The much-studied South Selkirk mountain caribou herd is teetering on the brink of extinction.

That discovery this month has focused international attention on the disaster faced by the only herd that roams between the U.S. and Canada, but biologists are warning that the crisis extends to other herds in the south of the province.

The southern mountain caribou population has dropped to about 3,800 animals this year, down from about 4,500 last year, according to the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y), which is calling for emergency action to protect critical habitat.

“For decades B.C. has failed to protect sufficient critical habitat to even maintain mountain caribou, never mind recover them,” said Candace Batycki, program director for Y2Y.

“Canada has failed in its responsibility under the federal Species At Risk Act to intervene when provincial recovery measures are insufficient.”

The caribou census found that the South Selkirk herd is down to three females from 11 last year and biologists estimate that at least 14 of B.C.’s 54 herds could be in trouble.

Provincial government wildlife biologist Leo De Groot said finding out there were only three females remaining in the South Selkirk herd was a surprise.

“I was hoping we would at least have as many as last year, if not more,” he said.

One animal was known to have died, but there is no clue what happened to the others and it is not yet known whether any of the remaining females are pregnant, he said.

This winter the aim was to put pregnant females into a maternity pen, built with money raised by the Kalispel tribe in Washington state, but the snow was too deep to carry through with the plan, he said.

At least four other southern herds are down to critical numbers and, as the federal and provincial governments face pressure to protect more habitat from logging, road-building and recreational use, some scientists are wondering whether efforts should be concentrated on herds where there appears to be at least a slim chance of success.

Robert Serrouya, director of the Caribou Monitoring Unit at the University of Alberta and a Revelstoke resident, was not surprised at the South Selkirk herd’s imminent demise, because of habitat loss around the U.S./Canada border.

“That herd is facing conditions in the environment that are not suitable for persistence. It would be very difficult at this time to recover that herd,” he said.“You can’t fix the habitat problem overnight; that takes decades.”

“Unlike a few exceptional, rare herds further north where we are actually seeing glimmers of recovery, down there you have permanent land conversion — agriculture and human settlement — so it’s almost impossible to restore farming and range land back to natural forest.”

With limited funds, it would make sense to prioritize recovery efforts, Serrouya said.

De Groot agrees triage is part of the discussion, and said even the idea of transplanting animals from other herds, which has been done in the past in South Selkirk, is not gaining traction because of fears it would be a wasted effort.

“No one is offering up any caribou,” he said.

No simple solution

Problems started last century when explorers and prospectors shot as many caribou as they could. Then, as attitudes about an unending supply of wildlife shifted, caribou were faced with forest harvesting moving from the valleys to high elevations, meaning wolves, cougars and bears moved into mountain caribou habitat to follow the deer, elk and moose that thrived in the clearcuts.

Caribou are an easy catch as they are not as skittish as deer and don’t kick as hard as moose. Given their slow rate of breeding, the results can be devastating, De Groot said.

In addition to predation, mountain or deep snow caribou need to survive the winter by eating lichen from old-growth trees, meaning newly planted forests cannot support them.

Biologists hoped that with predator control, such as the controversial wolf cull, an increase in moose hunting and maternal pens to protect pregnant females and new calves, caribou herds could survive until forests regenerate, but that is now unlikely for the South Selkirk herd.

“We have made huge advances in habitat protection since 2007 and we now have 80 to 90 per cent of their core habitat protected from future logging, but we are still dealing with the legacy of previous logging. The trees don’t grow that fast and it takes decades for the clearcuts to grow in so that they are not attracting the elk, moose and deer,” De Groot said.

“We had hoped that, maybe, if we could get the caribou through the next decades, these cutblocks would have grown back.”

Ongoing activity in critical habitat

Some people doubt whether habitat protection has been enforced and Batycki, pointing to voluntary industry habitat protection measures in the Peace area, wants an interim moratorium on industrial activity in critical habitat while governments sort out their recovery plans.

“The federal government has the power to do that,” she said.

Gwen Bridge of Yellowstone to Yukon said mapping and analysis clearly shows that logging and road building has been ongoing in critical habitat, even in areas that were supposedly protected through the 2007 plan.

The herds are also facing increased stress from recreational users, Bridge said.

“New proposals for extensive helicopter-based recreation on the South Purcells are illustrative of the many stresses facing caribou in southeast B.C.,” she said.

DeGroot agrees recreational use of the area is a problem as caribou move away from disturbance and, in winter, that movement takes energy, using precious body fat, and tends to move the animals through avalanche territory, he said.

