Catharine Robb Whyte Building 101 Bear Street, Banff – above the Banff Public Library

Free!

The Elk Valley is one of Canada’s most intensively used landscapes by both people and grizzly bears. Despite high levels of industrial and recreational activity, the valley supports one of the highest densities of grizzly bears in the interior. But not all is as it seems—detailed demographic and movement data reveal the valley acts as a demographic sink, with high mortality outweighing reproduction, especially near human features. Adjacent source areas are key to maintaining the population, but connectivity is compromised by both human development and natural bottlenecks in the landscape. This talk explores how collar data, genetic analysis, and habitat modelling have been used to understand source-sink dynamics, identify critical connectivity corridors, and guide highway mitigation strategies to restore movement and reduce mortality. The talk will touch on successful actions that have been implemented as a result of this work, ongoing initiatives, and brand new ones such as highway crossings structures and science planned along BC and AB Hwy 3 in the coming years with a great group of government and ENGO collaborators.

Clayton Lamb is a wildlife scientist focused on the intersection of large mammal ecology, wildlife coexistence, and on-the-ground conservation action. He completed his PhD at the University of Alberta and is currently a researcher with the Wildlife Science Centre of Biodiversity Pathways at UBC. Clayton’s research spans grizzly bear population dynamics, human-wildlife coexistence, caribou population ecology, and habitat restoration. Clayton works across western North America but has a particular emphasis on the Elk Valley of southeast British Columbia, where he calls home. When he’s not collaring bears or running habitat models, you’ll likely find him out in the mountains hunting, hiking, foraging, or skiing.