Drilling Continues On Critical Alberta Caribou Habitat Despite Recovery Deadline

EDMONTON - Thousands of oil and gas wells continue to be drilled on critical caribou habitat despite an approaching deadline for Alberta to come up with a plan to restore those ranges.

An industry database shows drilling continues even on ranges that are already almost completely disrupted and where new exploration has been banned, said University of Montana biologist Mark Hebblewhite.

Alberta Plans Huge Energy Lease Sale On Range Used By Caribou

EDMONTON - The Alberta government is holding a huge new sale of energy leases more than 10 times the size of previous offerings on endangered caribou habitat.

Bidding is to close next Wednesday on 21,000 hectares in northwestern Alberta that are home to the Redrock-Prairie Creek herd, which both the federal and provincial governments have promised to protect.

Wolf Cull a Necessary, 'Desperate' Strategy to Save Caribou, Says Conservationist

While many conservationists have spoken out against the B.C. government killing nearly 200 wolves in an attempt to protect endangered mountain caribou, others are offering cautious support for the cull.

"A wolf cull is a desperate measure made necessary by ongoing habitat loss and degradation," said John Bergenske, the conservation director for Wildsight, an environmental group in the East Kootenay, in an email. "It is not a solution; it is an unfortunate and distasteful stopgap measure that may buy time for recovery."

On Jan. 15, the provincial government announced it would immediately begin killing between 120 and 160 wolves in the South Peace region of northern B.C., and 24 wolves in the South Selkirk in southeastern B.C. In both cases, the plan is for ministry staff in helicopters to shoot the wolves before the snow melts.

Caribou Continue To Be At Risk In Canada, Report Says

Resource development is outpacing provincial efforts to protect the habitat of the threatened woodland caribou.

That's the warning found in a report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society being released today.

In an embargoed copy obtained by CBC, the CPAWS report shows there's been a lot of resource development since 2012, when the federal government ordered the provinces to come up with a plan to conserve caribou habitat by 2017.

The report points to increased natural gas development in British Columbia, new oil and gas leases in Alberta and a new mine in a Manitoba provincial park.

Woodland caribou still at risk, despite federal plan to help

An environmental group says more needs to be done to prevent an iconic Canadian animal from going extinct.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is releasing a report today, co-authored by the David Suzuki Foundation, on the status of woodland caribou.

CBC News obtained an embargoed copy of the report, "Population Critical: How are the caribou faring?"

Alberta Caribou Strategy: Government Words, Deeds Don't Match Say Environmentalists

EDMONTON - Darcy Handy has been going to a once-untouched area of forest and wetland in northwest Alberta for more than 20 years to hunt, fish and trap and well remembers what it used to be like.

"We always used to see numerous caribou in that area, all the time," he recalls of his one-time hunting grounds southeast of Grande Cache.

No longer.

Alberta Caribou Population: Environmentalists Take Their Concerns To U.S.

EDMONTON - Alberta environmentalists are going south with their concerns over the effects of the province's energy industry on caribou.

Convincing Alberta's oil customers in the United States that they should press for greater protection of the vanishing herds is the only way to get action, said Helene Walsh of Keepers of the Athabasca, one of the groups behind the move.

Alberta Caribou Population: Trapper Laments Destruction Of Alberta Forest, Habitat

EDMONTON - Ken Cowles thought he'd found a refuge.

The longtime northern Alberta trapper had been chased from one area to another as he tried to stay ahead of the logging and drilling that ruined his other traplines. The section along the Little Smoky River east of Grande Cache seemed perfect — not pristine, but relatively untouched.

Lynn Lake, Manitoba Caribou Slaughter: First Nations Protest, But Province Says Killing Perfectly Legal

WINNIPEG - Provincial investigators say the killing of dozens of caribou decried by Manitoba First Nations groups last week as wasteful and uncalled for was perfectly legal.

Tim Cameron, the province's chief natural resources officer, said conservation officials looked into the matter immediately after a northern chief discovered the bloody carcasses of 30 animals near Lynn Lake. The officers found the area was a popular butchering site and the animals were killed over a period of time.

Although First Nations chiefs complained about the killing, saying meat was left to rot, Cameron said officers didn't find any whole carcasses that were abandoned.

"Our investigation showed no wanton waste of meat of caribou at all," he said. "It was just skinned hides and heads that were left behind."

Cameron said the winter road is wider where the carcasses were discovered, which makes the spot a good site for hunters to set up camp and to butcher their catch.

Caribou Slaughter Outrages Manitoba First Nations

Northern Manitoba chiefs are demanding answers after 30 dead caribou were found at the side of a winter road with only the antlers missing.

"This is lot of waste here that should never happen. And I want investigation on exactly who did this," Chief Joe Antsanen of the Northlands Denesuline First Nation told reporters in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

He was joined by Grand Chief David Harper of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), an organization representing northern Manitoba First Nations.

Antsanen made the discovery while driving to Winnipeg on a winter ice road near the community of Lynn Lake, Man., last week. It looked like the animals had been killed and dragged there, he said.

"The only thing I can think of is this is done just for trophy — just for sports — and that's totally, totally unacceptable," Antsanen said.

Peter Kent, Environment Minister, Facing Caribou Lawsuit -- Again

EDMONTON - Environmentalists are taking Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent to court — again — over his alleged failure to protect woodland caribou in Alberta's oilsands region.

It's the second time Federal Court has been asked for an injunction to force Kent to issue an emergency protection order.

Last fall, a judge declined to force Kent's hand, ordering him instead to reconsider his refusal to make the order and supply his reasons.

Last month, Kent stuck to his guns, saying that caribou aren't in immediate danger of extinction on a national level.

While there are about 32,000 woodland caribou across the country, Alberta's herds are struggling and many scientists don't expect them to survive in the face of intense energy development.

The legal action has been filed on behalf of two environmental groups and four First Nations.

Original Article
Source: Huff
Author: 

Woodland Caribou are at a Crossroads

The science is clear about what must be done to save this species from extinction. But will we do it?

As a nation and a global community, Canada has a history of ignoring environmental crises until it’s all but too late. Many of us remember the 1990s, when tens of thousands of Canadians in the Maritimes lost their livelihoods after overfishing wiped out fish stocks.

The boom-and-bust history reflected in the collapse of the East Coast cod fishery, and in logging communities and mining towns, should teach us that when an opportunity to get something right on the environment comes along we must take immediate action or suffer the inevitable ecological and social consequences of our own short-sightedness.

Judge sets deadline for Ottawa to come up with caribou protection plan

A judge is telling the federal government to rethink its decision not to issue an emergency order protecting habitat for endangered caribou in Alberta's oilsands region.

However, Federal Court Justice Paul Crampton isn't telling Ottawa it has to issue such an order.

Mr. Crampton is giving Environment Minister Peter Kent until September to come up with an emergency plan to protect the caribou, which have been in steep decline for more than a decade.

Environmental and aboriginal groups had argued that the federal Species At Risk Act obliges Ottawa to issue an immediate order for habitat protection.

They point out that the federal government has missed the legal deadline for a caribou recovery plan by four years.

Recent studies suggest that 75 per cent of caribou range in the oilsands region has been disturbed by fire, industry or both.

Origin
Source: Globe&Mail