One of the few bright spots in the mountain caribou world is the Klinse-Za herd, which was down to 36 animals when consulting biologist Scott McNay, of Wildlife Infometrics Inc., started working with the Saulteau and West Moberly First Nations in 2013.

The herd has now doubled in size through the use of maternity pens with 24-hour-a-day shepherds, habitat protection, restoration of forest cover, blocking access to predators and wolf removal.

“We thought the herd was going to be extirpated in two years…and the reason that this is working here is that we are throwing everything at the recovery effort. It’s a slow process, but it’s working,” McNay said.

But recovery efforts are expensive and, province-wide, much will come down to economic constraints and whether there is social will, McNay said.

“First I think we have to prove that in at least one case we can restore a caribou herd and it hasn’t been done yet,” McNay said.

If all subspecies of caribou in B.C. are counted, there are about 19,000 animals, down from about 40,000 in the early 1900s, said Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Doug Donaldson.

“We need to do whatever we can to help enhance and recover caribou habitat to rebuild the numbers of this iconic species,” he said at B.C. Wildlife Federation’s annual conference, when he announced a $2-million grant to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation to help restore caribou habitat and reduce predation through reforestation, fencing and changing sight lines.

Up to $50 million over five years has been slotted for the province’s caribou recovery program and the Alberta government has announced $85 million over the next five years for caribou habitat restoration.

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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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Despite widespread condemnation from conservation groups and scientists, the B.C. government is set to continue shooting wolves from helicopters in an attempt to save endangered mountain caribou herds from local extinction in the South Selkirk, South Peace and North Columbia herd areas.

The wolf cull is happening in conjunction with other measures to try and stem the decline of mountain caribou herds, including maternity penning projects and restricting snowmobiles in some critical habitat.

“The wolf cull, maternity pens, it’s all part of the talk-and-log process that’s going on,” says Craig Pettitt of the Valhalla Wilderness Society. “We know damn well that the caribou need habitat and, as we talk, they are logging their habitat.”

Pettitt lives in the Slocan Valley and has worked on caribou issues since the early 1970s. He can see the logging from his window.

While government scientists say the wolf cull is necessary, many independent scientists are skeptical this strategy will have any meaningful long-term effect on the recovery of the mountain caribou, without significant measures to restore and protect their habitat.

ICYMI: How Canada Is Driving Its Endangered Species to the Brink of Extinction

According to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development “wolves are the leading cause of mortality” amongst caribou in the South Peace region, attributing 37 per cent of adult caribou deaths to wolves.

“Habitat loss, due to industrial development and recreational activities, has also adversely affected the number of caribou,” the ministry acknowledges. This includes oil and gas, mining and forestry.

When old-growth forests are clear-cut, nutrient-rich habitat is depleted and the early growth that comes back attracts deer and moose. This brings more wolves, which prey upon the caribou as by-catch. Roads and transmission lines also limit the area in which caribou can hide and provide easy access for wolves to travel and hunt, making them more successful predators.

“As a result, we’re decimating their food source, we’re fragmenting their habitat and we’re facilitating access for wolves,” Pettitt says. “So to start targeting wolves without dealing with the other side of the equation is a talk-and-log process.”

Habitat protections a ‘sham’

So has the B.C. government set aside enough suitable habitat for caribou? Certainly the government is placing some land off limits to certain types of activity, from coal mining to oil and gas development to snowmobiling.

But if you ask Virginia Thompson – who represented the Revelstoke-Shuswap planning district during the 2007 Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Planning (MCRIP) process – the province isn’t doing nearly enough.

“It is a sham that they did any habitat recovery in this planning area,” she said.

Thompson recalls scientists recommended to the province in 2007 that about 34,000 additional hectares of caribou habitat needed to be set aside from logging in her unit. The province agreed to set aside 10,000 hectares. And even this minimal amount was eventually whittled down by amendments and loopholes for the forest industry to continue business as usual.

“This [wolf cull] is a drastic, over-the-top bloodbath,” Thompson says. “And they haven’t even done the minimal amount of habitat control that they promised to do in the last recovery plan.”

“We know damn well that the caribou need habitat and, as we talk, they are logging their habitat.” https://t.co/YVTyet6upO

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) February 19, 2018

Too little, too late

While some of the larger herds, such as the Columbia North herd, may still have time to recover, given significant measures are taken to restore their habitat, it may be too late for some herds.

