trouble, but crossing Highway 99 is another matter. An underground passageway might be built, but would wildlife understand that they should cross using the underpass? Probably not.