British Columbia (B.C.) is home to a vast array of biodiversity. Those of us fortunate enough to call B.C. home know our slogan - Supernatural, Beautiful British Columbia. Our province, the coastline in particular, contributes to a significant portion of Canada's biodiversity. With B.C.’s extensive coastline and complex glacial history, it is one of the most biologically diverse provinces in Canada. B.C. occupies 10% of Canada’s land area while containing more than half of Canada’s vertebrates and vascular plants and three-quarters of its bird and mammal species (1).
Across the globe, biodiversity is in decline. The biggest threat to biodiversity is habitat loss and degradation. This is a story that repeats itself globally - humans take up a lot of space and boy do we love our concrete. This along with climbing global CO2 emissions, unfortunately has led to what scientists are deeming “The Holocene Extinction” - a term that refers to the ongoing sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 times higher than natural background extinction rates. (2) This event has scientists and world leaders scrambling to enact policies that will bring about meaningful change. Various projects have been initiated as a means to protect our fragile planet - one of which - 30 x 30: the planet wide mission to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, sounds particularly hopeful - spearheaded by internationally famous photographers & conservationists Paul Nicklen & Christina Mittermeier with their organization Sea Legacy.
With this underway, many species are becoming critically endangered or becoming extinct altogether. Such is the story of the Southern Mountain Caribou here in B.C. A historically booming population that spanned from southern B.C. to central Alberta and one subpopulation even ranging into northern Idaho and Washington in the United States. Many Canadian provinces have enacted endangered species acts or species at risk acts (SARA). Here in B.C. it is an act our current premiere, John Horgan, promised to his voters in his election campaign but never followed through with. Now, the Southern Mountain Caribou are in severe decline and unfortunately their critical habitat spans across tracts of contiguous old growth and temperate rainforest that are utilized by multi-billion dollar forestry & mining industries. Although the federal government has discretionary power to broaden the application of SARA onto provincial lands identified as critical habitat, B.C. has no species at risk legislation to provide legal protection for Southern Mountain Caribou. (3) However, as the species is listed under the federal SARA - the province is required to act on preserving their population. These protections typically act by preventing activities that adversely modify, damage or destroy these critical areas of habitat. In situations such as these, where valuable resources and critical habitat for endangered species overlap - industry typically takes priority.
In 2015 the B.C. government initiated a wolf cull program in order to save the Southern Mountain Caribou from extinction. At the time this program was initiated it drew negative attention from many environmental scientists. Scientists criticized the province’s new Draft Caribou Recovery Program for failing to comply with legal obligations under the federal SARA and ignoring the role of logging, mining and oil and gas activities in caribou decline. This trend continues as the province has been approving numerous cutblocks in the endangered caribou’s critical habitat - The Narwhal reported in 2019 “314 new logging cutblocks in the critical habitat of Southern Mountain Caribou in the last five months” - covering almost 16,000 hectares in total. (4) Including a recent sale to its own forestry division; British Columbia Timber Sales. Habitat loss remains the most important anthropogenic threat to Canada’s at-risk species, affecting 82% of species, followed by over-exploitation (47%), introduced species (46%) and pollution (35%). (5) Unfortunately, decision makers (Premier John Horgan) continue to allow preventable destruction of habitat, while also spending taxpayers dollars to save the Southern Mountain Caribou, by means of an unethical wolf cull and maternal penning.
In 2020, the B.C. government's wolf cull program killed roughly 472 wolves. This program was initiated in an effort to save the Southern Mountain Caribou. It began in the South Peace & South Selkirk regions, but has since expanded into the North Columbia, Tweedsmuir-Entiako, Hart Ranges and Itcha-Ilgachuz regions. At the time I write this article, the program has euthanized over 1,400 wolves and cost taxpayers more than $2.2 million dollars. (see detailed graph)
It appears the B.C. government has chosen a scapegoat to distract from the true cause of Southern Mountain Caribou’s decline - habitat destruction & degradation. Their habitat is prime territory for extractive industries (primarily timber & mining) and is also utilized recreationally by the public. Wolves are quite intelligent creatures. When an opportunity presents itself - they will seize it. Tracks from snowmobiles & ATV’s or roads created by industry form highways through the natural terrain that they utilize for hunting. It eases their passage through the land and even simplifies triangulation tactics they deploy when hunting prey species.
