Co-operation called for to save wolves
By Geneviève Svatek
Banff Crag & Canyon – Co-operation between neighbouring jurisdiction is
needed to ensure the survival of wolves in the central Rockies.
That was the consensus at the World Wolf Congress 2003 held in Banff on
the weekend (Sept. 25-27). Conservationists, scientists, ranchers and
hunters came together to discuss issues of wolf conservation.
But two key players were missing.
Several representatives from both the province of Alberta and British
Columbia declined invitations to attend the conference.
“The government is not engaging in public discussion,” said Carolyn
Callaghan, a scientist in the Central Rockies Wolf Project and congress
organizer.
The government will continue to be invited. “If we come together as a
group and say what we want. We may get agreement from the government,” she
said.
“What the government is scared of is a backlash if they take sides,” said
Glenn Brown, director of the Alberta Guide Outfitter Society. He urged
congress members to work together to form a plan.
“Government leaders are not leaders. They will go where we want them to
go,” said Jim Pissot, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada.
A management plan is necessary to conserve wolf populations, he said. Most
packs that summer in protected areas winter at lower elevations in
non-protected areas where the elk are, Pissot said.
Alberta has no cap on wolf limits. Many kills are unreported, and the
province does not have an approved management plan, Pissot said.
There is an increase of land use on crown land for seismic lines, oil and
gas and timber. As a result more people are using the network of roads
build for resource extraction for snowmobiling and four-wheeling, Pissot
said.
Finding solutions for the management plan won’t be easy, as ideas for
solutions vary between ranchers, hunters, trappers, scientists and
conservationists. Research findings differed among delegates at the
congress from the same area.
Brown argued wolves are the main cause of elk decline in the Central
Rockies. Elk hunts are a major source of income for many outfitters in
Alberta, he said.
“Wolf population reduction is for ungulate restoration. We need to restore
ungulates if we are going to restore wolf populations,” he said.
Mark Hebblewhite, a scientist who has studied elk populations near Ya-Ha
Tinda, on the northeast edge of Banff National Park, argued many factors
affect elk populations.
Disease, cougars and grizzlies are also equal factors affecting elk
mortality, he said.
“Wolves aren’t the only predators,” Hebblewhite said.
Pissot said wolves must be managed beyond park borders.
“If we are to conserve wolf populations we’re need to manage across
protected and non-protected areas, provincial, public and private land,”
Pissot said.