IN 2018 GRIZZLY BEARS IN BC WILL AWAKEN to a SPRINGTIME SAFE FROM HUNTERS (See also: Reflections and Gratitude on the End of the Grizzly Bear Hunt, by VWS Chair, bear biologist Wayne McCrory) The end of 2017 brought the end to all grizzly bear hunting in BC, except for First Nations’ sustenance and ceremonial […]
A recent photo and video expedition has revealed thousands of Western Toads are dispersing into their forested habitat that is slated to be imminently logged. The images and video show toads under logging equipment, on logging roads as well as on branch roads into the logging cut blocks. Branch roads were constructed in February 2016. […]
Final announcement February 1, 2016. On February 1, 2016, the province and coastal First Nations announced the “final” protection agreement for the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR) on the BC coast. Since 1/3 of the GBR was protected in 2006, ten years of negotiations between the larger environmental groups, forest companies and coastal First Nations finally […]
BC GOVERNMENT CARIBOU MANAGERS REPORT DECLINING HERDS DISPLACED BY SNOWMOBILERS Top government managers of B.C.’s Mountain Caribou Recovery Plan (MCRIP) have reported that the plan is failing to keep snowmobiles out of caribou’s winter habitat, even as caribou herds race towards extinction. In their 2015 briefing report to the MCRIP Progress Board (1), the government managers said that caribou are being […]
MOUNTAIN CARIBOU PLAN FAILED TO PROTECT ADEQUATE INLAND TEMPERATE RAINFOREST While the Province doles out tax dollars to kill wolves and pen caribou, logging continues to destroy the caribou’s habitat, putting many other species at risk. Ten environmental groups have sent a letter to BC Premier Christy Clark, urging the creation of new parks in the Interior Wetbelt. […]
September 1, 2015 The Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS) is calling for an independent review of two maternity penning projects for BC’s endangered mountain caribou, after seven caribou died in the pens this summer. One adult cow and four newborn calves died in a pen near Revelstoke; and in a similar project near Chetwynd, one calf […]
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 […]
OVER SIXTY CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL SIGNATORIES VOICE OPPOSITION TO THE B.C. WOLF KILL IN AN OPEN LETTER TO THE B.C. GOVERNMENT* “B.C. Government scapegoats wolves for its failure to protect caribou habitat.” February 25, 2015: For Immediate Release More than sixty organizations and concerned citizens not only from British Columbia, but also from around the […]
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 […]
GRIBBELL ISLAND – MOTHER ISLAND OF THE WHITE SPIRIT BEAR – NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED Small but rugged Gribbell Island (20,690 ha) sits astride two of BC’s central coast marine shipping lanes, the Inside Passage and Douglas Channel. A UBC genetics study headed by Dr. Kermit Ritland discovered that the island is evolutionarily significant as […]
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 […]
A soon to be released study of the genetics of wild horses in a remote corner of the province poses more questions than it answers. The study by world horse DNA expert Dr. Cothran and biologist Wayne McCrory was done at the Texas A & M University for VWS, FONV (Friends of Nemaiah Valley) and […]