Archive for category: Wildlife Blog

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS HABITAT LOSS DRIVING
SOUTH PEACE CARIBOU TOWARDS EXTINCTION

Eight environmental groups, Valhalla Wilderness Society, Pacific Wild, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Committee, Wildlife Defence League, The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, Wolf Awareness Inc., and Bears Matter, applaud a recently published scientific report that reveals how much habitat the caribou in the South Peace region have lost. The title of the report says it all: ‘Witnessing Extinction – Cumulative impacts across landscapes and the future loss of an evolutionarily significant unit of woodland caribou in Canada’ (Johnson et al., 2015).

“The findings of the report are shocking, but this is the very first time that, for a rapidly disappearing caribou population, we’ve had actual measurements of the amount and kind of habitat they’ve lost,” says Anne Sherrod, spokesperson for the Valhalla Wilderness Society. “Now that we know the habitat loss is severe, it puts a heavy responsibility on government to do something about it.” Full Text

HEARTLAND OF THE KHUTZEYMATEEN GRIZZLY BEAR SANCTUARY
THREATENED BY PROPOSED PRINCE RUPERT GAS LNG ROUTE

Trans Canada Pipeline Company has been contracted by Petronas, a state company owned by the Malaysian government, to plan and build Canada’s biggest natural gas pipeline through two provincially protected conservancies that adjoin the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary on the BC North Coast. Survey work has already started for a major 200 foot-wide right-of-way that will include a major industrial road and compressor station needed for the 4-foot diameter pipeline.

According to VWS bear biologist Wayne McCrory “The survey is apparently being carried out with no park use permit, but with endorsement from the Premier’s office. However, a permit will be required for the next stage of creating drilling pads, and may soon be issued by the government; yet the public has been kept totally in the dark, only learning of the surveys from commercial bear viewing operators in the Khutzeymateen Inlet. Any permits issued in the protected conservancies will be in violation of the Park Act”.

If allowed, the roaded pipeline corridor through the wilderness parks will set a bad precedent and allow for more pipelines or transmission lines to follow. According to McCrory the pipeline corridor will shatter the ecological integrity of the whole area, and is a threat to every grizzly bear for miles around. People are urged to write Premier Christie Clark and Environment Minister Mary Polack to ask that the surveys be stopped immediately and the pipeline not be allowed in parks and conservancies (See Take Action). See also links to VWS press release and map below.

• Download Sept. 5/13 Press Release
• Download Map of pipeline route through area

A New Project Initiative for the Valhalla Wilderness Society
Wolves and Wild Horses, Secrets of the Brittany Triangle

The Valhalla Wilderness Society  has teamed up with Friends of the Nemaiah Valley (FONV) and the Xeni Gwet’in community of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation to foster research surrounding the dietary habits of grey wolves, Canis lupus. The project area is in the unique wild horse region of BC’s Chilcotin in and around the Brittany Triangle and the Nemaiah Valley. The groups are sponsoring graduate-level research by wolf biologist Sadie Parr to fill an important knowledge gap about predator-prey interactions among wolves, wild horses and domestic livestock.  This knowledge will help us in our efforts to foster coexistence among wolves and people as we combine science with community-level outreach goals.  Sadie has prepared a Rancher’s Toolkit for predator friendly practices.

Download VWS newsletter on Sadie’s Wolf Study

Download Toolkit for Predator Friendly Practices: www.wolfawarenessinc.org