At the heart of the Yellowstone to Yukon region, the Canadian Rocky Mountain (CRM) Priority Area is composed of four mountain national parks (Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Yoho), a number of provincial parks and wilderness areas, as well as areas of unprotected Crown and private land in Alberta and British Columbia. Together these protected areas total 13,514 square miles (35,000 square kilometers), the largest contiguous protected landscape in the Yellowstone to Yukon region. In 1984, the four mountain national parks and adjacent B.C. provincial parks were named as the Canadian Rocky Mountains World Heritage Site.
The Canadian Rocky Mountains holds one of two grizzly bear populations within the Yellowstone to Yukon region deemed large enough to sustain itself over evolutionary time (the other is located in the northern portion of the Y2Y region). Here, in the parks complex, existing connections have been maintained between the relatively healthy and protected habitats of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks.
Banff
National Park, in
Alberta, is the site of the only long-term study of highway over- and underpasses for wildlife in the world. This information is proving useful in the new field of road ecology and in highway construction and reconstruction plans. Since their construction in the mid 1990s,
Banff’s crossing structures have proven to be very effective in providing a safe way for bears, wolves, sheep, elk, deer, and cougars to cross the busy
TransCanada Highway. DNA studies are being conducted to measure not just the number of crossings, but to track which individuals are using the crossing structures.
For information on collaborative projects in the Canadian Rocky Mountains Priority Area click here.