Showing posts with label Habitat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Habitat. Show all posts

Tuesday 13 August 2019

BC Gov. Wildlife and Habitat: What We Heard Summary Reports


During phase 1, we asked Indigenous peoples, stakeholders and the public to share their concerns and ideas for new approaches to improve wildlife management and habitat conservation. We received hundreds of e-mails, thousands of on-line comments, and met with over 100 Indigenous communities and 50 stakeholder organizations. The following reports summarize what we heard.

Friday 12 July 2019

Alert: Have your say on Forest Practices in BC in 3 easy steps!

Alert: Have your say on Forest Practices in BC in 3 easy steps!
The government wants to hear from British Columbians about how forests should be managed in BC.  Other environmental and industry groups will certainly be making their voices heard.  This is your opportunity to ensure that lots of hunters and anglers are part of the conversation.  Every comment counts! We need you! The deadline is July 15, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. so don't wait!

What to do:
1) Read the Discussion Paper to learn about the issues.
2) Click on the online feedback form to have your say!
3) Last, take 1 minute to send this form letter to the minister in charge, Doug Donaldson.  Enter your address, postal code, and country on the left and click GO.  Follow the instructions and customize the letter if you have more to add.  Then all you have to do is click SEND.  If you want to write your own letter then you can send it to engagefrpa@gov.bc.ca.
... and you're DONE! That was easy!!!!

If you want a little guidance on what the BCBHA thinks about these issues, here is a cheat sheet.
Region 2 BCBHA Cheat Sheet:
  • "Landscape level management" could be a good thing.
  • Set limits on the combined impact of forestry, mining, oil and gas, roads, etc. on habitat
  • Include measurable objectives to restore habitat and wildlife populations.
  • Enforce the limits and recovery objectives! There are lots of smart scientists and conservation officers who know how to restore habitat and increase wildlife populations.
  • Leave it better than you found it! It shouldn't matter if you are a forestry company, snowmobiler, or hiker.  It should be the law that you leave the backcountry better than you found it.
  • Let's work together on climate change. Everyone needs a voice at the table to make sure our precious backcountry is still around for the next generation.
If you are interested in the detailed and nuanced BCBHA official position, here is some additional reading which may help inform your response. 

The Official BCBHA Position
BCBHA supports changes to FRPA proposed in the provincial Discussion Paper that will improve conservation and environmental stewardship. In particular, BCBHA wants to see FRPA improvement include the following key points:
  • Revise FRPA to provide clear, enforceable legislation that guides landscape level management for forests and grasslands. 
  • Include measurable objectives for the management of cumulative effects from industry, forestry, recreation and development
  • Landscape level management requires integration between FRPA and other legislation and ministries. Wildlife, habitat, and access management need to be incorporated into landscape level planning.
  • Require resource and recreation users to have net-positive impact on biodiversity, water quality and critical wildlife habitat.
  • Improve collaboration in planning by developing stakeholder groups that meet with government officials and industry.

Join BCBHA in commenting on the FPRA Improvement Initiative. Public feedback will be collected by the provincial government until July 15, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. Participate by completing the online feedback form.  BCBHA has detailed our thoughts on how FRPA should be improved in this comment guide to help you answer the questions. Or, if you are short on time, send this letter to Minister Donaldson letting him know you support the improvement of FRPA for the benefit of ecosystems and wildlife.

Yours in conservation,

Wednesday 6 February 2019

Letter to the Premier and Response

Alexander Johnson
XXX XXX Street
New Westminster, BC
XXX XXX
(XXX) XXX-XXXX

Dear Premier Horgan,

RE: Great First Steps on Habitat and Wildlife in BC

In the last year the provincial government has made some fantastic steps in the right direction when it comes to habitat and wildlife.  I want to say thank you and say that I hope your government will keep up the momentum on issues related to habitat and wildlife issues in BC.  We still lag behind many of our neighbours in funding and concrete plans for the recovery of the habitat, rivers, and streams that our wildlife and fish need to thrive. 

Specifically, I would like to thank you for the $14 million in increased funding for conservation, the $27 million allocated for caribou recovery, and the provincial round table which is looking at the declines in moose populations. 

