Caribou recovery strategy does little to protect northeast herd

Hope that a federal judge’s decision would force help for woodland caribou in northeastern Alberta was dashed late August when Environment Canada released its draft Caribou Recovery Strategy.

“It doesn’t put anything in place. Basically it just caters to industry and goes to show the federal government and the provincial government both walk hand-in-hand with industry when it comes to development in those areas,” said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

The Athabasca Chipewyan were joined by Beaver Lake Cree Nation and Enoch Cree Nation, along with environmental groups Pembina Institute and Alberta Wilderness Association, in forcing the government’s hand in federal court.

“It is important to note that the federal recovery strategy is making the northeast Alberta herds its last priority,” said Melilssa Gorrie, legal counsel for EcoJustice, which represents the environmental groups.

The strategy has taken what Gorrie considers an unusual approach in ranking the herds. The caribou in northeastern Alberta fall under the “grey” category so planning for their recovery won’t start until 2013.

The Lower Athabasca Regional Plan, announced a few days after the release of the federal recovery strategy, also offers little help for the woodland caribou. No new caribou habitat has been set out for protection under LARP and the biodiversity management framework will be a two-year process to identify key areas of habitat to maintain and areas to restore. According to timelines set out by LARP, action for woodland caribou habitat won’t happen until early 2014 if there is no delay in LARP being passed into legislation.

The federal government’s recovery strategy is four years overdue. In 2002 the woodland caribou was assessed as a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act.
In 2007, the federal government developed a draft recovery strategy, which was never publicly released, said Gorrie. That is the strategy Gorrie would have liked to have seen the government remain with.

“That draft … was something good. It was based on sound science and required protection of the current ranges of all the herds in the country and that’s what the science said was needed to assure the recovery or survival of the species,” said Gorrie. “I’ve seen 2011 documents on caribou and (this new strategy) can’t be based on science.”

Adam sees both the federal and provincial government’s lack of support for habitat for the woodland caribou as a nod to industry.

“In my point of view, the woodland caribou in the area where the development zone is, is just a thorn in the back foot. They would rather do away with that problem than try to rectify the whole thing,” he said.

The federal government is accepting comments on the woodland caribou recovery plan over the next two months. Adam said he would be offering up comments and Gorrie expected her clients would be, too.

Meanwhile, Adam and Gorrie’s clients will be looking at further action if the next draft of the recovery plan doesn’t reflect full habitat support for the woodland caribou.

“We’ll put up a roadblock,” said Adam. “Sometimes when you’re pushed to a corner and you’re pushed too hard, some thing has just got to give somewhere. Maybe enough is enough. And where it goes from there, it goes.”