British Columbia’s government has been
meeting with the forest industry to develop plans to save endangered
caribou, and the province appears to have launched its controversial
wolf cull program to avoid putting further restrictions on logging.
The
wolf kill, which started last January, has drawn international
condemnation from environmentalists, but the B.C. government has
defended it as necessary to save dwindling caribou populations. Mountain
caribou, which need old-growth forest to survive, are listed under the
federal Species At Risk Act (SARA), and the province is required to take
action to save them.
But briefing notes prepared for meetings
between B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak and industry
representatives in 2014 suggest the government was prompted by the
forest industry to launch the wolf cull because of fears a federal
recovery plan for caribou would demand more logging areas be set aside.
“Tolko
[Industries Ltd.] is concerned about potential impacts of the federal
recovery strategy for the woodland caribou,” says one of the notes,
released in response to a Freedom of Information application. Ottawa’s
recovery strategy states that caribou need large tracts of “undisturbed
habitat rich in mature to old-growth coniferous forest.” It is up to the
province to decide how much forest land to set aside. Environmentalists
have long complained that B.C. has not made enough old-growth forest
off limits to logging.
At the time of
Ms. Polak’s meetings, the B.C. government’s mountain caribou recovery
implementation program, known as MCRIP, had already set aside some
forest land, established a captive breeding program for caribou and
limited recreational snowmobile access in caribou areas. But a proposed
wolf cull had not yet been launched.
“Actions
within the MCRIP have largely been implemented with the exception of
effectively managing wolf populations. Industry has criticized
government for failing to effectively implement this recovery action,
and will be very reluctant to forgo additional harvesting opportunities
to meet any additional habitat targets imposed by the federal recovery
strategy,” states a briefing note from April, 2014.
B.C.’s wolf cull began several months later.
The
briefing notes also show that the forest industry and government were
interested “in aligning strategies with respect to dealing with the
federal government” on the caribou issue.
One
entry states that the province’s caribou plan “had been ‘tested’ with
numerous high-level stakeholders, including the Council of Forest
Industries,” which represents forestry companies in B.C., before it was
posted for public comment.
Wilderness
Committee director Gwen Barlee, who filed the FOI application that pried
the documents loose, said she is alarmed by how closely the government
and the forest industry appear to have been working.
“Are
we having the B.C. government write recovery strategies for species at
risk, or are we having logging companies writing recovery strategies for
species at risk?” she asked.
“A
recovery strategy is supposed to be a document created by science,” Ms.
Barlee said. “Obviously, the recovery strategies are becoming polluted
with the economic interests of logging companies ... and that is not
supposed to be the case.”
Sean Nixon, a lawyer with Ecojustice, also found the government briefing notes disturbing.
“This
looks like the forest industry in B.C. is either directing the
government’s policy on species at risk where that might affect timber
harvesting, or at a minimum the provincial government is running the
policy by the forest industry to make sure that it’s okay with them.
Either is troubling,” he said.
If a
provincial government does not “effectively protect” any endangered
species listed under SARA, Ottawa can impose regulations on provincial
land. Given B.C.’s approach so far, which seems more concerned about
logging interests than the needs of caribou, the federal government may
have to do just that.
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