Snail cave intruder fined $150

A third Calgary woman has been fined $150 for trespassing in the Middle Springs Cave, home to the endangered Banff Springs Snail.

Karla Dawn Aeichele pleaded guilty in Banff Provincial Court Monday

(May 5) to a single charge of entering a closed area, under the National Parks Act.

Two other women, Shellane Aeichele and Miriam Gorman, pleaded guilty in March and were also each fined $150.

The fines were lower than the $300 to $900 fines imposed in the past because the girls did not go into the hot springs themselves and damage to the snails and their habitat was minimal.

Federal prosecutor Anita Szabo said Karla Aeichele was picked up on a warrant issued when the other two girls appeared in court. The three, and a fourth person who has yet to appear in court, were caught by park wardens who responded to an intruder alarm at the hot springs, in the Middle Springs wildlife corridor, at about 3:50 p.m. on

Nov. 11, 2007. The wardens saw backpacks outside the cave entrance and saw four people emerge, whom they followed to the parking area.

The wildlife corridor was closed to the public in 1997 when the snail was listed as a threatened species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. That status was elevated to endangered in 2000 and reaffirmed since then, most recently last month. The only place in the world the tiny snail is found is in the caves and hot springs on Banff's Sulphur Mountain.

"The area is well signed but human-caused mortality continues to be a problem," said Szabo.

The day after the incident Banff snail expert Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki examined the cave and pool and indicated there had only been minor disturbance and limited damage, she said.

Aeichele said she and her friends went to the cave because she remembered it from her youth.

"I went there 20 years ago as a child, my parents took me there. It used to be a swimming pool."

Provincial Court Judge Les Grieve noted that, "at first blush worry about the snails may seem like a small thing, but nature is a delicate balance.

"One organism affects another organizer affects another. It all starts lower down on the food chain."