Generally, caribou utilize tactics of predator avoidance and spread themselves thinly throughout their ecosystem to avoid predation. Historically, this would cause wolves to exert more energy into finding Caribou and thus wolves would not typically hunt Caribou as a primary prey species, as opportunistic predators typically prefer the meal with the highest potential intake with the least amount of effort expended. As the tracts of woodlands in their ecosystem become fragmented and uninhabitable, this concentrates the caribou and renders their avoidance tactics fruitless. Wolf scats from the Columbia Mountains indicated that mountain caribou were of lesser dietary importance than moose to wolves throughout the year. Moose, particularly in winter, were the main diet item of wolves. Beaver was an important dietary item of wolves during summer/fall. (6)
“Intact forests provide caribou with important lichens as food, as well as refuge from wolves and separation from other prey animals, including elk, moose, and deer,” said Lee Harding, retired Canadian Wildlife Service biologist
Back in 2015, the cull was initiated as an experimental program. The research indicated the government may be able to increase the caribou population by 10% each year the wolves were killed. A goal we have yet to reach; 6 years, 1,447 wolves & $2.2 million taxpayer dollars later. In Alberta a similar program has been underway - utilizing traps, poisons and aerial gunning to reduce wolf numbers. Unfortunately, both traps and poisoning create what is called “bycatch”. Bycatch refers to other wildlife that live in the ecosystem that die from the traps that are set out or poison which is laid with the intention of killing wolves. Unfortunately, bycatch goes hand in hand with both trapping and poisoning. Loose monitoring of poison baits in Alberta led to organizations requesting review of the usage from Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Committee. This poison (most typically utilized in Alberta is strychnine, a poison widely banned around the world and considered by veterinarians to deliver an excruciatingly painful death) is widely acknowledged as an inhumane manner to euthanize an animal, due to the intensity and duration of suffering they cause. If the wolves were laboratory animals, the manner in which the B.C. & Alberta governments is killing them would be in direct contradiction of the Canadian Council on Animal Care Guidelines - a council which establishes policies and procedures when it comes to treatment of laboratory animals.
“A focus on wolf control is a free pass to aggressively destroy habitat.”
-Chris Darimont
Numerous environmental groups were immediately concerned when the B.C. government announced it’s plan to cull the wolves. Two of which, Pacific Wild & The Valhalla Wilderness Society took the provincial government to court over the unethical and possibly unlawful manner in which the wolves are being killed. This lawsuit exposed the B.C. governments wilful negligence regarding the matter. An affidavit was released as a response to Pacific Wild & the Valhalla Wilderness Society petition for a judicial review of the wolf cull. The province admitted there is not enough intact habitat left for endangered caribou herds in the South Peace region. To add insult to injury, the B.C. governments own scientists even released a statement saying the wolf cull is inhumane - then proposed to expand it.
“Unless governments move quickly to protect the remaining and irreplaceable habitat, it will continue to vanish at astonishing rates, setting up increasingly desperate conditions from which caribou will never recover,” says Darimont.
