The federal government is failing to meet its legal obligation to protect threatened southern mountain caribou.
According to Canada’s Species At Risk Act, southern mountain caribou — and the forests they call home — should be protected. Yet Environment Canada, the body responsible for enforcing those protections, has stood by idly while British Columbia allows the destruction of critical caribou habitat. Now, eight of the 18 caribou herds in southern and central B.C. are gone — and more are set to follow.
Join us in telling Minister Guilbeault and Environment Canada that it’s time for real action.
Industrial disturbance in low elevation caribou ranges is very high, so much so that caribou are no longer migrating in the same way they have for millennia. Photo: Bailey Repp
In the last 20 years, over 310,000 hectares of deep-snow caribou habitat have been logged in B.C, destroying many of the old and mature forests that are essential to the survival of these herds.
Deep-snow caribou are the most threatened of B.C.’s caribou. These animals, which live in southeastern and central B.C., need old-growth forests — they contain lichens that are an essential winter food source. Old growth forests also allow deep-snow caribou to spatially separate themselves from predators like wolves and cougars.
In 2014, Canada released draft maps of where these critical habitats occur. Despite having repeatedly set deadlines to finish them, they remain incomplete. Until these maps are finalized, proper protections can’t be enforced, and logging will continue.
Our deep-snow caribou can’t afford more delays. That’s why we need your help to tell Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, that he must urgently act.
We’re calling on Minister Guilbeault and Environment Canada to:
- Finalize critical habitat maps for southern mountain caribou
- Incorporate these maps into an amended recovery plan
- Release an action plan that details how the recovery plan objectives will be achieved — particularly those relating to habitat protection
- Work with British Columbia to prioritize the immediate protection of deep-snow caribou habitat.