Ontario government stonewalls protection for national park wolves
From Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Wildlands League
Chapter
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Increased hunting, roadkills and loss of habitat likely impacts of
new
logging road along Pukaskwa National Park boundary
Wolves and other sensitive wildlife that inhabit Ontario’s largest
national
park are being jeopardized by the Ontario government’s approval of a
logging road, warns a coalition of environmental organizations. A
provincial logging road network to be built along the northern boundary of
Pukaskwa National Park will run directly through the territories of four
of the park’s wolf packs and across habitat critical to the recovery of
threatened woodland caribou populations.
“We are asking the provincial government to reconsider its plan to
chop up
this intact wild forest by allowing a series of logging roads that
could
have a devastating impact on wildlife and the ecology of this
magnificent
park,” says Albert Koehl, a lawyer with the Sierra Legal Defence
Fund.
Pukaskwa is a 1,880 square-kilometre protected wilderness area
located on
the shore of Lake Superior, roughly 100 kilometres west of Wawa,
Ontario.
On behalf of the Canadian Nature Federation, the Canadian Parks and
Wilderness Society and its Wildlands League and Ottawa Valley
chapters,
Earthroots, and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Sierra Legal
today
filed requests for both federal and provincial environmental
assessments of
the road plan.
National Park staff have voiced deep concern over public access to
these new
roads, which will come to within 500 metres of the park. The
province,
however, refused to incorporate conditions that would reduce the
potentialdanger. “Park wolf populations have been steadily declining,
largely as a result of hunting and road collisions,” notes Melissa
Tkachyk, wilderness campaigner for Earthroots. “With these new roads, and
in the absence of any laws to limit how many wolves can be shot or snared
in Ontario, the result is likely to be tragic,” Tkachyk adds.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources’ refusal to even consider the very
reasonable precautions requested by national park staff baffles us,” says
Evan Ferrari, Parks Program director for CPAWS-Wildlands League.
“We need better forest management outside parks to conserve large
mammals
like wolves that range across park boundaries,” says Jean Langlois,
executive director of CPAWS-Ottawa Valley. Last fall CPAWS-Ottawa
Valley and
Sierra Legal Defence Fund identified Pukaskwa National Park as a
problem
area for wolves in an application filed under Ontario’s
Environmental Bill
of Rights to urge the creation of an Ontario wolf conservation
policy.
Both the Panel on the Ecological Integrity of National Parks and the
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario have warned that Pukaskwa’s
ecosystems
are already being stressed to the breaking point by surrounding land uses
and activities. “Under these circumstances, the only reasonable approach
is to stop any further development of this road network until there is a
full assessment of the impacts on the park’s ecology, including its wolf
populations,” concludes Marc Johnson, manager of protection campaigns of
Canadian Nature Federation.
For more information, contact:
Evan Ferrari
Director of Parks and Protected Areas Program
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Wildlands League
Chapter
ferrari@wildlandsleague.org
Web site:
http://www.wildlandsleague.org