Nighttime is becoming a nightmare for Parks Canada officials in one of Alberta’s most popular national parks.
Elk Island National Park, about 50 kilometres east of Edmonton, offers some of the best stargazing opportunities, but increased attendance and some bad behaviour has meant new closures in three popular areas for stargazing, Parks superintendent Dale Kirkland said in an interview.
“We’ve done so just to simply keep people out of these areas,” Kirkland said.
Park staff have been dealing with a spike in noise complaints, illegal campfires and a rash of nocturnal roadkill.
In addition to hiking, camping and kayaking, Elk Island is in the Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve. Designated a UNESCO site in 2016, it’s a popular spot to view the stars as well as the famous herd of bison freely roaming the grounds.
About 250,000 people have visited the park this summer, a 10 per cent increase from last year, Kirkland said.
From the northern lights to the Perseid meteor shower, out-of-this-world celestial events are driving Canadian stargazers to look to the skies at night. Edmonton’s Geoff Robertson is with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
But the increased traffic over the past two summers has led to more than 1,000 animals being struck in the park and along the boundary roads.
“We have staff that are doing very detailed sweeps of the roads every morning and they’re collecting and identifying roadkill,” he says.
“We are seeing garter snakes, skunks, fishers, bison, coyotes, cottontails — even species at risk such as the western toad and the tiger salamander.”
The park is in the middle of a two-year study to look at everything from changing wildlife movements, to traffic calming measures and restricting access to areas, he said.
Stargazers are still welcome in the park for official events, but five gates are being installed to prevent people from accessing Astotin Lake Recreation Area, Tawayik Day Use Area and Moss Lake Trailhead Area between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Official stargazing events are run by the Edmonton chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Geoff Robertson, public education director with the RSAC, says one of their recent weekend star parties saw an estimated 5,300 visitors in more than 2,000 vehicles.
“There were lineups of 20 and 25 and 30 people deep around where my scope was,” Robertson said.
“I couldn’t actually get to my telescope to turn it on and get it going.
“People really want to know about the night sky.”
Robertson points to the total eclipse in April that gripped North America and had cities like Niagara Falls, Ont., declaring states of local emergency as thousands of dark-sky tourists sought an opportunity to view the event.
He was one of those who travelled to Ontario to view the eclipse.
“There was lots and lots of excitement, signs on the highway warning of traffic jams, because of people coming in for the eclipse.”
Solar maximum on the horizon
For Alberta-based photographer Matt Melnyk, the exponential growth in the popularity of staring into the night sky has thrown up new opportunities and new challenges.
He says technology, forecasting tools and access to the data is so much better than it used to be, encouraging even more amateur astronomers and night photographers.
“Now people can get alerts and heads up when certain events are going to occur,” says Melnyk.
He’s also watched the number of people flocking to places like Elk Island National Park grow.
“But the only trouble is now that it’s such a popular place, there’s going to be so many vehicles there, with headlights on and that’s going to obscure your night vision.”
He suggests moving away from the crowds and the cars, especially with what’s coming: a solar maximum.
“The sun is on an 11-year cycle and right now we’re at the high end of it,” says Melnyk.
Sunspots are what produce the aurora borealis. According to the Space Weather Prediction Centre, last month there were an average of 215.5 daily sunspots on our home star’s surface — up from 0.5 just five years ago, the low in the cycle.
“We’re going to see so much action from the sun, that the northern light shows are going to be far more frequent than they have been and pretty amazing.”