Banff offers pristine clean air.
It is the well-maintained first National Park in Canada.
A place that respects nature and animals, and insists on low human population.
There's a cap of 10,000 people in Banff, and right now Banff has about 8,500 year round residents.
In the summer tourists converge on the park like these two men from the Netherlands, who walked out of the Fairmont and onto our Discover Banff Tour, which I'll tell you about in another post.
Animals must be free to move about.
You do see much wildlife while touring in Banff. There's about 60 grizzlies, 50 black bear, 50 wolves and 2600 big-horn sheep.
And many unusual and beautiful birds.
Banff is the first national park I'm aware of that built two overpasses over the Trans-Canada Highway for animals to walk across.
In 1996 at a cost of $1.8 million each, these moss-covered looking overpasses cut animal deaths by 80% and enabled wildlife to move freely between areas to exchange genes over a large area to keep biodiversity healthy.
When you travel around in undeveloped nature areas, you quickly learn that many residents are challenged with animals running into a highway and needing to swerve in order to avoid hitting them. Prior to these wildlife crossings, about 800 animal-to-hood collisions occurred each year in Banff National Park.
I was impressed with how much animal and environmental respect I saw throughout B.C. and Alberta but especially here in Banff.
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