Now is time to build on those steps and make even more significant improvements which will protect habitat and restore wildlife populations.  Specifically, I would like to advocate for the following:
1)     Ending the professional reliance model where resource companies can hire their own experts to evaluate the impact of their own projects.  This is an obvious conflict of interest.  Provincial registered profession biologists should be given the power to oversee and minimize the impact of the resource sector on habitat.
2)     Dedicated funding for habitat conservation from a slight increase in price of fishing and hunting licences as well as resource extraction royalties to offset impacts and enhance habitat.  Please give the scientists and wildlife managers the funding needed to ensure habitat and wildlife populations recover and thrive.
3)     Enhanced investigative and enforcement powers for conservation officers and registered professional biologists to investigate instances when property owners or resource industry activities violate laws or practice standards.  There are numerous cases of property owners violating protective covenants in the Fraser valley, damaging critical chinook salmon bearing creeks, while municipalities have looked the other way.

As a hunter, angler, conservationist, and British Columbian these issues are of critical importance to me as well as my friends and family. 

Sincerely,
Alex Johnson 

=============================================================
to ENV, me
Dear Mr. Johnson:

Thank you for writing about conversation in British Columbia. We appreciate your taking the time to write and have noted your recommendations.

On your behalf, we have shared a copy of your message with the Honourable George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. His staff will ensure that your comments are included in any upcoming, related discussions.

Thank you, again, for writing. We wish you all the best.

pc:       Honourable George Heyman

OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX

 
 
 
10:40 (1 hour ago)

Friday 2 November 2018

The Guardian: Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds

Vancouver Hunter: All scientific sources are in agreement.  Habitat loss is the biggest threat facing animals.  As a hunter and conservationist, I feel strongly that we need to act to protect and restore habitat so that we can have strong natural biodiversity for generations to come.  It's our responsibility to advocate for the habitat and animals we care so much about because no one else is. No one else cares as much as us about what happens deep in the wild, far away from the easily accessible, eco-tourist friendly, provincial and national parks.  No one else ventures as deeply into the wilderness, spends as much time, or has as deep a connection to wild animals as we do.  Without habitat we will lose more animals.  Without animals we will lose hunters.  Without hunters we will lose advocates for wildlife and habitat.  Without advocates we will lose more habitat.  We need to reverse this cycle of decline.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds


Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds

The huge loss is a tragedy in itself but also threatens the survival of civilisation, say the world’s leading scientists
Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.

“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”

“This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is,” he said. “This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.”

 “We are rapidly running out of time,” said Prof Johan Rockström, a global sustainability expert at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “Only by addressing both ecosystems and climate do we stand a chance of safeguarding a stable planet for humanity’s future on Earth.”

Many scientists believe the world has begun a sixth mass extinction, the first to be caused by a species – Homo sapiens. Other recent analyses have revealed that humankind has destroyed 83% of all mammals and half of plants since the dawn of civilisation and that, even if the destruction were to end now, it would take 5-7 million years for the natural world to recover.

The Living Planet Index, produced for WWF by the Zoological Society of London, uses data on 16,704 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians, representing more than 4,000 species, to track the decline of wildlife. Between 1970 and 2014, the latest data available, populations fell by an average of 60%. Four years ago, the decline was 52%. The “shocking truth”, said Barrett, is that the wildlife crash is continuing unabated.

Wildlife and the ecosystems are vital to human life, said Prof Bob Watson, one of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists and currently chair of an intergovernmental panel on biodiversity that said in March that the destruction of nature is as dangerous as climate change.

“Nature contributes to human wellbeing culturally and spiritually, as well as through the critical production of food, clean water, and energy, and through regulating the Earth’s climate, pollution, pollination and floods,” he said. “The Living Planet report clearly demonstrates that human activities are destroying nature at an unacceptable rate, threatening the wellbeing of current and future generations.”

The biggest cause of wildlife losses is the destruction of natural habitats, much of it to create farmland. Three-quarters of all land on Earth is now significantly affected by human activities. Killing for food is the next biggest cause – 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction – while the oceans are massively overfished, with more than half now being industrially fished.

 Chemical pollution is also significant: half the world’s killer whale populations are now doomed to die from PCB contamination. Global trade introduces invasive species and disease, with amphibians decimated by a fungal disease thought to be spread by the pet trade.

The worst affected region is South and Central America, which has seen an 89% drop in vertebrate populations, largely driven by the felling of vast areas of wildlife-rich forest. In the tropical savannah called cerrado, an area the size of Greater London is cleared every two months, said Barrett.