A recent study released in July of 2020 in fact directly contradicts the wolf cull program. This scientific study examines the scientific study the B.C. government based their decisions upon and in fact they found multiple discrepancies within the research study. The research was not balanced, was not inclusive of all caribou herds (less than 50% of herds examined and discussed), the study did not discuss or examine alternative adaptive management measures to ensure caribou survival, the authors did not report the results of a null model - which performs equally as well as treatments and the study is not reproducible. In addition, the study the government based their decisions upon - appeared to emphasize culling predators, rather than assessing the bottom-up requirements for caribou survival in an ecosystem. The new study in fact revealed there is no statistical evidence to backup the wolf cull program. (8)
Back in 2015 the B.C. government - then led by Christy Clark of the B.C. Liberal party - had yet to initiate a wolf cull. The practice was being utilized by Alberta, as the federal SARA required provinces to act on the dwindling number of these endangered species. Leading up to the time when the cull began here in B.C. the forestry and mining industries were scared. Companies arranged meetings with the then Minister for Environment, Mary Polak, they were concerned more areas would be set aside for protection. They were worried more substantial areas would have logging or mining deferred. Briefing notes reveal a frightening fact of their own - was the wolf cull pushed forward by the forestry industry? "Tolko [Industries Ltd.] is concerned about potential impacts of the federal recovery strategy for the woodland caribou" says one of the notes, released in response to a Freedom of Information application. (7) At the time, certain areas of critical habitat had been set aside for preservation by the Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan (MCRIP), along with recreational activities in these areas being limited. Additionally, a captive maternal penning and breeding program was underway with some success. The forestry industry was afraid however, that more tracts of old-growth would be protected and not serve as a cash cow for them. Another briefing note states "Actions within the MCRIP have largely been implemented with the exception of effectively managing wolf populations. Industry has criticized government for failing to effectively implement this recovery action, and will be very reluctant to forgo additional harvesting opportunities to meet any additional habitat targets imposed by the federal recovery strategy.” States the note from April 2014. Only months later, the wolf cull began in B.C.
"These caribou are on a long-term slide to extinction as a consequence of what people have done, and that's clearly where the blame should go"
"I think the provinces have been unwilling to do what would have been absolutely necessary to do to save caribou, and that was to protect their habitat initially. You can't easily recover the habitat once it's lost." - Paul Paquet.
At a federal level, the government's SARA requires action to protect species at risk of extinction. Provinces act on this regulation in their own ways, but if the actions are in question or are inadequate the federal government is required to become involved and enact certain protections on land or management techniques. So far the federal government has not become involved in B.C’s Southern Mountain Caribou recovery plan - but with the aforementioned briefing notes and management techniques being brought to the table (and to court - see Pacific Wilds lawsuit against the B.C. government), perhaps it would be best if things were managed by the federal government, for the time being at least.
“Hundreds of wolves are being killed each year in the most horrific fashion, at tax-payer expense. It’s disheartening to learn that on top of our legal counsel finding grounds to prove this program is likely unlawful under B.C. law, there’s also now confirmation from a renowned academic publication that culling is having no positive impact for caribou recovery,” said Ian McAllister, Pacific Wild’s Executive Director. “We’re fully prepared to challenge the B.C. government in court on this matter.”
References:
- Alive and Inseparable. British Columbia’s Coastal Environment. 2006. By Government of Canada, Government of B.C., UVIC, UBC Fisheries Centre. http://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eirs/finishDownloadDocument.do?subdocumentId=4002
- The misunderstood sixth mass extinction. 2018. G. Ceballos, P. Ehrlich. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6393/1080.2
- The long road to protecting critical habitat for species at risk: The case of southern mountain woodland caribou. 2020. E. Palm, S. Fluker, H. Nesbitt, A. Jacob, M. Hebblewhite. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.219\
- B.C. approves 314 new cutblocks in endangered caribou habitat over last five months. 2019. S. Cox https://thenarwhal.ca/b-c-approves-314-new-cutblocks-in-endangered-caribou-habitat-over-last-five-months/
- Increasing importance of climate change and other threats to at-risk species in Canada. 2020. C. Woo-Durand et al https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.437
- The influence of wolves on the ecology of mountain caribou. 1998. B. Allison https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/831/1.0088482/2
- No statistical support for wolf control and maternal penning as conservation measures for endangered mountain caribou. 2020. L. Harding, M. Bourbonnais, A. Cook, T. Spribille, V. Wagner & C. Darimont. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-020-02008-3
- Documents indicate B.C. wolf cull linked to forest industry concerns. 2015. M. Hume. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/documents-indicate-bc-wolf-cull-linked-to-forest-industry-concerns/article26968437/
- B.C.’s wildlife policy skirts issue of habitat loss due to logging. 2015. M. Hume. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bcs-wildlife-policy-skirts-issue-of-habitat-loss-due-to-logging/article27435434/