The provincial government announced new funding for caribou recovery programs on Feb. 1.
Premier Christy Clark announced $27 million in funding for a “comprehensive caribou recovery program” while attending a natural resources forum.
“We’re taking action to protect the long-term survival of the woodland caribou,” said Premier Clark in a statement. “We’ve already invested millions of dollars and set aside critical habitat, but stronger action is required to reverse population declines, and ensure that our children and grandchildren have the opportunity to experience these animals in the wild.”
According to the province, the funding will support a “comprehensive program” based on five components:
- Critical caribou habitat protection and restoration
- Maternal penning
- Predator management
- Research and monitoring
- Increased compliance and enforcement
“Caribou recovery is complicated by numerous factors including habitat alteration, climate change, increased predation and competition from moose, deer and elk,” said Minister of Forests and Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Steve Thomson. “By investing $8 million this year, and another $19 million over the next two years, B.C. is making a clear statement that it is serious about caribou recovery.”
The announcement said that additional maternal penning projects like the one north of Revelstoke are being “contemplated.”
Today there are some 19,000 caribou in the province, compared to between 30,000 and 40,000 at the turn of the last century.
Two conservation programs that have been supportive of aspects of the provincial government programs were quick to issue a media release supporting the announcement.
Wildsight and Conservation Northwest welcomed Premier Christy Clark’s announcement in a statement.
“It’s clear that a multifaceted approach to caribou recovery is necessary as efforts to date have failed to stop the decline in caribou numbers across the province,” said John Bergenske of Wildsight. “There is a lot of work to be done to ensure critical habitat is protected and impacted areas are allowed to recover.”
In their statement, the Mountain Caribou Recovery Progress Board stakeholders noted the Progress Board has been critical of “funding shortfalls that have limited recovery efforts and has called for the province to make use of all available tools to ensure successful recovery of caribou populations.”
The environmental groups are calling for the additional use of tools such as excluding logging and road building from critical habitat, restrictions on commercial and public motorized recreation, targeted predator-prey control measures and maternal penning to increase calf survival.
The board has also recommended a captive breeding program, such as the Revelstoke Caribou Rearing in the Wild project.
In a statement, Joe Scott of Conservation Northwest called for increased efforts in combination with the new funding. “The science is crystal clear that caribou population declines are tightly correlated with significant landscape-level changes to old-growth forest habitat, which have led to increased predation and other stressors. We expect this new commitment by the province to support additional habitat protection, tightly-controlled predator-prey control programs, monitoring of impacts, and enforcement of regulations on recreational use.
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