“It is a classic example of where the disappearance is the result of our own consumption, because the deforestation is being driven by ever expanding agriculture producing soy, which is being exported to countries including the UK to feed pigs and chickens,” he said. The UK itself has lost much of its wildlife, ranking 189th for biodiversity loss out of 218 nations in 2016.

The habitats suffering the greatest damage are rivers and lakes, where wildlife populations have fallen 83%, due to the enormous thirst of agriculture and the large number of dams. “Again there is this direct link between the food system and the depletion of wildlife,” said Barrett. Eating less meat is an essential part of reversing losses, he said.

The Living Planet Index has been criticised as being too broad a measure of wildlife losses and smoothing over crucial details. But all indicators, from extinction rates to intactness of ecosystems, show colossal losses. “They all tell you the same story,” said Barrett.

Conservation efforts can work, with tiger numbers having risen 20% in India in six years as habitat is protected. Giant pandas in China and otters in the UK have also been doing well.

But Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, said the fundamental issue was consumption: “We can no longer ignore the impact of current unsustainable production models and wasteful lifestyles.”

The world’s nations are working towards a crunch meeting of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020, when new commitments for the protection of nature will be made. “We need a new global deal for nature and people and we have this narrow window of less than two years to get it,” said Barrett. “This really is the last chance. We have to get it right this time.”

Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF, said: “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.”


Tuesday 31 July 2018

Resource Roads and Grizzly Bears in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada

I recently found another publication which discusses the issue of road density on grizzly bears.  As discussed previously, once road density exceeds around 500-600m of road per square kilometre, grizzlies and other animals tend to permanently retreat from those areas.  It seems that road density increases many factors which cause animals to abandon habitat.  From what I have read, non-hunting traffic such as outdoor recreation activities on ATVs or snowmobiles as well as people transiting the area by car or truck, along with the increased ease of which predators are able to travel the roads, and increased hunting pressure all contribute to animals retreating from an area. 

It sounds like these all contribute to a general state of alarm that make animals retreat to safer areas.  Now, with the ban on hunting grizzlies, we'll be able to put to bed the impact that hunters played on this issue.  I suspect that hunters only have a minimal direct role in animals departing from areas, both because of the minimal number of grizzlies hunted each year prior to the ban, but also because generally hunters tend to be slower moving and quieter than summer ATV riding or winter snowmobiling.  Also, as any hunter would know, the amount of predator sign, specifically wolf sign, that can be found on roads indicates that they use roads to improve their ability to travel. 

Anyways, the publication can be found here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326446743_Resource_Roads_and_Grizzly_Bears_in_British_Columbia_and_Alberta_Canada

Here are the best graphics from the publication


I don't really like this graphic.  It appears as though the bear was killed by a hunter, but in reality it is probably meant to show a conservation office (CO) shooting a problem bear in a campsite where people were irresponsible about leaving out attractants.  Nevertheless, I can't help but feel like this graphic is intentionally alluding to hunters.   I think the top left side is is the most important.  Traffic and habitat loss are serious issues.








There are so many forestry service roads (FSRs) in BC.  We need to do a better job or revegetating them to improve habitat for all animals, including grizzlies and ungulates.




Monday 4 June 2018

BCWF: Caribou Recovery - Help Us Advocate Now

 

http://bcwf.net/index.php/committees/wildlife/fish-wildlife-restoration-program/caribou-recovery  

 

Intro


Caribou is a symbol of wilderness in British Columbia and across Canada; Caribou is on our quarter, and are far more sensitive to the effects of people than other species such as burrowing owls, grizzly bears, and orcas.  We likely know more about Caribou than any other wildlife species in Canada.  British Columbia has been investing in caribou research and recovery for decades, yet most populations continue their downward slide to extinction.  Caribou is a symptom of a more significant problem: an intentional long-term defunding and dismantling of natural resource management in British Columbia and across Canada principally due to a lack of political will to adequately conserve and manage our natural resources.

 

Status

While the most recent government report indicates three extinct populations, it is likely that the Columbia South, South Selkirks, George Mountain, Central Purcells, Kinbasket, and Central Monashees are extinct or functionally extinct as well.  There are glimmers of hope in the Columbia North and Klinze-za populations where management levers are exercised. In most of Central and Southern B.C., we are in a crisis.

 

Funding

Caribou recovery, wildlife management, and natural resource management have been chronically under-funded for decades.  Without funding, the science which managers and elected officials need to make sound decisions often is not available.  Wildlife does not exist on four-year election cycles and should not be a passing thought in the budgeting process.

