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.

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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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Six B.C. mines pose threats to Alaska’s most productive salmon rivers and should be investigated by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, according to a coalition of conservation groups and Alaskan First Nations who are invoking legislation that says it is the Interior Department’s duty to investigate when foreign nationals may be affecting U.S conservation treaties.

A petition presented to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell suggests that B.C. mines close to the Taku, Stikine and Unuk watersheds diminish the effectiveness of two treaties that protect Pacific salmon, steelhead trout, grizzly bears and woodland caribou.

The treaties are the Convention for the Conservation of Anadromous Stocks in the North Pacific Ocean and the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere.

The coalition of U.S. and Canadian groups, including Earthjustice, the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group, Sierra Club of B.C., Craig Tribal Association, Friends of the Stikine Society and Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, are echoing a previous call by Alaska’s congressional delegation to refer the transboundary mines controversy to the International Joint Commission.

DeSmog Canada wrote a series on the transboundary tensions stirred up by B.C.’s mining ambitions last year.

Kenta Tsuda, Earthjustice associate attorney, said the petition provides another reason for the U.S. federal government to take action.

“Canadian authorities are letting these projects go ahead and the U.S. government is still waiting on the sidelines,” he said.

The six mines that the coalition says are endangering the rivers are:

– The Tulsequah Chief, which has leaked acid drainage for decades;

– Red Chris, which is owned by Imperial Metals, the same company that owns Mount Polley (where the collapse of a tailings dam sent mine waste and sludge flooding into local lakes and rivers);

– Schaft Creek;

– Galore Creek;

– Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM), which will tap into one of the largest gold and copper deposits in the world; and

– Brucejack.

Frederick Olsen Jr., United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group chairman, said it is time for Jewell to become involved in the problem as the federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to the tribes.

“The development and operation of the B.C. mines could severely impact life on the U.S. side of the border,” Olsen said.

“Already the Tulsequah Chief Mine has polluted the Taku watershed for decades.”

The petition to Jewell says all the mines involve large-scale infrastructure development and generate immense quantities of tailings and mine wastes, meaning water treatment will be required in perpetuity.

“The threats of acid-mine drainage and heavy metals pollution — not to mention catastrophic dam failures — will hang over the watersheds for centuries after the closure of the mines,” says a statement from the group.

A spokeswoman for Jewell’s office said she is aware of the situation and the petition.

Tsuda said the petition is being submitted under the 1971 Pelly Amendment, which does not define a timeline for a response, but which makes it clear the agency is required to act within a reasonable time.

“In this particular case, Secretary Jewell should respond promptly by undertaking an investigation of the six mines we describe. Not only because we believe the circumstances legally obligate the agency to do so, but also because so much is at stake for communities in southeast Alaska,” Tsuda said in an e-mailed response to DeSmog Canada.

Salmon from the rivers support local fishing businesses and First Nations.

“Commercial fishermen from Southeast Alaska also rely on these harvests, harvesting tens of millions of dollars worth of salmon from these three rivers annually. The watersheds collectively support hundreds of Alaskan workers and their families,” he said.

There have been recent precedents where the Secretary of the Interior has stepped in, such as in 2011 and then 2014 when the department concluded that Iceland’s whaling activities were undermining worldwide efforts to conserve whales and diminishing the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species. The U.S. federal government then instructed agencies to undertake diplomatic action to encourage Iceland to change its policies.

Image of Mount Polley mine disaster by Global News

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