Environment Minister Peter Kent is still refusing to issue an emergency order to protect Alberta’s woodland caribou, despite a court order last July asking him to in light of scientific evidence.
Kent has suggested that the existing recovery plan in Alberta will address the need of the species in that province. However, the plan has been heavily criticized for relying on shooting wolves, a natural predator of caribou, instead of protecting habitat from damaging industrial practices.
Kent was ordered in July to issue the emergency, but remained silent until environmental lawyers, representing a group of Alberta First Nations, filed a request with the court last week to force the minister to comply with the judge’s ruling.
Kent’s rationale for continuing to deny the emergency order is that some herds in Canada are sustainable, so losing herds in Alberta will not pose an immediate risk to the species across Canada. This is despite scientific evidence that more than 50% of woodland caribou herds are not self-sustaining and face risk of imminent extirpation, according to a 2009 Environment Canada report.
Science shows that habitat destruction is the main driver of caribou decline, not natural predation. Yet Kent prefers to rely on a strategy that kills wolves in the name of caribou protection. Wolves are a natural part of a healthy Boreal ecosystem, and culling them could cause a myriad of unintended ecological consequences. Moreover, it won’t actually save caribou from extinction in the long-run. By scapegoating wolves for the decline of caribou, Minister Kent is drawing attention away from the real caribou killer: the expansion of the tar sands.
It is likely that without immediate habitat protection, the species will be permanently extirpated in Alberta. The Canadian government, however, prefers to protect the interest of the tar sands instead of species at risk.
Tell Environment Minister Peter Kent to take real action to save caribou: by saving their habitat.