Recommendation: All who use and benefit from our natural resources to give back to conservation, including but not limited to; hydro-electrical development, heli-skiing, ski hills, logging, mining, oil & gas, ecotourism, hunters, anglers, naturalists.  Natural resource conservation funding should be based on a pay to play approach which increases legitimacy and provides stable, predictable, long-term funding.

Funding should be placed at arm’s length from government to increase transparency, public confidence, and the ability to leverage funding.

 

Science


Photograph by: Handout , Mike Jones for Canadian Boreal Initiative
Academics and some government researchers, most of which have retired or will retire shortly, are at the leading edge of caribou ecology and recovery.  Due to under-investment, cutbacks, retirement and attrition government is losing capacity and expertise to carry-out long-term research required to conserve caribou effectively.

The BCWF is extremely concerned since last year’s funding announcement that the province has excluded the top caribou ecologists from meetings, and failed to engage researchers on study designs for management, monitoring, and recovery.  Significant expertise is available, and research is being conducted at the University of Alberta as well as University of Northern British Columbia, and University of Montana which should be a focal component of caribou recovery.

Recommendation: Caribou research should be funded and housed in an academic institution, or cooperative wildlife unit, which would minimize big"P" politics and provide focus and the rigour required to inform and guide science-based decisions.

 

Inventory

The status quo approach is "fly when you have money," which is not meaningful for caribou or other wildlife species.  It will not restore caribou populations by confirming that there is fewer caribou than the last inventory flight restore caribou populations.

Recommendation: Monitoring should occur via stratified random block surveys every five years.  Between collaring, camera trapping, citizen science, and aerial inventory work there may be more efficient and cost-effective means to monitor caribou populations.  The results of inventory need to inform an adaptive approach to landscape-level management.

 

Objectives

There are currently no meaningful objectives for mountain caribou.  Aggregated or long-term objectives, without short-term objectives, will fail the test of time.  While the government has indicated recovering all caribou herds may not be feasible, the critical habitat provision in SARA exists even after caribou populations have become extirpated.

Recommendation: There should be legislated objectives for all Mountain Caribou populations, as well as legislated objectives for habitat, and all other species to ensure caribou recovery is successful and those involved are accountable to the process each other, and caribou.

 

Tools

The BCWF recognizes habitat restoration, access management, predator management, maternal penning, supplemental feeding, and management of over-abundant prey species, as legitimate management tools.  The BCWF does not support using these tools in isolation, or when they are politically, or socially convenient.

 

Penning


Photo courtesy of CBC
The BCWF recognizes neonate mortality is high and that maternal penning has proven somewhat effective in combination with other management tools.  The BCWF acknowledges this as an interim step but is not highly supportive of using this over the long run because of cost, a lack of scalability, animal health-related concerns and de-wilding of wildlife.  Given those concerns, the BCWF is not supportive of captive breeding and this time.

 

Feeding

The BCWF recognizes that supplemental feeding is part of maternal penning and supports it as an interim measure for small populations.

 

Prey management

With legislated objectives for habitat and wildlife populations comes management of all species.  The BCWF supports managing habitat and wildlife by setting objectives and following them, using hunting as a legitimate wildlife management tool.

 

Predator Management

The BCWF notes that caribou population declines and extinctions have occurred both inside and outside Provincial and Federal Parks and protected areas for a myriad of reasons which are often correlated to people and industrial development as ultimate causes, with proximate causes related to predation.  While controversial, predator management is a legitimate tool to ensure the perpetuation and support recovery of prey species.

Recommendation: The Federal government's guideline wolf density target is 3/1000 km2 for Southern caribou populations.  Site-specific wolf management has proven to be ineffective; it must be meaningful for caribou and applied at the landscape level.


 

Land Use

Recommendation: B.C. needs to set a vision for what its landscapes should look like in five decades, including caribou recovery zones.  Land use should include private lands, and private land acquisition and management.

Recommendation: The environmental assessment process needs:

1) A commitment to scientific integrity
2) Mitigation measures which are ground-truthed, and monitored
3) Cumulative effects must be applied spatially and across all industries and uses
4) Information must be transparent, public and permanent

 

Access



British Columbia’s wilderness is crisscrossed with resource extraction roads and other linear features such as seismic lines.  The most commonly cited threshold for wildlife is 0.6 km/km2; nearly all of southern B.C. exceeds this threshold.  Caribou is more susceptible to roads and linear features than most other wildlife populations.
A threshold for landscape-level management and caribou recovery should be legislated.  Linear features (logging roads, seismic lines) should be decommissioned as part of licensees’ obligations to ensure these targets are met.

