MD OF BIGHORN – Alberta Forestry and Parks has slapped a strict temporary firearms use ban on the Ghost Public Land Use Zone in a bid to curb reckless shooting in the popular Crown land region.
The new restriction, which came into effect Aug. 29 and targets the Ghost River area and TransAlta Road, aims to restore order in an area increasingly marred by unsafe firearm use.
“For me, the conversation around better management of safe and lawful gun use started with an example I heard about, almost three years ago, where somebody was target shooting at an exploding target, which caused a wildfire,” said MD of Bighorn Reeve Lisa Rosvold.
“When our fire crew went out to take care of the wildfire that had been started, the people shooting didn’t want to stop. They had to be asked multiple times to stop shooting, and this was now within close range of our firefighters.”
The Ghost Public Land Use Zone (PLUZ) falls within the boundaries of the MD of Bighorn but is managed by the province. For years, the municipality and area stakeholders have urged the Alberta government to get a better handle on recreational gun use in the Ghost, which to some has earned a reputation akin to the Wild West.
The PLUZ is west of Cochrane and east of Banff National Park and Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park. It is used for forestry, agriculture, oil and gas, and recreation. Hikers, campers, rock climbers, off-highway vehicle users, fishers, hunters and target shooters share the land with industry.
Adding unlawful gun use to the mix is a “recipe for disaster,” says Rosvold.
“I’ve heard from many people in the Bow Valley, within the MD, but also Canmore and Banff residents that have told me they used to go camping out there and they don’t go out there anymore. They don’t feel safe hiking with their families,” she said.
“I’ve heard of people mountain biking on a sanctioned trail out there that have heard gunshots really close, and they literally had to crawl their way off and away from that trail because they don’t know where the shots are coming from.
“I’ve heard of people being shot. This is anecdotal, but there’s also photos that I’ve seen of spent gun casings that were a foot deep, just being left behind on the ground.”
What started as the MD advocating for better land use management as it pertains to issues like waste control – another prominent issue that plagues the Ghost, with litter left behind and improper disposal of human waste – has quickly become a more targeted conversation around public safety.
“All of that is really important, but it just seems like the stories that we’re hearing and the near misses that are happening are coming faster and more furious than they had been,” said Rosvold.
The provincially ordered firearms use restriction is expected to remain in place for at least 30 days but could be longer.
Conservation officers, government staff and RCMP will be patrolling the area to provide guidance, education and enforce the order. Information kiosks and signage will also be placed along TransAlta Road.
Hunting, as defined in the Wildlife Act, is still permitted under the order in the closure area, but other firearm uses are not.
Certain restrictions have always applied to firearm use in the PLUZ, with only unrestricted firearms allowed to be used by licensed gun owners.
Discharging a firearm within 400 metres of a provincial trail is also illegal unless hunting as defined under the Wildlife Act. Otherwise, shooting is permitted if done safely – this means aiming into an open clearing, away from trails, roads or blind spots, with a clear backstop like a hill to prevent stray bullets.
Brad Milne, treasurer of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) Alberta chapter, said he is not against the temporary restriction order but believes fulsome consultation is needed to determine how the area can best be managed going forward.
“It is a heavily accessed area and I know myself and the BHA are in favour of responsible and ethical use of firearms for a wide range of sporting reasons. Lots of us own guns and recreate with guns, both as sport shooters or hunters, but we’re also advocates for land access and the freedom to recreate in a safe, reasonable and ethical manner,” he said.
The province introduced a permanent firearms use restriction order in McLean Creek and Kananaskis Public Land Use Zones in 2016 prohibiting firearm discharge within a distance of one kilometre of roads within the restriction area, with an exception for legal licensed hunting.
“We’ve already seen the likes of this in McLean Creek to make sure people are sport shooting at a safe distance from roadways, trails and corridors, if you will,” said Milne.
Many trails are unmarked, however. Most trails in McLean Creek or the Ghost that are officially marked on land use maps are for OHV use.
“As a hiker, you can basically go anywhere, and so it’s hard for shooters to be aware of where all these people are,” said Marina Krainer, executive director of the Ghost Watershed Alliance Society.
