Today, environmental groups like Wildsight sent a letter to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) urging them to finish mapping critical habitats and finalize a recovery plan for deep-snow mountain caribou, which has been overdue for over a decade.
Back in 2014, the ECCC promised to identify key survival areas for these caribou, but that deadline has been pushed back multiple times. Meanwhile, habitat destruction has led to the loss of several caribou herds in British Columbia.
The letter, sent by Ecojustice on behalf of Wildsight, Stand.earth, and the Wilderness Committee, states that ECCC’s delays are effectively allowing more herds to face extinction.
These maps are crucial. The groups have set a deadline for ECCC to provide an updated recovery strategy by March 19, 2025. This strategy should clearly define critical habitats for B.C.’s deep-snow caribou, which are at the highest risk of disappearing.
“It might seem like a long time, but the B.C. government already created these habitat maps in 2020. They just need to be included in the federal recovery strategy,” said Eddie Petryshen, a conservation specialist at Wildsight. Accurate habitat maps are essential for putting effective protections in place to help the declining caribou herds.
Despite having these critical habitat maps, B.C. is still allowing logging in areas where caribou roam. Between 2007 and 2023, around 310,120 hectares of crucial caribou habitat were logged, with over 51,000 hectares in sensitive core areas. Investigations by Wildsight and the Wilderness Committee revealed that logging is happening even in designated “no harvest” areas meant to protect ungulate winter ranges.
“Canada’s inaction has been catastrophic for caribou and their vital ecosystems,” said Tegan Hansen, a senior forest campaigner at Stand.earth. “As these caribou continue to decline, it’s hard to see this lack of action as anything but an endorsement of extinction.”
Having a finalized recovery plan and clear habitat maps would clarify what needs to be done to protect these caribou. It would create a roadmap for stakeholders and governments to follow.
“What we’re asking from Canada isn’t a favor; it’s a legal requirement under the Species at Risk Act, and they’re falling short,” said Lucero Gonzalez from the Wilderness Committee. “Caribou need intact, old forests now, not just promises.”
In 2020, the federal government reported a shocking 53% decline in southern mountain caribou populations over six years, with deep-snow caribou being hit hardest. Eight out of 18 herds have disappeared primarily in the last two decades.
“This is a low point in the government’s record on protecting endangered wildlife,” said Ecojustice lawyer Sean Nixon. “For over ten years, successive environment ministers have delayed crucial actions under the Species at Risk Act.”
The current plan isn’t set to be updated until 2026, but deep-snow caribou can’t wait that long. “Our question to Minister Guilbeault is straightforward: will this government be remembered for saving the southern mountain caribou, or for allowing them to vanish?” said Petryshen.
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