The BCWF recognizes changes to commercial and recreational use will likely need to be adjusted over time.  The BCWF supports limiting and modifying commercial and non-resident use before that of British Columbians.

 

Enforcement and Oversight

Currently, there are numerous ‘voluntary' guidelines, which may not be sufficient to manage the impacts of resource extraction and recreational use properly.  There must be research on the effects of eco-tourism, heli-skiing, and cat skiing.  Enforcement of snowmobile closures and the associated penalties have not been sufficient.

Recommendation: The BCWF would like to see increased oversight, enforcement and monitoring of all industries provincially, including those in caribou recovery zones.  Oversight would be conducted through a Natural Resources Practices Board to evaluate practices and serve as an independent watchdog for natural resource management in B.C.

Recommendation: The BCWF recommends legislated commitments around staffing and budgeting through the Conservation Officer Service.  All fines resulting from infractions in Caribou recovery zones should go back to landscape-level management in the area where the violation occurred.

 

Communication

The BCWF supports increased communication and the incorporation of modern web-based tools to report.  The BCWF is disappointed in the current consultative process which provides no substance or legitimacy to respondents’ comments.  Public consultation should be qualified, and transparent.  The current process delegitimizes public consultation, integrity, legitimacy, and accountability of the process.

 

Social Support

Government’s historic top-down, divisive and authoritative approach creates and leaves caribou recovery subject to the elected regulatory framework.

Recommendation: The BCWF would like to see a roundtable approach, similar to the current Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan where legitimate interests are represented.   A roundtable would include First Nations, NGOs, experts, scientists, the public sector, and industry.  Represented interests should be B.C.-based, be provincial in nature and non-governmental organizations should be involved in on-the-ground conservation and stewardship projects.  The roundtable would add to the legitimacy of the process, and minimize free-riding, mistrust, and instability.  The BCWF would also like to see a non-partisan MLA committee formed included in this process.

 

Conclusion

The BC Wildlife Federation is excited that this review is occurring and that there has been a short-term commitment to funding.  For caribou to continue to exist in B.C., we will have to do things differently.  In the short-term, we need to stop the bleeding by reducing mortality of caribou by wolves and cougars, access, and the loss of large intact blocks of habitat until the habitat becomes caribou friendly.  In the long-term, we need to decommission roads, seismic lines, trails, cut blocks, other activities (heli-skiing, cat-skiing, snowmobiling), and high-density ungulates.

If we are to recover caribou, and wildlife broadly, B.C. has to change its approach: we need a new model which is adequately funded, has legislated objectives and which puts wildlife first.

 

Help Advocate for BC's Caribou Now

 

Share this page with your Network

 
ACT NOW! encourage others to give their feedback to the BC Government on Caribou recovery before June 15th at 4 pm!

 

Send your MLA a Letter and Book a Meeting:

1) CLICK HERE TO Download a template letter for you to easily format, email or mail off to your MLA
2) Find your MLA
3) Email and Snail Mail your Letters to your MLA
4) Find your MP and Book a Meeting 




Example of Letter:
Your Name 
Your Address Here
Your Address Here

June xx, 2018
Your MLA's Name and
Address Here

Dear ____________,
 
Re:  BC Caribou Recovery

I am writing to you today to request that you put more funding and effort into the recovery of BC’s Caribou.

Caribouare a symbol of wilderness in British Columbia and across Canada. Yet, caribou recovery, along with wildlife management, and natural resource management, have been under-funded for decades.

I believe more funding should be allocated to wildlife management, so more effort can be put into collecting data and setting legislated objectives for all mountain caribou populations, as well as a legislated objective for habitat, and all other species.

To provide more funding, I suggest all who use and benefit from our natural resources should give back to conservation, including but not limited to; hydro-electrical development, heli-skiing, logging, mining, oil & gas, ecotourism, hunters, and anglers.

If we are to recover caribou, and wildlife broadly, B.C. must change its approach. We can no longer manage our wildlife to zero. We need a new model which is adequately funded, has legislated objectives and which puts wildlife first.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Respectfully,

Sign

Insert your name here

CC: Right Hon. Justin Trudeau
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2

Insert name of your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6

Saturday 26 May 2018

BC Government News: Have your say on wildlife management, habitat conservation

 https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018FLNR0128-000969

The Government of British Columbia is starting a discussion on improving wildlife management and habitat conservation, Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, has announced.