“We’re now in the position where we’ve waited too long,” says Hannah Barron, conservation director at Wolf Awareness. “So now it seems that we’re trying to stem the decline [of caribou] rather than recover the species. It is kind of a last ditch attempt to make it look like they’re doing something, all the while habitat destruction continues.”

The government says predator to prey ratios need to be controlled to allow caribou herds to stop declining. To illustrate this point, the ministry highlights the South Peace region, where the caribou population in wolf control zones has increased from 166 to 192, an increase of 16 per cent since the wolf cull began. In contrast, in the South Peace areas where no wolf control has happened, adult mortality remains high and calf recruitment is low.

However, in the South Selkirk region, government scientists say in their 2017 wolf management report the program “is not demonstrating success in terms of increased caribou numbers.”

Sara Dubois from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC questions when the government will draw the line.

“Even if you remove wolves, there are other predators, there are cougars. Do you go in and remove all the cougars next? Where do you stop?” she asked.

Even the ministry’s own scientists acknowledge that wolf recovery from year to year has been so persistent that, “a very extensive effort will be required every year to continue to keep the wolf population low.”

World-leading authority on wolves Paul Paquet writes in his essay, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Wolf As Scapegoat: “Quite simply, people are the ultimate cause of caribou endangerment through the ongoing degradation imposed by our resource industries on caribou habitat… Yet, governments habitually favour the destruction of wolves over any consequential protection, enhancement or restoration of caribou habitat.”

Industry at the wheel

Some evidence as to what is driving this agenda can be gleaned from a single line in the review of last year’s wolf management plan, which reads: “Continued successful implementation of wolf control is seen as an essential step by industrial sectors, since significant habitat has already been set aside to help recover caribou.”

The ministry states that it has, “worked extensively with companies and sector organizations to advance caribou management and recovery.”

But Pettitt sees this statement as an admission that industry is influencing government policy. “That quote is by the industrial sectors. They’re driving the government. They’re saying, look, we’re not giving up any more habitat. You go out there and kill wolves.”

Last year, nearly 100 wolves were killed in the South Peace and South Selkirk areas combined. While ministry staff say it is difficult to predict how many wolves will be culled this year, their stated intention is, “to remove all wolves found in the treatment areas.”

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A forestry industry lobby group is working to undermine Canada’s plans to protect endangered caribou, according to several experts.

The campaign, ‘Caribou Facts,’ launched by the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), is designed to cast doubt on the science of caribou conservation.

Several caribou populations in Canada are listed as threatened or endangered under the Species At Risk Act, which means provincial and federal governments are legally required to protect habitat and develop recovery plans to avoid localized extinction.

Scientists have pinpointed habitat fragmentation, caused by things like oil and gas activity, seismic lines, forestry and hydroelectric development, as the leading cause of caribou declines.

“We know more about caribou than almost any other species in Canada,” says Mark Hebblewhite, associate professor of ungulate habitat biology at the University of Montana.

John Bergenske, conservation director for Kootenay conservation group Wildsight, said the forestry industry is trying to shift emphasis away from habitat.

“But it all boils down to habitat,” Bergenske said. “There’s not a single scientific paper that won’t go back to that when you’re talking about caribou.”

Industry Campaign ‘Misrepresents’ Caribou Declines, Creates Doubt

The Caribou Facts website raises questions about the cause of caribou declines in Canada, sowing doubt that recovery plans are “based on sound science.”

Canadians are encouraged to sign a petition targeted to MPs with suggested text that reads, “I’m afraid that the wrong approach will do nothing for caribou and will kill thousands of Canadian jobs.”

Hebblewhite said the website “misrepresents” the causes of caribou decline, which are well known to the scientific community.

Screenshot/CaribouFacts website

“They are trying to create a sense of uncertainty,” he said. “Just like the anti-climate science lobbyists do: they want to say it’s too uncertain, we can’t do anything.”

“That’s complete bullshit,” Hebblewhite told DeSmog Canada. “It is disingenuous to anyone with half a brain.”

The forestry industry has tried to move the government’s focus away from the issue of caribou recovery to that of job losses, Bergenske said.

“It is a really unfortunate ploy.”

The Forest Products Association of Canada told DeSmog Canada a spokesperson could not be made available to comment on this story.

ICYMI: Oilsands Companies Scramble to Reclaim Seismic Lines in Endangered Caribou Habitat

Carolyn Campbell, conservation expert with the Alberta Wilderness Association, said the Caribou Facts campaign represents a “big step back” for the industry group when it comes to caribou recovery.

