Film producer, biologist and wildlife photographer David Moskowitz was shocked to find that old-growth logging is continuing in B.C.’s interior temperate rainforest, despite clear evidence that it threatens fragile herds of endangered mountain caribou and, as he worked on his latest film, he tried to figure out how caribou and ancient trees could be saved, while protecting the local economy.

There is no simple solution, said Moskowitz, but he is hoping his film, “Last Stand: The Vanishing Caribou Rainforest,” which will be playing at the ELEMENTS film festival at Science World in Vancouver this weekend, will make people aware of what is at stake.

Last Stand will play Sunday afternoon as a part of the film festival’s Beautiful B.C. segment, that features short films A Northern Path: Exploring the Nisga’a and Stewart-Cassiar Highways and I Am Salmon as well as Creekwalker, a feature-length film that traces the creeks of the Great Bear Rainforest.

“[Last Stand] is about the last and largest remaining inland temperate rainforest on Planet Earth and these amazing creatures, the mountain caribou, that are tied to this ecosystem and how we are continuing to destroy it through logging and resource extraction,” he told DeSmog Canada.

The population of mountain caribou now stands at about 1,500 animals in a dozen herds that roam between the Kootenays and U.S. Pacific Northwest and they are struggling to survive, said Moskowitz, who worked on the film for about two-and-a-half years with director Colin Arisman.

“The whole population is at risk of extinction right now and the key part of this story is that B.C. and Canada have refused to take any substantive action to stop destroying the habitat for these animals,” he said.

“The reason these animals are disappearing is that humans have destroyed their refuge habitat, which is old-growth forest…They are turning old-growth trees into toilet paper.”

As forests are destroyed other species such as deer move in, followed by more predators and produces the conundrum of how to keep the mountain caribou alive while protecting First Nations culture and a forest economy, Moskowitz said.

In addition to the shock of finding B.C. is continuing to harvest timber in unique old-growth ecosystems, Moskowitz was stunned to discover that logging is subsidized by government because it costs companies more to get the trees to market than they get from selling them.

The province also mandates how much companies must cut, stipulating they will lose their licence if they do not harvest enough, he said.

“There is an imperative for them to keep cutting, regardless of the economics,” he said.

Marcus Reynerson inspects the mountain caribou tracks along the banks of a lake in the Canadian Rockies. Photo: David Moskowitz

There is little old-growth logging on the U.S. side of the border, but that does not necessarily mean the U.S. has done a better job, Moskowitz said.

“We had a few decades head-start, so there’s a lot less to cut. The opportunities to salvage this ecosystem is north of the border, but it is slated to be logged over the next four decades…Where the rubber meets the road is Canada and B.C.,” he said.

Moskowitz does not pretend he has solutions, but the film looks at topics such as community forestry and value-added forestry, where, rather than exporting pulp, jobs are created in local paper mills.

“Conservation initiatives that don’t work for local people just don’t work. Period. Some of the changes that need to take place in forestry would have a huge impact on the local economy,” he said.

“But we could cut a whole lot less trees and employ just as many people, if not more, if we looked at a value-added economy.”

Moskowitz hopes that one message that will resonate with audiences is that human beings cannot not turn away from the mess they have created.

“Climate change is going to change this ecosystem which is going to set in motion cascading ecological issues where we have increased some species numbers, which affects predators, which affects endangered species. We can’t take our fingers out of this pie,” he said.

“We have made a mess of things and we can’t just stay out of it. We must stay engaged and make really difficult choices.”

Last Stand (Trailer) – The Vanishing Caribou Rainforest from Wild Confluence on Vimeo.

The ELEMENTS film festival will feature nature, wildlife and conservation films from 11 countries April 14-15 at the Telus World of Science in Vancouver.

See more of Moskowitz’s photography on Instagram: @moskowitz_david

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A First Nation in northeastern B.C. is challenging the province’s approval of a proposed gas pipeline that would cut across critical habitat of threatened boreal woodland caribou.

Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) has filed for a judicial review of B.C. Oil and Gas Commission’s approval last month of a pipeline, proposed by Rockyview Resources Inc. and Shanghai Energy Corp., that would run through FNFN territory, resulting in 78 hectares of disturbance to caribou habitat.

“The 39-kilometre proposed gas pipeline cuts right through core caribou habitat in our territory, in an area with the most concentrated and highest-known use by boreal caribou for forage, calving, rearing and protection from predators,” said Lana Lowe, FNFN land and resources director.

“This area has been important harvesting grounds for our people, but, in particular, the area contains very important habitat for caribou, which our people have relied on for many generations to feed our families,” she said.

#FortNelson First Nation Files Legal Challenge to Gas Pipeline Claiming It Will Threaten #Caribou Habitat https://t.co/4WqPg5ICl3 #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/oQyqV7AyHw

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) July 18, 2017

The legal challenge is necessary because the Oil and Gas Commission did not adequately consult the First Nation or consider their concerns about the threatened caribou population, according to a news release from the band.

A plan, put together by FNFN, to support the recovery of caribou in the area and a suggested consultation process was ignored by the Oil and Gas Commission, says the news release.

“The BCOGC refused the invitation to work out a specific consultation process and deemed it not practical to consider the FNFN Caribou Report. This resulted in the BCOGC using inadequate and incomplete data to determine that the proposed pipeline poses ‘no material adverse effect’ to the caribou populations in the area,” it says.

“The BCOGC demonstrated an inadequate, unlawful and wholly unacceptable approach to consultation with FNFN regarding how this pipeline will impact boreal caribou in our territory,” said acting Chief Sharleen Gale.

The First Nation is questioning why the project would be approved only months after former premier Christy Clark acknowledged that some woodland caribou herds are in danger of disappearing and announced $27-million for a revamped caribou recovery program.

About 728 boreal caribou remain in B.C. with five range areas, most in the north-east of the province. Boreal caribou are listed as threatened under the federal Species At Risk Act and are red-listed provincially, meaning their status is threatened to endangered.

The pipeline would be in the Maxhamish boreal caribou range and that population has decreased to from 306 to 104 animals since 2004 and calf survival rates are consistently below the level required to avoid further population declines, according to FNFN numbers.

“There is no evidence to suggest that the herd is stable, yet the province and Rockyview Resources insist that it is,” Gale said.

First Nations are working to restore populations and,once populations are stabilized, hope to resume treaty rights to harvest caribou, says the news release.

More than 80 per cent of boreal caribou habitat in B.C. is within FNFN territory, Gale said.

“We clearly have an interest in saving and helping restore caribou populations and, for this reason, our community has chosen not to hunt caribou until the population stabilizes. We expect the same stewardship ethic from companies who wish to access our territory for economic purposes,” she said.

Economic development is encouraged in FNFN territory provided it creates long-term benefits for members and respects land, water and treaty rights, Gale said.

According to an FNFN background paper, there have been 77 referrals for projects within the territory over the last year and the Rockyview proposal is the only one the community rejected.

“FNFN wants to support projects in our territory. We also need proponents to engage with us early in the planning process, commit to building long-term relationships and operate in a way that supports FNFN development objectives,” Gale said.

Recovery plans for boreal caribou herds has sparked controversy for several years as the province tracks and shoots wolves from helicopters in an effort to stop predation, while conservation groups say that the major culprit is habitat destruction as resource companies open up the area.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society launched a lawsuit against federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, saying she has not acted to protect the habitat of boreal woodland caribou even though critical habitat was identified in 2012.

Image: Woodland caribou in Jasper National Park. Photo: Parks Canada

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Culling Alberta’s wolves without prioritizing caribou habitat protection and restoration is like “shoveling sand,” according to Mark Hebblewhite, associate professor of ungulate habitat biology at the University of Montana.

Hebblewhite says the Alberta government is sponsoring a wolf cull without doing the one thing that could possibly scientifically justify it: conserving and restoring critical caribou habitat.

“That’s the tragedy here: the Alberta government blew the opportunity to do the right thing,” he said.

“It’s all shoveling sand without real commitment to habitat conservation.”