“The diversity of wildlife in British Columbia is one of our province’s greatest treasures,” said Donaldson. “Working with Indigenous peoples, wildlife stakeholders and the public, we want to build a strategy that more effectively manages our wildlife for future generations. We’ve dedicated $14 million over three years to do so.”

The province's unique landscapes and climate is home to one of the richest wildlife resources in North America. Three-quarters of Canada's mammal species are found in B.C., with 24 of those species exclusive to B.C. In recent decades, alteration of habitat due to expanded human populations, expanded natural resource development and impacts from climate change have placed increasing pressure on certain wildlife populations, some of which are now in decline.

As part of the government’s commitment to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, collaboration with Indigenous peoples is an integral part of developing a new provincial wildlife strategy.

The discussion paper, Improving Wildlife Management and Habitat Conservation in British Columbia, poses eight questions for discussion. Engagement is the first step in a four-step process to develop the strategy:
  1. Hold online engagement and face-to-face sessions with Indigenous communities and key stakeholders.
  2. Develop policy options to address priority concerns emerging from the engagement.
  3. Release a policy intentions paper for public engagement.
  4. Implement a new wildlife management and conservation strategy in 2020.
The comment period will end on July 31, 2018. The public is invited to provide input by visiting: http://engage.gov.bc.ca/wildlifeandhabitat

Tuesday 24 April 2018

Conservation Advocacy Meeting in Vancouver

Left to Right: Ferg, Dylan, Larri, Rob, me (Alex), Jesse
Yesterday evening I attended a productive meeting with some of Vancouver’s best habitat and wildlife advocates. The meeting was organized by Jesse Zeman of the BCWF and included Dylan Eyers of EatWild and noted conservationists and habitat activists such as Larri Woodrow of the Mission & District Rod & Gun Club and Salmon River Enhancement Society Langley, Rob Chipman, and Ferg McDonnell.  We discussed upcoming political issues, strategies, and what to do next. Ultimately, we all need to encourage as many people as possible to meet with their MLAs and express their concerns about the declining state of BC’s habitat. 

One new fact I learned from Jesse last night is that BC had protected a significant amount of caribou habitat... but it will take about 85 years to regrow to get to the point where it is viable to support caribou populations. Tragic

We need to act now. 

On that note, I just came across this today.  This is a great place for us all to provide some additional feedback.




Share your ideas on the Draft Caribou Recovery Program.
The provincial government is embarking on a new program to recover and conserve woodland caribou in British Columbia, and we would like your feedback.
The Caribou Recovery Program is a long-term commitment that will include all B.C. caribou herds in a comprehensive and uniform approach to conservation, based on traditional knowledge and science. The province has already committed to $27 million to ensure a strong start.
We value your knowledge, your experiences, and your ideas.

Please share your comments on the draft Discussion Paper.

To share your thoughts, click on the Draft Discussion paper link (above or in the sidebar) and there you can comment on each paragraph by selecting the comment icon, accepting the Terms of Use and submitting your comment. Each comment will be reviewed against the Moderation Policy and all approved comments will be posted publically for all to read.

Your comments will be reviewed and reflected in the final paper that we are targeting for completion in spring 2019.

Feedback will be accepted until June 15 at 4pm.


Sunday 15 April 2018

Road Density

Road density is a serious issue in BC.  Reports such as https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/Docs/En/En120.pdf indicate that animals such as Grizzlies and other species will retreat from an area once road density reaches a certain level.  Some suggest once road density reaches 0.6km of road / km^2 Grizzly bears will largely retreat from the area.  

Additionally, humans and predators use roads to improve hunting efficiency, putting increased pressure on prey species.  Road deactivation will help restore moose and bear populations for improved hunting opportunities in the future.  We should all be advocating for deactivation and habitat restoration. 

Wednesday 11 April 2018

The BC Moose Report

Moose are declining in much of BC because of habitat loss and poor management.  This report outlines the causes and solutions to the declining moose population.  Contact your MLA, the FLNRO minister, and the Premier to voice your concern!


 
 Click the link below the read the full report.

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlife/management-issues/docs/Restoring-and-Enhancing-Moose-Populations-in-BC-July-8-2016.pdf