The Caribou Facts website seems to undermine the Forest Product Association’s own commitment in 2012 to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement and their own methodology for how to move forward together on caribou recovery, Campbell told DeSmog Canada.

“At that time they recognized loss of habitat as the key driver of caribou loss.”

According to provincial estimates, caribou in Alberta are disappearing at a rate of about eight per cent per year due to habitat loss from energy and forestry development, which in turn increases the reach of predators like wolves into caribou habitat. A total of 96 per cent of the critically endangered Littly Smoky caribou range is within 500 metres of human development.*

ICYMI: Wolves Scapegoated While Alberta Government Sells Off Endangered Caribou Habitat

ICYMI: Alberta to Sell More Oil and Gas Leases in Endangered Caribou Habitat

Campbell said the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement resulted in deferred logging in caribou ranges, although she adds, some recent studies of mapping show those deferrals weren’t always honoured.

Critical caribou habitat in British Columbia has also suffered continued industrial incursion.

As DeSmog Canada reported in April, the B.C. government granted permits to Canfor, a member of the Forest Products Association of Canada, to log in critical mountain caribou habitat.

The permits were granted to Canfor despite the provincial government’s knowledge mountain caribou are at risk of extinction and the company’s own commitment to avoid logging in critical habitat for species at risk.

Canfor engaged in clear-cut logging near Wells Gray Provincial Park while locals appealed to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna for an emergency stop-work order and an enforcement of federal Species At Risk laws.

Campaign Targets Minister at Critical Time

Species at risk are listed by the federal government on the recommendation of the non-governmental Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Once listed those species are then subject to a recovery goal that identifies critical habitat. In 2012 the federal government laid out a goal of 65 per cent undisturbed habitat in caribou ranges — a target provinces must now work into provincial recovery plans.

Those plans were due on Oct. 5 — but the vast majority of provinces failed to meet the deadline, prompting First Nations, environmental organizations and corporations to call on minister McKenna to intervene at the federal level.

The September roll-out of the ‘Caribou Facts’ campaign was timed to influence the minister, Hebblewhite said.

ICYMI: Will Alberta’s Last-Ditch Effort to Save the Caribou Be Enough?

“In the U.S. the Endangered Species Act includes an analysis of the socio-economic impacts of the Act. So that’s where industry meddling occurs, that’s where you’ll see industry lobbying,” he said.

But when Canada drafted the Species At Risk Act, it was designed to focus on biology, rather than economics.

“At no time during these phases are socio-economic influences considered. It’s meant to be a scientific analysis.”

Once recovery plans are developed, provinces are able to move into the action planning phase, which is where Canada is now with incoming range plans, Hebblewhite said.

Minister McKenna will take until April 2018 to evaluate provincial and territorial plans.

“The minister now has the right to consider socio-economic concerns,” Hebblewhite said. “So that is why we’re seeing this industry campaign now. The minister is the main audience here.”

*This article was updated to specifiy 96 per cent of the Little Smoky caribou range is within 500 metres of human disturbance, rather than all caribou habitat.

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Forestry giant Canfor is logging critical habitat for mountain caribou, recent video footage reveals.

The company, which donated just shy of $1 million to the BC Liberal Party, has proceeded with clearcuts in the Upper Clearwater Valley, near Wells Gray Provincial Park, despite a legal application for an emergency stop-work order currently under review by federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and a commitment by the company not to log critical habitat for species at risk.

The video, which includes drone footage of a large-scale clearcut on the western slopes of the Clearwater Valley, was made public by the Wilderness Committee.

“We were shocked to see this huge logging operation smack-dab in the critical habitat zone of this threatened species,” said Joe Foy, the organization’s national campaign director.

The area is the subject of an April 7 legal application to the federal government under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA) for an emergency order to ban Canfor’s proposed logging in caribou habitat. Filed by lawyer Bill Andrews on behalf of concerned local and B.C. groups, the application argues that logging permits issued to Canfor by the former BC Liberal government are located in federally designated critical habitat for mountain caribou, which are listed as “endangered” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and “threatened” under SARA.

Endangered Caribou Habitat Clearcut During B.C. Election Uncertainty https://t.co/T4qkgklPsM #bcpoli #cdnpoli @cathmckenna @GeorgeHeyman pic.twitter.com/PDseEwK2ri

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) July 26, 2017

The application has been under review by the Canadian Wildlife Service for three and a half months. Staff there are preparing a report for the minister on whether there is an “imminent threat to the recovery of the Wells Gray caribou herd,” Andrews has been told.

