Moratorium needed to save Mountain Caribou

LETTER — An Open letter to Don Kayne, CEO Canfor
and Mary Polak, Minister of Environment for B.C.

We teach Thompson Rivers University, where we have told hundreds of students, in many courses, about Mountain Caribou. They provide a classic example of a species endangered by human activity, and are the focus of lectures on the effects of habitat fragmentation, among other topics.

 

We are now writing on their behalf: they have declined at an alarming rate – 30% since 2002 – and are now an endangered species.

In a letter to the Vancouver Sun (16 July 2012), you, Mr. Kayne, portrayed Canfor as a progressive corporation, dedicated to upholding its social contract with British Columbians: “Canfor will not support actions that overturn landscape objectives set through public planning processes unless there is full public consultation and support. We will not support actions that impact parks or critical habitat for species at risk.”

These words are difficult to reconcile with plans by Canfor Vavenby to conduct extensive salvage logging beside Wells Gray Park this summer. These plans bring Canfor directly into conflict with your stated commitments to public process, to parks, and to species at risk—especially Mountain Caribou.

Mountain Caribou need oldgrowth forests. Since the 1960s, clearcutting has reduced their winter forage and increased predation by wolves and cougar. Despite this, some biologists are cautiously optimistic that regenerated, aging forests in southern Wells Gray may trigger recovery of the park’s currently-dwindling caribou population– which is unlikely to occur elsewhere. In these times of economic uncertainty and deepening climate change, it seems reasonable to expect decision makers to think hard about cause and effect.

Given Canfor’s pledge not to act in ways likely to adversely affect endangered species, we must assume that you, Mr. Kayne, are unaware of your Vavenby planner’s proposal — or of its impact on caribou.

In fact, the area planned for logging should be added to Wells Gray Park, not logged. We thus call upon you, Mary Polak, B.C. Minister of Environment, to establish a moratorium on industrial timber extraction in the southern Clearwater Valley north of Spahats Creek until such time as a comprehensive, provincewide discussion on best use can be undertaken.

NANCY FLOOD & LYN BALDWIN

TRU Faculty

Kamloops