Two more people were fined $1,500 each for entering an area closed to protect Jasper’s dwindling caribou population, March 24.
So far this year, eight people have pled guilty and been fined under the Canada National Parks Act. Two others have pled not guilty and are awaiting their day in court. They will appear before a provincial court judge in August.
According to the facts read in court, a Parks Canada warden found footprints heading up the Bald Hills fire road shortly before 4 p.m. on Feb. 13. The fire road was closed Nov. 1 to protect the three remaining animals in the Maligne caribou herd and reopened March 1.
About an hour later, two women returned and were met at the trailhead by the warden.
The women initially claimed they were not hiking in the closed area and told the warden they were hiking on the Moose Lake Loop Trail, located nearby.
After the warden told the women that they had been spotted on camera, they changed their story and admitted they were indeed hiking up the Bald Hills fire road.
The Crown presented Judge J.P Higgerty with four pictures to support her case.
Richard Ireland, who was acting as duty counsel, acknowledged that the women entered the closed area, but argued that the trail was already packed down from other trespassers and that they did not “exacerbate” the situation.
He also urged the judge to consider the two charges as a single offense, because the women entered the area together. He compared it to someone being pulled over for speeding; only the driver gets charged not the passengers.
Ireland also questioned whether a $1,500 fine was appropriate given the fact that impaired drivers often face similar fines.
The Crown agreed that the accused were not the first to enter the closed area, but said that their footprints extended well beyond the trailhead and into the alpine.
Higgerty said he appreciated Ireland’s arguments, but ultimately decided to fine Marie Carolyn Gibson and Sarah Kaitlyn Brown $1,500 each.
The last of Parks Canada’s caribou closures were lifted on March 1 allowing backcountry users to venture into the Maligne-Brazeau and North Boundary areas for the first time this winter.
The area was originally closed Nov. 1 to help protect Jasper’s threatened caribou herds, considered a species at risk.
Cavell Road, Portal Creek and the Tonquin Valley were also closed Nov. 1, but reopened Feb. 16.
According to Parks Canada, the closures are in place to help protect caribou from wolves, which use human tracks to hunt the threatened species in the alpine.
Paul Clarke
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