Suncor asked to have a heart for Alberta caribou at youth, environment and animal rights group rally

Source: Sierra Club Canada

(Calgary)  A rally is occurring today outside the head-office of tarsands giant Suncor Energy (TSX: SU) by youth, environmental and animal rights groups to deliver a “Suncor be our Valentine” card from Alberta’s threatened woodland caribou, and a letter from the groups asking Suncor to take action for their recovery.  The request includes immediate action to save the Little Smoky herd’s habitat.  For two years now, the Alberta Government has been describing that herd as being at immediate risk of extinction.  All caribou in Alberta are listed as threatened; at risk of extinction in the province.  The groups maintain Suncor is contributing to their demise through industrial transformation of caribou habitat and contributing to climate change.  The rally is being held by the University of Calgary EcoClub, West Athabasca Bioregional Society, Sierra Club of Canada, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) - Edmonton, Alberta Foothills Network, Voice for Animals Humane Society and Canadian Youth Climate Coalition.

The groups are insisting that Suncor “have a heart” for the threatened species by declaring support for legislated protected areas and deferrals of petroleum and timber development in Alberta’s 18 caribou ranges.  They are being asked to articulate that support to the Ministers of Sustainable Resource Development and Energy, and at the province’s caribou range teams, where Suncor is represented by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).  The groups want Suncor to demonstrate that heart through action on habitat protection where they have mineral leases, including in the tarsands region (Athabasca River herds) and their natural gas leases in west-central Alberta.  For the Little Smoky and A La Peche herds of west-central Alberta, they are specifically being asked to immediately defer their own development activities and support legislated protection of those two caribou ranges.

“We had hoped that Suncor as a member and signatory to the Boreal Leadership Council’s 2003 Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, would have shown leadership in caribou recovery, but the opposite has been the case,” says Eric Swanson for the EcoClub, which has adopted the Little Smoky herd as a cause for action.
Petroleum companies have planned upwards of 300 wells and access roads for this winter season in the four west-central caribou ranges, including that of the Little Smoky and A La Peche herds.  A similar rally at Houston based ConocoPhillips’ Canadian headquarters in December resulted in talks focused on action to save the Little Smoky herd.  “Suncor needs a wake-up call and we’re going to keep after ConocoPhillips to deliver,” says Swanson.

“Doing experimental research on restoring caribou range doesn’t negate Suncor’s continued erosion of the herd’s best remaining habitat,” says Rocky Notnes of the Hinton area West Athabasca Bioregional Society.

“Suncor is burning the caribou habitat candle at both ends by directly degrading habitat with their gas and tarsands activities and by fueling climate change, the effects of which also harm caribou,” says Dianne Pachal, Sierra Club Canada’s Alberta WILD Director.

“Slaughtering wolves instead of preserving habitat is intellectually and morally repugnant.” says Tove Reece of the Voice for Animals Humane Society, referring to the province’s wolf kill plans in the west-central caribou ranges.

“We have been trying to gain protection for Little Smoky herd’s habitat for decades; since caribou were listed as threatened in Alberta,” says Helene Walsh with CPAWS-Edmonton.  “It is wonderful that Alberta’s youth are joining the cause.”

Contacts:
Eric Swanson , 403 303-8182, Calgary    Rocky Notnes, 780 465-7549, Hinton
Helene Walsh, 780 922-0908, Edmonton    Tove Reece, 780 918-5385 (cell)
Dianne Pachal (English), 403 234-7368    Jean Langlois (French) 1-888-810-4204