Scientists have warned of Alberta’s caribou losses for decades and in recent years have argued the majority of the herds are endangered with some facing an imminent risk of local extinction. Provinces have until 2017 to formulate provincial caribou recovery plans under the new federal caribou recovery strategy released in 2012.

The goal for each province is to maintain 65 per cent undisturbed habitat in all caribou ranges, according to Duncan MacDonnell, public affairs officer for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD).

“It is ESRD’s responsibility to implement recovery plans,” for Alberta, MacDonnell said, adding that since 2004 the province has had a wolf cull in place “to hold the line while the habitat recovery plans take place and are implemented.”

Since 2006 more than 1,000 wolves have been shot in the Little Smokey and A La Peche caribou ranges.

The province’s use of predator management has generated serious controversy, especially in light of continuing sales of oil and gas leases in caribou ranges, a move experts say undermines the scientific integrity of the wolf cull.

“There are all kinds of ethical problems in this mess,” Hebblewhite told DeSmog Canada.

“It’s unethical to sell oil and gas leases in endangered caribou critical habitat.”

Hebblewhite recently published a paper, Managing Wolves to Recover Threatened Woodland Caribou in Alberta, that demonstrated the wolf cull in the Little Smoky and A La Peche regions helped stabilize local caribou herds, but won’t contribute to their long-term survival without habitat recovery and protection.

“If we had started killing wolves 10 years ago, stopped all development, and started restoration, we might actually be somewhere,” he said.

Hebblewhite is preparing to release additional research that shows that since the release of the federal recovery strategy, the federal and provincial governments have allowed significant oil and gas activity to continue in caribou ranges.

“This is where it is most egregious: on the one hand, the Alberta government is saying they are doing habitat conservation while on the other I have proprietary oil and gas industry data that shows there have been hundreds of wells drilled in the Little Smoky herd, and 1,500 wells drilled in the Cold Lake herd range on the border with Saskatchewan. And that herd is the second most rapidly declining herd in the country.”

“And this is just since 2012 when the federal caribou recovery plan, including the delineation of critical habitat, was adopted,” he said.

“We are still destroying caribou habitat…it shows quite clearly that we’re killing wolves and we are not doing anything to recover caribou or the boreal forest.”

Habitat Destruction, Seismic Lines a Costly Lack of Foresight

Oilsands companies are in a “mad rush” to restore seismic lines in Alberta’s caribou ranges before the province reveals its caribou recovery plan — mandated under the Federal Caribou Recovery Strategy — by 2017.

With tens of thousands of kilometres of seismic lines, their restoration is critical for reducing the mobility of wolves in caribou ranges.

Scott Nielsen, a University of Alberta professor who is studying seismic line restoration, said now that restoration on these legacy lines is happening, industry should work with scientists to ensure it’s done right. At a cost of roughly $10,000 per kilometre Nielsen says prioritizing the most critical areas for caribou and other species is critical.

“A lot of companies are grouping together and doing restoration projects, but if each company is doing a little bit here and a little bit there, the scale at which the disturbances occur at and the scale at which caribou and wolves move at are big. We need to think big when we’re thinking of the restoration or the offsets.”

“It would be even better if the work could be coordinated from the stand point of objectively trying to identify areas with the best bang for our buck both from the perspective of biodiversity and cost benefits,” he said.

And now, Nielsen said, even with aggressive restoration in place, “from a caribou perspective there has to be some form of zoning or restriction in development for at least certain herds for them to persist.”

But the government of Alberta, in lieu of enforcing habitat protection — which would require limiting new leasing for oil and gas companies — has relied on predator control as a means to keep caribou herds alive.

Predator control, Nielsen said, “tends to be a favourite tool used when you’re desperate and you have a population or a species that is critically endangered and threatened.”

The wolf cull is “one tool the managers are using for a short-term solution,” Nielsen said. “And if they aren’t working towards a long-term solution then it should be abandoned.”

Real Issue is Habitat Conservation

For Raincoast Conservation Foundation biologist and wolf expert Paul Paquet, the continued destruction of caribou habitat demonstrates the Alberta government is working at cross-purposes.

