Wells Gray BC, December 19, 2012 – The threatened Mountain Caribou – kin to Santa’s reindeer – is about to get even more threatened if forestry giant Canadian Forest Products is allowed to log in the Upper Clearwater Valley adjacent to Wells Gray Provincial Park.
A pending proposal by Canfor to salvage log beetle-killed Lodgepole Pine near Wells Gray would not only kibosh any spontaneous recovery for the park’s resident Mountain Caribou might have in store, it would also further stress a herd already in serious decline.
That’s the message recently sent in a letter to Mr. Terry Lake, B.C. Minister of Environment, by the Wells Gray World Heritage Committee (WGWHC), a group dedicated to furthering the candidacy of British Columbia’s fourth largest wilderness park for designation as a World Heritage Site.
WGWHC challenged Mr. Lake to step up to his moral obligation as B.C.’s minister responsible for Mountain Caribou recovery by establishing a moratorium on industrial logging in this valley two hours north of Kamloops.
“Until now we hadn’t understood just how rapidly Wells Gray’s southern caribou herd is declining,” said Trevor Goward, spokesperson for WGWHC. “The news is appalling. In 2002, the herd consisted of about 325 animals. Today, ten years later, the population has declined by about one-third; only 200 animals are left”.
In a news release earlier this year, the group had called attention to the likelihood that the Wells Gray herd would soon undergo a degree of “spontaneous recovery,” as 90,000 ha destroyed by fire in the early 20th century now begins to transition to oldgrowth, a key requirement for Mountain Caribou.
According to best science, industrial logging in the Clearwater Valley adjacent to the park will create winter forage favourable to deer and moose. This in turn will support enhanced numbers of their main predators, wolves and cougar, thereby putting the Parks Mountain Caribou at greater risk of predation.
Contact:
Trevor Goward
(UBC Curator of Lichens)
Enlichened Consulting Ltd.
Ph: 1-250-674-2553
http://wellsgrayworldheritage.ca/
Open Letter to Terry Lake, B.C. Minister of Environment
As you are aware, Canfor is proposing to salvage log in the Clearwater Valley adjacent to Wells Gray Park.
This is unfortunate from several perspectives. Here I will focus on the impact logging is likely to have on Wells Gray’s Mountain Caribou. As Mountain Caribou are kin to the reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh, this seems a not inappropriate subject to broach at Christmas time.
Of all the world’s reindeer, the Mountain Caribou alone is able to survive in regions of deep winter snow. Here it pads around in winter on snowshoe-like hooves, and gets by on a diet of hair lichens hanging from the branches of trees. Virtually all of these animals live in southern interior B.C., especially the Columbia Mountains and adjacent highlands.
Mountain Caribou are clearly in trouble. The latest estimate puts the total population at 1700 individuals, down from 2500 in 1995. In 2002, they received federal listing as globally threatened. In 2007, the B.C. government responded to concerns for their future by setting aside 2.2 million hectares of critical habitat.
The Wells Gray herd is likewise declining. In 2002, an estimated 325 Mountain Caribou roamed southern Wells Gray, while today the herd has shrunk to about 200. Despite this downward trend, some biologists are now cautiously optimistic that this herd may undergo a degree of spontaneous recovery over the next few decades: part of a natural cycle related to forest succession, and unlikely to occur elsewhere.
Different from moose and deer, which thrive in young forests, Mountain Caribou need oldgrowth. In the past, wildfire would have been the primary factor restricting their distribution, though today the main limitation is industrial forestry.
An ever-increasing prevalence of clearcuts works against caribou in various ways. In essence, however, a regenerating clearcut means more winter browse, which in turn means more moose and deer, which in turn means more large predators, especially wolves and cougar. The end result is a level of predation the Mountain Caribou did not evolve with and is unable to withstand.
Early last century, a series of large wildfires swept through what is now southern Wells Gray and adjacent portions of the Clearwater Valley, burning about 90,000 ha of forest. This was catastrophic for the Mountain Caribou. The loss of so much oldgrowth, and its subsequent replacement by young forests over an area three times the size of the Bowron clearcut, precipitated a major population collapse starting in about 1935.
Today, however, these same forests have reached maturity and will soon begin the gradual transition to oldgrowth. What this means for moose and deer (and their predators) is less habitat; but for Mountain Caribou it means more space to roam in, hence fewer encounters with wolves and cougar.
The fact that Wells Gray’s caribou continue to decline even as their habitat improves is alarming. Various explanations are possible, but the most likely one is that the resident predator population is now periodically being added to by wolves and cougar from heavily logged areas outside the Clearwater Valley. If so, then the situation, though serious, is probably time-limited; it should gradually resolve as the clearcuts regenerate.
In any event, the worst thing that could happen to Wells Gray’s caribou at this time would be increased predation from wolves and cougar originating within the Clearwater Valley. Unfortunately this is precisely what Canfor’s proposed activity here would unwittingly achieve.
The fact is, most of the proposed cut blocks are situated in an area of low snowfall and hence high potential as winter habitat for moose and deer forced south out of the park by heavy snows. Introducing clearcuts in this portion of the valley will not only return forest succession to an early stage, it will also set the stage for even higher levels of predation than the Wells Gray herd currently faces.
That the B.C. government has accepted provincial, national and international responsibility for recovery of the Mountain Caribou is well and good. Still the question must be asked: if a vast wilderness park like Wells Gray is unable to sustain a viable population of Mountain Caribou, then where else?
In the past the B.C. government has twice seen fit to extend Wells Gray southward: once in the mid 50s, and again in the mid 90s. The Mountain Caribou played a major role in both decisions. Possibly the time has come to adjust the park’s boundaries once again, in this case finally completing the park by making it ecologically self-sustaining. According to best science on the Mountain Caribou and its habitat needs, this would be a huge step to recovery for the Wells Gray Herd.
The Wells Gray World Heritage Committee joins me in calling upon you, Terry Lake, to establish a moratorium on industrial logging in the Clearwater Valley. As B.C.’s Minister of Environment, you have a moral responsibility to act in the best interests of Mountain Caribou and other threatened species. For your convenience, a detailed map of the proposed moratorium area map is available at the following link: http://www.wellsgrayworldheritage.ca/
Trevor Goward (spokesperson, Wells Gray World Heritage Committee)