Kootenay National Park (KNP) is inviting the public to become participants in park conservation. Each year from mid-October to early November, white-tailed deer appear in large numbers on Highway 93 in the park. Parks Canada staff will be doing a roadside count during this peak time and visitors to KNP are encouraged to do the same and report their findings on the KNP Facebook and Twitter pages.

“We’d like people to participate but to do so safely, so to designate a passenger to record number of deer that they see, the date and time of the journey, and post the findings,” said Amy Krause, web and media officer for KNP, “so that when the population of deer moves through the park in the fall, we know when they’re most frequently being seen on the side of the road.”

Not only does the count give Parks staff a better understanding of how the deer are using the park, it helps them keep both deer and people safe by making it easier to predict when motorists are likely to see animals on the side of the road.

“Visitors are the eyes and ears of the park, alongside us as well,” said Krause, noting that people from over 20 countries have liked the KNP Facebook page. “We know that folks in the Columbia Valley know KNP like nobody else, so we would love to see them on Facebook and Twitter.”

Find KNP on Facebook at KootenayNP and on Twitter @KootenayNP.