“The whole issue around oil and gas leases is it shows the government working at cross-purposes,” Paquet said. “I think it undermines their credibility.”

He added the negative effects of unrestored seismic lines on caribou habitat has been known for decades, but both government and industry have failed to take meaningful action.

“They don’t seem intent on doing what needs to be done,” Paquet said, adding the failure to protect caribou habitat throws the province’s ongoing wolf cull into a “moral dilemma.”

Research recently published by Hebblewhite and his colleagues shows that while the killing of wolves in some areas has stabilized populations, aggressive predator control was unable to put caribou back on a path to self-sustaining populations.

“All of this is useless if the primary reasons for caribou decline isn’t addressed and that primary one now is loss of habitat and degraded habitat,” Paquet said.

Hebblewhite agrees.

Predator control “has to be against the template of real commitment to habitat conservation. But if we’re just doing it in small little parts of the habitat and destroying other parts, it’s probably not going to have a very good effect.”

The wolf cull “reminds us we’ve screwed up the entire ecosystem,” Hebblewhite said. “Killing wolves is a short-term response to that. It buys us time.”

Image Credit: John E. Marriott

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Companies in Alberta’s oilsands are scrambling to find a way to reclaim tens of thousands of kilometres of seismic lines cut into the boreal forest before regulations that mandate the recovery of endangered caribou habitat are implemented in late 2017.

But while crews experiment with planting black spruce in piles of dirt during minus-25 degree weather in a bid to repair the forest, the Alberta government continues to lease massive segments of the region for further exploration and still hasn’t mandated reclamation of seismic lines.  

The controversy over caribou habitat and wolf culls in Alberta has stewed for years, but the issue of seismic lines has been largely overlooked. It’s these linear corridors cut through the forest (used to set off explosive charges to locate oil and gas deposits) that encourage predators like wolves to infiltrate what remains of fragmented caribou habitat.

“I don’t think a lot of people thought these seismic lines were a big deal,” said Scott Nielsen, an Alberta Biodiversity Conservation Chair and University of Alberta professor. “But … there are these cascading effects that you can’t anticipate.”

In a century of oil and gas development, hundreds of thousands of kilometres of these wolf freeways have been cut through Alberta’s forest. In one section of the Lower Athabasca region alone, south of Fort McMurray and extending out to Cold Lake, there are 53,000 kilometres of seismic lines.

“We still face the legacy of a tremendous amount of linear disturbances from the initial phases of exploration in the oilsands,” Nielsen said. “So it’s become a major conservation concern — or crisis — really.”

In 2012, the federal government released a recovery strategy for endangered caribou that demands that 65 per cent of their ranges be “undisturbed.” Right now, some Alberta caribou herds have as little as five per cent of their ranges left undisturbed.

“Trying to recover things after they’ve happened is a heck of a lot harder than preventing habitat disturbance in the first place,” Nielsen said.

Restoration Costs Estimated $10,000 Per Kilometre

Some industry players are already voluntarily putting their minds to finding a way to piece the fragmented forest back together — even though restoration costs roughly $10,000 per kilometre.

“With caribou being listed [as endangered] and these areas being defined as critical habitat — that’s why there’s a bit of a mad rush to deal with the legacy of disturbances that we have,” Nielsen said.

Companies Push Ahead with Restoration Despite Lack of Government Requirement

Devon Energy, an oilsands company involved in seismic line restoration since 2011, is trying to make it harder for wolves to move around in caribou ranges.

“Seismic lines, not just seismic lines but roads and trails out in northern Alberta, make it easier for wolves to travel and hunt more efficiently,” Amit Saxena, senior lands and biodiversity manger with Devon, told DeSmog Canada. “They are increasing the spatial overlap between wolves and caribou, more than pre-disturbance levels.”

Saxena said while most companies are doing what they can to ensure new seismic lines come with a lighter footprint — by reducing their width and straightness — there is still a lot of work to do to inhibit wolf movement on the thousands of kilometres of legacy lines crisscrossing the province.

