by John Boivin
The Valhalla Wilderness Society wants to know if the government is planning a wolf cull in the Revelstoke area based on the recommendations of a report the environmental group says is fatally flawed.
The Society wrote to the ministers of Environment and Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations in December. VWS said it obtained a copy of a leaked report recommending a wolf and bear cull in the Revelstoke-Shuswap, in order to save the Southern Mountain caribou herds in the area.
Southern Mountain caribou range has small but scattered herds over a vast area from the Peace River region to the US border. While many populations are healthy, the caribou generally are considered endangered- numbers are down from 40,000 a century ago to 19,00 today.
The Southern Mountain herds are feeling the most pressure.While one subpopulation has stabilized in the Shushwap-Revelstoke area, two others are on the brink of extinction.
The report, written by ecologist Dr. Robert Serrouya and Bruce McClellan, for the government’s Mountain Caribou Recovery Program, outlines the continuing decline of the mountain caribou. It says despite more habitat being under protection, the caribou face numerous pressures. It highlights old-growth forest harvesting and human backcountry activity as serious issues- but recommends a wolf cull to address the problem.
“Habitat protection alone cannot prevent extinction of mountain caribou in the short term, at least until the currently disturbed habitat has had time to recover,’ the report says, “So direct and indirect management of predators is needed in the short term to avoid further population decline.”
The consultants recommend “two to three packs” of wolves on the west side of Lake Revelstoke would be targeted for the cull. The number of cougars would also be reduced.
Valhalla Wilderness Society Director Craig Pettitt says the group received the report anonymously, and has published it online. Pettit says the Society wants to know if the government is going to act on the reports recommendations.
“We haven’t heard anything directly on the report,” despite asking for clarification more than a month ago, says Pettitt. “It is probably still being considered. We haven’t heard thru the grapevine of the government sanctioning the hunt.”
The government report also says if logging in these areas can be further reduced, then the habitat conditions for these species will improve “and less intensive management of the predator‐prey system will be needed”.
“The tragedy is that there is a big question whether there is enough intact mountain caribou habitat left in this area to support the caribou even if all the wolves, cougars, deer and moose were annihilated,” says Pettitt. “The killing of these animals simply represents the loss of more of the area’s wildlife to gratify human greed and pleasure at all costs.”
The VWS says because the report ‘lacks scientific rigor and overestimates the prospects of saving the herds by slaughtering their predators”, it should be rejected by government.
A government official told thenelsondaily.com that ministry staff are reviewing the report and its recommendations at this time.
Other environmental organizations have also condemned the report’s recommendations, including the Humane Society International/Canada, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Wolf Awareness Inc, and a dozen other groups.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday BC Premier Christy Clark announced the government plans to spend $27 million on protecting and boosting mountain caribou numbers. The money, to be spent over the next three years, will go to protecting habitat, maternal penning, research, enforcement and predator management.
“We are taking the necessary steps to protect caribou habitat and working to ensure that economic development activities can continue without compromising caribou recovery efforts,” Environment Minister Mary Polack said in a news release.