And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 09:26:21 -0600
To: "Wild Rockies Alerts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Wild Rockies InfoNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: U.S. CAN'T RELY ON CANADA TO PROTECT GRIZZLY HABITAT
PRESS RELEASE Contact: David Simm (250) 442-3556
For Immediate Release Friends of the Granby
May 18, 1999 Environmental Society
Nadine Dechiron (250) 442-8210
Granby Wilderness Society
U.S. CAN'T RELY ON CANADA TO PROTECT GRIZZLY HABITAT
GRAND FORKS, B.C. -- Local Canadian conservation groups say a case study
released here last month shows why the U.S. can't rely on Canada to
protect habitat for endangered grizzly bear populations along the
international border with southern British Columbia.
The study recommends an immediate and drastic recovery plan for the
30-50 Granby grizzly bears located between south-central British
Columbia and north-east Washington, because by the year 2003 roads and
clearcuts will have virtually destroyed their habitat, and the death of
just one female a year will spell the population's eventual extinction.
David Simm of the Friends of the Granby Environmental Society says, "The
survival of grizzly bears is a symbol of our two countries' success or
failure in protecting our common environment."
"The destruction of the Granby grizzly's habitat is representative of
what's happening in B.C. The report should dispel any illusion the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that adjacent habitat in Canada will
sustain endangered grizzlies in the U.S. North-West," explains Simm.
He concludes, "The U.S. corporations responsible for the destruction in
this case, Weyerhaeuser Company in Federal Way near Seattle, WA, and
Pope & Talbot Inc. in Portland, OR, are taking advantage of the fact
that Canada doesn't have an Endangered Species Act. Also, B.C.'s
Environmental Assessment Act exempts the impacts of roads and clearcuts
behind the smokescreen of its `world-class' Forest Practices Code."
To raise public awareness of the issues involved, the Friends of the
Granby Environmental Society and the Granby Wilderness Society of Grand
Forks, B.C., are sponsoring a tour June 1-3 to Portland, OR, Seattle,
WA, and Vancouver, BC, with the report's author, Dr. Brian Horejsi of
Western Wildlife Environments Consulting Ltd., of Calgary, Alberta.
In order to put pressure on Canada and B.C. to improve their laws, the
groups say they support leading U.S. groups who are suing their
government for ignoring its own endangered species and environmental
laws when negotiating the Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement (SWLA).
Until environmental impacts are assessed, they also support the call by
leading Canadian groups for a moratorium on three prominent lawsuits in
Canada that are using the "investor-state" clause of the North American
Free Trade Agreement, including a lawsuit by Pope & Talbot Inc. which
benefits from the hidden environmental subsidies, but which is suing the
Canadian government for $30 million U.S. alleging discrimination under
the SWLA.
Nadine Dechiron of the Granby Wilderness Society says, "Not only is Pope
& Talbot logging public lands at the expense of future forestry and
tourism jobs, watersheds and the endangered Granby grizzly -- all the
while taking advantage of what the forest industry in its home country
considers unfair trade subsidies -- now it wants Canadian taxpayers to
pay again."
"What's at stake here is not just grizzly bears: because they depend on
such large ecosystems, their survival or extinction tells us about the
health of the whole web of life. If we choose to annihilate them, our
whole life support system is also in trouble," says Dechiron.
During presentations of his report on tour last month through the B.C
Southern Interior, Dr. Horejsi said, "What the British Columbia
government, particularly the Ministry of Forests, and the forest
industry are doing in B.C. would be illegal in the United States under
the Endangered Species Act and the National Forest Management Act."
"This will set the record straight. If they deliberately choose to push
this endangered grizzly bear population to extinction, I think they
should be held accountable. They're basically putting the last nail in
the coffin," he concluded.
Dr. Brian Horejsi will present the results of his study in a slide and
video show billed as the "Granby Grizzly Show," at 7 p.m.:
- Tuesday, June 1, at Portland State University, Smith Memorial Center,
Room 290 in Portland, OR;
- Wednesday, June 2, at the Mountaineers Clubhouse, in Seattle, WA; and
- Thursday, June 3, at the Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre,
Fletcher Challenge Theatre, in Vancouver, BC.
-30-
For more information, you are welcome to contact Dr. Brian L. Horejsi,
the author of the report, "The Endangered Granby-Gladstone Grizzly Bear
Population: A Conservation Biology Analysis For Recovery," at (403)
246-9328.
