An international panel of scientists is warning that one of Canada’s iconic species – the woodland caribou – will soon be "on the road to extinction" without immediate efforts by federal and provincial agencies to protect the animal’s increasingly disturbed boreal habitat.
In open letters issued Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, the Canadian Boreal Initiative and Pew Environment Group – backed by the new report from an "all-star cast" of wildlife experts probing the status of the antlered beast that graces Canada’s 25-cent piece – urgently pushed for bolder conservation measures to prevent the caribou’s rapid decline and possible disappearance.
The report by the International Boreal Conservation Science Panel, authored by 23 biologists and other researchers from Canada and the U.S., concludes that the woodland caribou’s existence in several provinces and territories is threatened by industrial development and piecemeal protection efforts that have not significantly curbed habitat loss or reversed century-long decreases in caribou populations.
The woodland caribou, which inhabits parts of eight provinces and territories from B.C. to Newfoundland, is officially designated as "threatened" under Canada’s endangered species legislation.
"Woodland caribou are in trouble," the scientists argue. "Once widespread – ranging as far south as the northern United States – forest-dwelling caribou have vanished from half of their historic range in North America, coincident with an expanding, continental front of human settlement and intensive resource exploitation."
While the panel acknowledged recent positive developments in Ontario, Quebec and elsewhere to preserve boreal forests generally and caribou habitats specifically, the report highlighted concerns that Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan are missing major conservation opportunities that would help protect the species.
"In B.C. and Alberta there are serious concerns about the failure to address rapidly declining woodland caribou populations," said a report summary. "Saskatchewan has taken virtually no action to protect its boreal forests. It is in these places where significant progress is needed."
Report co-author Jeffrey Wells, a senior adviser to the Pew Environment Group, said there is now "wide agreement" among experts on how to address the problem and that "it is clear that failure to act will place these iconic animals on the road to extinction."
The report emphasizes the need for large-scale forest preservation rather than locale-to-locale mitigation measures that attempt to uneasily couple forestry and mining activities with conservation goals.
The scientists urge governments to "plan at an appropriate spatial scale for caribou that – at 10,000 to 15,000 square kilometres – often exceeds the size of conventional management units."
They also argue that natural resource management agencies must, "as a rule, avoid the reliance on mitigation measures such as minimizing sensory disturbances that are inadequate to maintain caribou populations.
Stated bluntly, the lack of examples of woodland caribou persistence in the midst of industrial activity implies that best-management practices are inadequate."
In their letter to Harper, Pew and the Canadian Boreal Initiative insist that "history and experience teach us that if nothing is done about this situation it can ripen into a resource management crisis."
While applauding Harper’s leadership in expanding Canada’s national parks in recent years, the groups urge implementation of the report’s key recommendations on the woodland caribou "to ensure that this iconic boreal species remains a part of our future rather than a memory of our past."
The letter, co-signed by Pew forest campaigner Steve Kallick and CBI director Larry Innes, also advises Harper to "convene a national dialogue between federal, provincial, and aboriginal leaders to develop a collective plan of action before important options are foreclosed by poorly planned development."
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