Alberta poised to sell endangered caribou habitat

The western province of Alberta appears set to sell a portion of critical mountain caribou habitat to the energy industry.

The news comes just days after a federal scientific panel said the herds of the genetic subset of caribou, the mountain caribou, were in immediate danger of dying out completely.  The panel, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC),  has listed the mountain caribou as “endangered” which is the highest level of threat to a species.

The panel assesses the species loss at about 60 percent in just a decade. They say the loss is due mostly to human activity, both industrial, such as mining, forestry and road building into the area, and recreational such as snowmobiles, and helicopter-skiing.

Alberta Energy, a ministry within the provincial government, will begin an auction today (Wednesday) on leases giving energy companies access to crown land which includes some 17 square kilometres of land north of Grand Cache..

This particular area is in the ranges of two dwindling herds, the Narraway and the Redrock-Prairie Creek, both of which have under 100 surviving animals.

The noise and disruption of these activities cause the animals stress and force them to expend energy to escape.

Justina Ray, the COSEWIC scientist who helped prepare the federal report on the mountain caribou, also says that development cuts holes in old growth forest. She says the plants that grow back favour deer and moose who move into the areas along with their predators, wolves. The wolves then also prey on caribou.

Alberta government rules- “just going through the motions” C.Campbell

Ray says saving mountain caribou herds is important for the overall genetic diversity of caribou in both British Columbia and Alberta,.

She added that policy-makers need to consider that habitat pressures centred in Alberta are starting to spread.

Mike Feenstra is a spokesman for Alberta Energy which is auctioning the land. He says Alberta does recognize mountain caribou as threatened, if not endangered. “Strict operating restrictions for industry continue to apply within Alberta’s other caribou ranges,” he says, adding that temporary holds have been placed on lease sales on the ranges of two other boreal caribou herds. He pointed outthat companies are informed of those restrictions before rights are purchase.

Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association says those rules on how energy companies should operate on caribou ranges don’t go far enough, by not setting disturbance limits and mostly dealing with timing.

“It’s just going through the motions to say there are restrictions on caribou range,” she says.