Threats to Mountain Caribou
Logging Number one threat to caribou
Scientists agree that habitat alteration is the leading cause of mountain caribou declines. However the BC government has done little to reverse the habitat loss, and continues to authorize logging across nearly 60,000 hectares of mountain caribou habitat. Conservation groups have repeatedly asked for a moratorium on logging in caribou habitat until a provincial recovery plan is completed and implemented. But the government has responded only by asking the timber industry for voluntary logging deferrals, with very mixed results. Ironically, the taxpayer-owned BC Timber Sales program (BCTS) is one of the top three loggers of remaining mountain caribou habitat. The largest logger of mountain caribou habitat is West Fraser Timber.
Who is Logging Caribou Habitat?
Numbers taken from Staring At Extinction, published in May 2005 by the Mountain Caribou Project; available at www.mountaincaribou.org. More recent analysis (December 2005) showed West Fraser to have 33,553 ha of planned cut-blocks in mountain caribou range. Tembec Inc. is theoretically 5th in area with 2,775 ha of cut-blocks approved, but the company has agreed to moratoria on all cut-blocks within mountain caribou habitat except where mountain pine beetle infestation is extensive, and to not build roads anywhere in mountain caribou habitat.
| West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd | 19,274 ha (33,553 ha) |
| Tolko Industries Ltd | 6,810 ha |
| BC Timber Sales | 6,762 ha |
| Federated Cooperatives Ltd | 3,958 ha |
| Louisiana Pacific Ltd | 2,971 ha |
| Pope & Talbot Ltd | 2,168 ha |
| Springer Creek Forest Products Ltd | 1,762 ha |
Wolf (Art Wolfe)
Predation
Aren’t the wolves to blame?
Misinformed arguments have blamed predators – wolves, cougars and bears – for the decline in mountain caribou. Some say the solution is to “control” or “manage” these predators, through killing or sterilization. But it’s not that simple. While caribou scientists agree that predation is the major immediate threat to mountain caribou, habitat loss through alteration is the ultimate cause. Habitat alteration disrupts the conditions under which mountain caribou, and other species including predators, have co-evolved.
Clear-cuts attract deer, elk and moose because for a few years after logging there is more food for them (low shrubs and herbs). This brings these animals — and their predators — closer to mountain caribou habitat. Historically, it was not energy efficient for predators to rely on caribou as a main food source, since caribou spread themselves throughout the forest at relatively low densities. But as the ranges of deer and moose expand, predators are encountering and killing caribou more frequently. Scientists stress that the only way to protect and recover mountain caribou is to protect sufficient old-growth forest habitat and to restore a predator-prey system that does not disadvantage the caribou.
Recreation
Too many motors
The critical winter range of mountain caribou overlaps considerably with backcountry recreation activities such as helicopter skiing, snow-cat skiing, and snowmobiling. Technological advances and unregulated access has led to more and more people spending their winter play time in endangered mountain caribou habitat. Commercial recreation enterprises have unprecedented access to BC’s wilderness. This adds additional stress to an animal that is already being squeezed by habitat fragmentation, at a time of the year when it is most vulnerable because of the increased energy demands of winter. Instead of regulating BC’s back-country recreation industries and setting clear, enforceable standards, the BC government has relied on voluntary “best management practices” to reduce impacts to caribou. Additionally, as recently as December 2005, the BC government continues to grant helicopter ski tenures in critical winter mountain caribou habitat, despite protests from independent and government biologists.
Bark Beetles
Little beetles spell big trouble
Recent large-scale outbreaks of mountain pine and spruce bark beetles in many areas of BC have prompted aggressive logging activities. In many forest stands, including critical mountain caribou habitat, the war against beetles involves use of clear-cut, selection, and salvage logging, as well as the construction of new roads. This puts added pressure on mountain caribou: lichen-bearing trees are lost, other ungulates and their predators are drawn to new cut-blocks and roads, and increased access is created for backcountry recreationists.
The few legislated measures that are in place to protect caribou habitat still allow entry into undeveloped areas when beetles are deemed to be a problem. Giving these activities priority within caribou habitat must stop. After all, standing dead and fallen trees provide essential lichen food sources for caribou. A healthy forest requires dead trees, and healthy forested landscapes periodically contain entire stands of dead trees.
