Banff National Park (BNP) is Canada’s oldest national park and a very popular one, with both year-round residents and millions of annual visitors. In turn, this means there are several busy road and rail transportation routes throughout the park. These factors can have a number of negative effects on local wildlife. The wildlife crossing structures of the Trans-Canada Highway in BNP have become a key conservation tool to conserve biodiversity in the park and beyond. As the first large-scale operation of highway mitigation of its kind in North America, it is a perfect case for understanding the conservation value of highway overpasses and underpasses for a variety of wildlife species including both large and small mammals. It was determined from the research that there is a vast majority of information available for large mammals compared to small mammals. Small mammals used the crossing structures to avoid predators, while large mammals used the crossing structures to avoid humans. The design of the structure was extremely influential on its effectiveness with black bears and cougars preferring narrow bridges with cover, elk preferring wide, open bridges, and smaller mammals, such as weasels, snowshoe hares, and some mice preferring culverts with vegetation cover.

Plastic pollution in oceans, also known as marine debris, is a growing problem at local and global scales. Anthropogenic marine debris poses a serious threat to many marine species, both through physical harm such as ingestion or entanglement and by carrying toxins and pathogens. This debris accumulates in oceanic gyres, concentrating these effects in some specific areas. In addition, marine debris may have devastating impacts on tourism and fishing-based economies, especially where ocean currents direct this debris. Recently, a nonprofit organization called The Ocean Cleanup proposed the first large-scale in situ marine debris removal project. The Ocean Cleanup is a project attempting to use large, floating, semi-fixed screens to harness ocean currents and accumulate debris, where it can be efficiently collected and disposed of or recycled. The project currently is working on implementing itself in the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” in the North Pacific Gyre. We examine this project case, as it is the first organization attempting to clean up marine debris at this scale. Understanding the potential efficacy and limitations of The Ocean Cleanup Project as a case study can give critical insights into how other projects could be created in the future to address marine plastic pollution worldwide. Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to assess a marine debris cleanup can inform both a nuanced evaluation of the specific case as well as provide a means to explore marine debris as a complex, global environmental problem.