UNION BAY, B.C. – Highway’s officials are trying to relocate about 45 Roosevelt elk who have found themselves on the wrong side of a fence lining the Vancouver Island Highway.

Eight of the animals have been killed in traffic accidents since June, since the province began building a $1-million, 21-kilometre fence on the west side of the highway to keep the elk away from homes and gardens around Union Bay. The fence to be finished next week will stretch along the highway from Mud Bay to Courtenay that opened last fall.

Some fish and game officials suspect that, because the fence is only on one side of the highway, it has trapped some animals on the road when they can’t get past it.

The fence does include a series of one-way gates, but they didn’t initially work as they should.

As a response, the Highways Ministry is asking staff at the Environment Ministry about ways to relocate the animals on the proper side of the fence. Such a round-up would probably have to wait until winter. n