Manitoba’s threatened caribou herds at increased risk from proposed developments in the pristine...
East Shore Wilderness
Majestic Woodland Caribou. Photo credit: Terry Parker
The woodland caribou is a spectacular icon of Canadian wilderness, ranging from the wildlands of northern British Columbia all the way to Newfoundland. Caribou are known as an indicator species — wherever there are healthy caribou populations, there are vast and unbroken boreal forests. But many of Canada’s caribou populations are facing significant threats.
Already, industrial development has fragmented and destroyed too much habitat. In Manitoba, the provincial government estimates that half of the original woodland caribou population has disappeared from the landscape, largely due to human disturbances. In May 2000 the Manitoba government released the Woodland Caribou Conservation Strategy, which stated that to maintain present caribou populations in the province “Habitat considered critical for the continued viability of a woodland caribou range will be protected by legal designation. No development will occur within these protected areas.”
Sunset at Wanipigow. Photo credit: Steve Daniels.
Based on these criteria, no wilderness area in Manitoba is a better candidate for protection than the East Shore Wilderness Area, a roadless and wild expanse of boreal forest caribou habitat located on the east side of Lake Winnipeg (see map inside). It is world-renowned as a caribou sanctuary, with a land area larger than Greece. Caribou have roamed there in peace since ancient times.
Now that could all change. A provincial government–sponsored, but development–driven, landuse planning process called the East Side Planning Initiative is threatening this wilderness area. The Planning Initiative, which began holding public meetings in January 2001, has proposed beginning constructionof hundreds of kilometres of roads before the Planning Initiative is even complete. This proposed road network would be a disaster for the region’s woodland caribou, bringing in new industrial developments and increasing access for illegal hunting and for predators such as wolves.
“It is estimated that the (Manitoba) woodland caribou population has decreased by 50% since 1950.” Manitoba Government “Woodland Caribou in Manitoba” Report 1993.
How could this happen? Despite the ecological importance of the East Shore as a caribou refuge, protection of the caribou is not even being considered as a key objective of the Planning Initiative. The Manitoba government is proposing the same brand of “business as usual” development in the East Shore that has already wiped woodland caribou out of areas such as Whiteshell and Duck Mountain provincial parks. Clearcut logging is allowed in more than half the total area of these parks.
It’s time for Manitoba to set a conservation example for the rest of the country, rather than retain its status as conservation pariah. NDP Premier Doer must live up to his government’s commitment to protect woodland caribou by including it as a key objective in the East Side Planning Initiative. To save the caribou we must save their home – Manitoba’s East Shore Wilderness Area.
Facts about Canada’s Caribou
The Canadian lynx’s (left) preferred habitat is the old growth boreal forests that are imminently threatened by roads and industrial developments in the East Shore Wilderness. Photo credit: Don Sullivan.
The black-throated green warbler (below) is a colourful songbird that nests in Canada’s boreal forest. This distinctive bird inhabits larger tracts of forest and tends to avoid disturbed or edge habitats and small forest patches. Photo credit: Edgar T. Jones.
Pisew Falls (right) is Manitoba’s second highest waterfall. The surrounding caribou range in the northern part of the East Shore is considered by the Manitoba government as “high-risk” and in need of protection. Photo credit: Bill Granger