“The next step will be for the minister to decide whether to recommend that the federal cabinet make an emergency order to stop the proposed logging,” Andrews added.

Panorama of logging in the Upper Clearwater Valley. Image: Courtesy, Wilderness Comittee.

On the provincial front, Andrews is heartened by the results of the recent election, as both the BC NDP and Greens have campaigned for species at risk legislation.

The mandate letter for George Heyman, the new Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, stated that one of Heyman’s priorities is to “enact an endangered species law and harmonize other laws to ensure they are all working towards the goal of protecting our beautiful province.”

While the transfer of power dragged on in Victoria and federal bureaucrats were taking their time studying the caribou issue, Canfor ploughed ahead with its controversial logging. This work even violates the company’s own commitments by CEO Don Kayne to the B.C. Special Committee on Timber Supply in 2012:

• Canfor does not support actions that would overturn landscape objectives set through public planning processes unless there is full public consultation and support.
• We will not support actions that impact parks, riparian areas or areas that provide critical habitat for species at risk, or other important environmental values such as biodiversity and old growth.

REFERRAL GROUP CANFOR Don Kayne Remarks Special Committee by DeSmog Canada on Scribd

The above logging contradicts both promises. The local Referral Group — officially designated to represent the concerns of the community regarding logging plans in the region — has steadfastly opposed this logging, as has the Wells Gray Gateway Protection Society. Moreover, the area in question is designated Type 2 Matrix critical habitat for mountain caribou by the federal government.

While mountain caribou don’t inhabit the Upper Clearwater Valley directly today, its forests are recognized as vital to the survival of caribou in terms of predator management. When Type 2 Matrix habitat is logged, it is replaced by early seral forest, which is a mixture of brush and young deciduous shrubs and trees like willow, alder, and poplar. This is poor habitat for caribou but ideal for other ungulates.

“By clearcutting these areas, you increase the deer and moose population, who feed on the new growth,” explains Foy. “That in turn attracts wolves, which kill caribou.”

Wolves don’t naturally prefer caribou, but they will eat them when the opportunity arises. Given their ability to travel up to 100 km a day, wolves can easily access caribou herds a long way away from these clearcuts.

The mountain caribou herd known as Wells Grey South has plummeted from about 320 animals in 1994 to 120 today. The same disturbing trend is occurring across southern B.C., where caribou are being driven to the brink of extinction, despite the province spending millions of dollars on helicopter wolf kills, with 163 wolves shot in 2016 and likely more to be killed this year.

“No scientific evidence has ever been published showing that killing wolves can help recover caribou populations,” explains lichenologist and local resident Trevor Goward. “That’s because cull programs don’t get to the root of the problem: habitat loss from logging and other industrial activities, which drive the increased predation.”

The Clearwater River. Courtesy, Wilderness Committee.

Mountain caribou are a unique subset of woodland caribou, seen only in southern B.C. today. They depend on old-growth and mature forests for food and predator avoidance. Over thousands of years, they evolved the practice, unique among all caribou, of heading to high alpine country in the winter to avoid wolves and cougars. There, they subsist on black hair lichens that hang from subalpine fir and spruce.

Despite the area being federally designated as critical habitat for caribou, the site plan for Block B131, where this footage of Canfor’s recent logging was captured, makes no mention of caribou under the “Wildlife” section of the plan. Instead, it states:

“The block is not within critical deer winter range or moose habitat…no critical wildlife features were found during development of this block.”

Canfor Logging Plans B131 Specs by DeSmog Canada on Scribd

Canfor representatives declined to comment for this story.

On July 16, Canfor suspended local logging operations due to forest fire activity in the region, but indicated last Friday on its Facebook page that it intended to reopen its Vavenby Mill and logging in the region on Monday July 24.

As the smoke clears, tensions over caribou issues and logging are likely to resume. A recent Facebook post from the Wells Gray Gateway Protection Society noted construction work on Road 80, which could be laying the groundwork for more logging, this time at Block T121, on the east side of the valley, for which Canfor received a permit from the BC Liberal government earlier this year.

But with a decision on an emergency order banning logging expected soon from the federal government and new provincial leadership committed to protecting endangered species, the clock may now be ticking for Canfor’s logging operations in critical habitat for endangered caribou.

Main Image: David Moskowitz

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