Friends of the Granby Environmental Society PO Box 1802 Grand Forks BC
Canada V0H 1H0 Tel/fax: 250 442-3556 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
**********************************
BACKGROUNDER: U.S. CAN'T RELY ON CANADA TO PROTECT GRIZZLY HABITAT
May 19, 1999
- The 30-50 Granby grizzly bears meet all the criteria for biological
and legal recognition as "endangered", according to Dr. Brian
Horejsi's 1999 case study, "The Endangered Granby-Gladstone Grizzly
Bear Population: A Conservation Biology Analysis For Recovery."
- The endangered Granby grizzly bear population is located in the
B.C. southern interior, north of Washington state, on the receding
edge of grizzly bear habitat in North America, between the endangered
cross-border North Cascades and Selkirk populations.
- Four areas in Washington, Idaho and Montana border on southern British
Columbia where the U.S. is officially relying on Canada's cooperation
to recover endangered grizzly bear populations: the North Cascades,
Selkirk Mountains, Cabinet/Yaak, and Northern Continental Divide.
- The case study exemplifies the contention of a 1998 general review by
the author and others that B.C.'s Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy,
Forest Practices Code and Protected Areas Strategy are politically-
driven, not scientifically-based, actually facilitating habitat loss
and fragmentation and species extinction.
- The study outlines a drastic recovery plan that recommends among other
things zero tolerance of human-caused mortalities including road and
"nuisance bear" kills, even though the province took the necessary and
overdue first step and closed the Granby area to hunting in 1995.
- Because the Granby grizzly bear ecosystem is already in a state of
"ecological overload" mainly due to too many roads and clearcuts and
not enough effective or secure roadless habitat, the study concludes
that there is no more room for human activities and drastic measures
are needed to deal with the chronic impacts.
- The Granby is a bell-wether ecosystem in this age of global warming
because it bridges the Okanagan drylands to the west and the Kootenay
rainforest to the east in the upper Columbia River region.
- The Granby ecosystem includes both the 41,000 hectare (101,000 acre)
Granby Park and the 39,000 hectare (96,000 acre) Gladstone Park, and
remnants of ancient interior cedar-hemlock forests that are globally
and nationally significant like the 1,900 hectare (4,700 acre)
Traverse Creek park proposal just north of Grand Forks, B.C.
- The case study follows a critical 1998 general review entitled
"Grizzlies on the Brink - British Columbia's Grizzly Bear Conservation
Strategy: An Independent Review of Science and Policy," that Dr.
Horejsi co-authored with Dr. Barrie Gilbert of Utah State University
and Dr. Lance Craighead of Montana State University.
- The general review said that Southern B.C. grizzly bear populations,
which the province may designate as "threatened", such as the Cascade
(Manning Park), Granby and Selkirk populations, are more endangered
now than were U.S. populations before they became extinct.
- The 1995 B.C. Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy concedes it will not
prevent local extinctions by 2065, when B.C.'s human population will
have doubled to 7.4 million, in a 136,000 square kilometer (53,000
square mile) area or 17 % of the province 2.3 times greater than the
area grizzly bears presently occupy in the U.S. outside of Alaska.
- The case study also recommends:
* Establishing an Immediate Population Recovery Goal of 100 bears
including at least 25 females older than 2 years of age.
* Establishing a 2,800 square kilometer (1,100 square mile approx.)
Immediate Grizzly Bear Recovery Area with the existing Granby and
Gladstone Provincial Parks as its Core Wildlife Habitat or "anchor".
* Doubling the size of the parks in the short term and requiring 50%
Core Wildlife Habitat in the long term.
* Protecting all the remaining roadless areas greater than 10 km2 (2,500
acres approx.).
* Establishing a network of roadless Security Areas 3 km (2 mi approx.)
apart connecting the parks and extending northeast of Granby Park and
south of Gladstone Park greater than 28 km2 each (7,000 acres approx.)
and occupying 60% of the Immediate Recovery Area outside the parks.
* An active road reclamation program in the roaded parts of the
Immediate Recovery Area to reduce road densities in a few short years
to 0.62 kilometer of roads per square kilometer (1 mile per square
mile) and to 0.4 km/km2 (0.65 mi/mi2) in the long term.
* Incorporating the best available conservation science and a grizzly
bear recovery plan in Timber Supply Reviews for the Boundary Timber
Supply Area and Tree Farm Licenses 8 and 23 to reduce the present
unsustainable annual allowable cut.
* Conversion to 70 % retention and small-patch logging.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
David Simm, Friends of the Granby Environmental Society (250) 442-3556
Nadine Dechiron, Granby Wilderness Society (250) 442-8210
Friends of the Granby Environmental Society PO Box 1802 Grand Forks BC
Canada V0H 1H0 Tel/fax: 250 442-3556 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
************************************************************************
List-Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
News Submissions or Problems: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This list is a public service provided by WIN: http://www.wildrockies.org
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