“Sometimes we actually put up wooden or snow fences at 500 metre intervals along the line, and sometimes we’ll do log rollback and brush clearing, making big piles,” he said. “That not only impacts wolf movement on the line but also human movement on the line so that limits the amount of ATVs and quads that go down those lines that will ultimately negatively impact the recovery of the line.”

Devon is working toward the federal government’s target of 65 per cent undisturbed habitat in caribou ranges and prioritizes line recovery based on their habitat value for caribou. The company is also working to offset disturbance in new ranges with conservation in others.

But Saxena pointed out that since there is “no carte blanche requirement” from the province for seismic line restoration, companies are trying to find ways to balance the restoration with other priorities.

“We have to be realistic about it also,” Saxena said. “Industry priorities do play a role in there.”

Tree planting along seismic lines in the ALGAR historic restoration project area. Image from COSIA.

COSIA Pilot Project Tests Caribou Habitat Reclamation Techniques

Kris Geekie, director of community consultation and regulatory affairs for Nexen, said his company is exploring new seismic line restoration techniques in caribou habitat through the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) as part of the Algar Historic Restoration Project.

“We’re looking at an area nobody is currently active in. There are no oilsands leases within that area and what we’re testing is how can we restore [seismic lines] faster, what are the appropriate treatments, and what are the tactical plans specifically for managing forest fragmentation from seismic lines,” Geekie said.  

Geekie said Nexen, along with other oilsands companies like Statoil, Shell and ConocoPhillips, are working on 390 kilometres of seismic lines throughout the Algar region.

“The pilot is specifically designed to find out if we can improve the sustainability [of caribou] in that area. Basically, the less linear disturbance in the area, and the less access for wolves, is one way we can improve the sustainability of caribou herds.”

Caribou Recovery Plan Still to Come: Province

Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) is currently formulating the province’s caribou recovery plan, according to public affairs officer Duncan MacDonnell — although it’s too early to tell what role seismic line restoration will play in the plan.

“We must have caribou recovery plans ready to go by the end of 2017,” MacDonnell said. “It’s our responsibility to meet those plans according to the [federal] criteria.”

None of the provinces have filed their caribou recovery plans yet, he said, adding the variety of caribou ranges in Alberta alone has contributed to the delays in the draft plan’s release.

“How far [ESRD goes] in terms of restoration schedules or plans, we have no idea yet,” MacDonnell said.

He added ESRD is carrying out a wolf cull in the Little Smoky and A La Peche caribou ranges as an interim measure while the province prepares its recovery plans. Those plans are expected to include some restriction on new development in caribou ranges. 

Nexen seismic line replanting. Photo from Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship via Youtube.

Alberta Government Continues to Sell Energy Leases in Caribou Range

Yet the Alberta government’s recent sale of energy leases in caribou range has onlookers concerned not enough is being done to protect caribou habitat despite government promises.

Carolyn Campbell from the Alberta Wilderness Association said the government is “sending mixed messages” when it comes to caribou recovery.

In early March, the province came under fire for putting 21,000 hectares of energy leases in caribou habitat up for auction. Campbell said the day after her organization issued a news release on the auction, the government quietly announced the sale would be delayed.

Since then, several new small lease sales in that range have been announced.

“Alberta is being highly inconsistent right now,” Campbell said.

“The problem with new leasing is it creates new rights holders — energy companies — who have a time limit to prove up those leases and under weak rules that enables them to put down new well-sites, new roads, new pipeline infrastructure.”

Campbell said new energy lease sales continue while the government is perpetually delaying the release of range-specific recovery plans. She said Alberta initially committed to releasing the first plan, for the Little Smoky and A La Peche herds, in 2014.

“Time is running out for these caribou. It would be pretty inappropriate to try to run the clock out to 2017,” she said.

She added the current rules for habitat disruption are “unacceptably weak for an endangered species” even when paired with recent efforts to restore disturbed land.

“Even though some companies are getting interested in reclamation, the net effect with all the new leases and activity is ongoing degradation,” Campbell said.

“New lease sales should be totally deferred until there are strong range plans in effect.”  

Image Credit: Alex MacLean

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