The watershed stewardship group works toward preserving and enhancing the ecosystem in the Ghost watershed, located in the headwaters of the Bow River.
As part of its mission, the society runs outdoor education programming in the area, including walks of the watershed that take school groups out for field trips.
Over the years, there have been a few “close encounters” with stray bullets, says Krainer.
“We’ve had instances where we took out large groups, like 15-20 people, and when we tried to return to our cars, there was shooting very close by. Sometimes it sounds very close and you just can’t really tell where it’s coming from,” she said.
“It’s a safety concern, especially when we take out the group and everybody relies on us … Sometimes, we’re kind of stuck if we can’t make contact with the shooters, or we’ve had to make major detours in order to get people back to their cars safely.”
There are areas the group has come to avoid entirely for safety reasons, she noted.
The stewardship group also performs site cleanups with partner organizations like the BHA and the Calgary ATV Riders Association. In earlier years, this was mostly cleaning up campsites but has since shifted more to cleaning up target shooting sites.
Over the past decade, the watershed alliance has noticed target shooting becoming a more prevalent activity in the Ghost.
Milne said this could be for a number of reasons but noted a lack of accessible shooting ranges, especially those that provide long range, in the Calgary area, in addition to restrictions added to McLean Creek, that, and the Ghost is free and convenient to access for a day trip.
He suggested having an official gun range or shooting area in the Ghost could potentially reduce negative interactions with other outdoor recreationalists.
Rosvold said this is a suggestion the province has posed to the MD in response to requests to restrict firearms use in certain areas, though no official discussions to create a range have taken place.
While Milne said he has not had any direct experiences with irresponsible firearms use in the Ghost, he acknowledged some gun users need to do a better job of cleaning up after themselves, but this also applies to other Crown land users.
“If we can’t take care of it, the province will take it away,” said Milne. “The province will step in and intervene and that, unfortunately, is where we’re at with this, as far as I see.”
Krainer noted the single-biggest amount the Ghost Watershed Alliance Society has collected in one of its area cleanups, which had 12 volunteers over the course of three hours, amounted to almost 2,200 lbs. of waste.
This included not only firearm shell casings and clay and plastic pigeons, but also makeshift targets like old barbecues, satellite dishes and TVs.
From a watershed health perspective, the biggest issue the Ghost Watershed Alliance Society is seeing is a rise in lead concentration in some areas, especially where people are shooting close to rivers and creeks.
“We have done some soil testing in one particular, very popular site of the Forestry Trunk Road, and we found pretty high lead concentrations in the soil,” said Krainer.
“That is, of course, a concern from an environmental perspective, but that isn’t necessarily associated with unsafe gun use. It is just when you have a backstop, like a hillside, that you’re shooting toward, the lead from your bullets is starting to accumulate in the ground. Depending on the kind of soil that you have in the area, that lead might start to migrate down into rivers and streams, which is something that we want to avoid.”
Krainer said the Ghost watershed is still considered in good health, overall.
Krainer and Rosvold said they appreciate the province appears to be investigating solutions for better management of firearm use in the Ghost after years of voicing concerns around unregulated shooting in the area.
“The MD of Bighorn is supportive of these restrictions in place and we’ve already received so much positive feedback from this decision,” said Rosvold.
“Our hope is that these restrictions remain in perpetuity. The need is there. It’s been there for at least the past decade, and I’m grateful the province and Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen has heard us and has heard from residents and visitors from the area, and that these restrictions are in place.”
Rosvold said she wonders if any one incident led to this decision being made after years of reports of unsafe gun use, many of which the MD’s protective services staff have responded to.
She said the municipal district will also continue to advocate the province to consider compensating the MD for emergencies it responds to on Crown lands, which often pull much-needed resources away from MD communities into more remote areas.
“If there was a resident or residents that had a fire or had an emergency at the same time that our firefighters are responding to an emergency in the Ghost area, there’s also a chance that we wouldn’t necessarily be able available to answer that call to residents. That’s really stressful and it’s hard on our on-call fire departments.”
The Outlook reached out to Alberta Forestry and Parks for comment and will update this story when a response is received.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