Map of Alberta’s Endangered Woodland Caribou
 
Background

Woodland Caribou - Headed for Extinction in Alberta

1. Woodland caribou depend on wilderness landscapes of virgin or oldgrowth forests.  They are the “canary in the coal mine” for the health of Boreal and Rocky Mountain forest ecosystems. 
2. Public pressure in the early 1980s over the rapid decline in numbers, including the Little Smoky herd, resulted in the government recognizing caribou as an endangered species and in 1981, legislating them as “threatened.” 
3. The most recent recovery plan designated the Little Smoky herd as “at immediate risk of extirpation [extinction],” but it still leaves critical habitat open to new resource development for this and all other herds.
4. December 2005, eight major conservation groups filed a legal petition, asking that in accordance with the Species at Risk Act, the federal government issue an emergency order to protect Alberta’s remaining caribou.
5. In the 1930s, herds extended as far south as the foothills and mountains of the Nordegg-Clearwater area, west of Red Deer and the foothills of Edson. They have since died out due to the cumulative effects of resource extraction (logging, oil and gas), settlement and agriculture.
6. Highest recent numbers: During 1995-2000 in the boreal herds ranged from 62 caribou in the Little Smoky to 263 in Caribou Mountains; 1993-2000 in the mountain herds from 42 in Narraway to 187 in Redrock-Prairie Ck.
7. The Little Smoky and A La Peche herds are located northwest of Hinton, in the public forest lands of the Eastern Slopes region.  The Little Smoky herd is the furthest south remaining of the boreal ecotype. 
8. About 80-100 caribou remain in the Little Smoky herd.   
9. Last winter, some 89 wolves were killed as a band-aid to reduce predation on the Little Smoky herd.  While on the other hand, Suncor ignored the insistence of independent scientists and conservation groups that they build their new pipeline around the herd’s critical habitat; instead of right through it, giving black bears, grizzly bears, wolves and poachers another easy route from which to hunt the imperiled herd.

The Alberta Government’s Policy for Resource Management of the Eastern Slopes (Revised 1984) stipulates:

• “The natural resources of the Eastern Slopes will be developed, managed and protected in a manner consistent with principles of conservation and environmental protection.”
• “The management of renewable resources [e.g. wildlife, forests] is the long-term priority in the Eastern Slopes.  Non-renewable resource developments will be encouraged in areas where this priority can be maintained.”

What Albertans recently said

Over 84% of Albertans surveyed agreed that “access and use of forests should be based firstly on preserving and protecting the environment and sustaining wildlife habitat at the expense of sustained economic benefits and jobs.” (Alberta Forest Products Association, 2006) 

Woodland Caribou, Suncor & Climate Change

1. In 2005, Suncor constructed the Cabin Creek pipeline through the best remaining range for the Little Smoky caribou, in spite of recommendations from independent scientists and the request of Alberta conservation groups to locate the pipeline outside of the herd’s range.  ConocoPhillips was a partner in that pipeline.
2. Suncor’ is an active member of industry’s Caribou Landscape Management Association, which plans to increase the amount of permanent roads inside the Little Smoky herd’s range; destroying even more habitat.
3. The newly approved Suncor tarsands project will actually increase Suncor’s greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity (increased rate of GHG emissions per barrel of synthetic crude).

Actions needed for woodland caribou recovery

1. Protection of key habitat in parks and other such permanent, legislated protected areas.
2. Ecosystem-based management policies within the forest outside of the protected areas.
3. Land-use planning that addresses wildlife habitat needs.
4. The development and implementation of effective recovery and action plans, as mandated by SARA and within the timeframe promised by the Alberta Caribou Recovery Plan.

For more information

• Boreal Leadership Council member list, Boreal Conservation Framework www.borealcanada.ca/index_e.cfm
• Little Smoky woodland caribou herd http://www.cpaws-edmonton.org/CPAWS-Caribou.html
• SARA legal petition & scientists’ review of Alberta’s progress for caribou recovery  http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/biodiversity/wilderness/campaign.shtml?x=338
• Pine beetle and woodland caribou http://www.cpaws-edmonton.org/CPAWS-NR-Nov1006.html
• Alberta Government site for this threatened species http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fw/threatsp/wcar_lim.html
• Caribou Nation on the plight of woodland caribou across Canada www.caribounation.org