Feb. 19, 2009 Ministry of Environment

B.C. PROTECTS TWO MILLION HECTARES FOR MOUNTAIN CARIBOU

VICTORIA - The B.C. government is acting to protect the mountain caribou and its habitat by limiting disturbances to the animals in a large portion of the province's mountainous backcountry, Environment Minister Barry Penner announced today.

The closures under British Columbia's Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan, including previously protected areas, will now put more than two million hectares off limits for logging and road building, and one million hectares of alpine caribou habitat out of reach for snow machines in the B.C. Interior.

Today's announcement comes as a result of years of collaborative work to reach agreement on how to best approach mountain caribou recovery. The Ministry of Environment has worked in partnership with conservation groups, First Nations, the logging industry, outdoor recreation groups, communities, and associations representing snowmobilers to come up with a solution to protect the mountain caribou.

The plan's goal is to restore the mountain caribou population to the pre-1995 level of 2,500 animals throughout their existing range in B.C.

Amendments to the regulation to prevent snowmobile disturbances to mountain caribou took effect on Feb. 15. Regulations that protect mountain caribou habitat from timber harvesting and road building disturbances are now in effect.

The recovery plan directed that the following actions be taken to achieve the overall goal:

• Protect 2.2 million hectares of mountain caribou range from logging and road building, capturing 95 per cent of the caribou's high-suitability winter habitat. This will lead to an increase of approximately 380,000 hectares of protected forest within mountain caribou range.
• Manage human recreational activities in mountain caribou habitat in a manner that ensures critical habitat areas are effectively protected.
• Manage predator populations of wolf and cougar where they are preventing the recovery of mountain caribou populations.
• Manage the primary prey of caribou predators.
• Boost caribou numbers in threatened herds with animals transplanted from elsewhere to ensure herds achieve critical mass for self-sufficiency.
• Support adaptive management and research, and implement effective monitoring plans for habitat, recreation and predator-prey management.
• Institute a cross-sector progress board to monitor the effectiveness of recovery actions.

B.C.'s mountain caribou are globally unique, as they are the world's southernmost population and the only remaining population that lives in rugged, mountainous terrain. All other similar populations that existed throughout the world are now extirpated. Mountain caribou in B.C. have declined from approximately 2,500 individuals in 1995 to about 1,900 individuals in 12 herds today.

Mountain caribou are currently listed as "threatened" under the federal Species at Risk Act and are "red-listed" (endangered or threatened) in British Columbia.

It is illegal to hunt, trap, wound or kill any endangered species including Mountain Caribou.

The maximum fine for a conviction under the B.C. Wildlife Act is now $500,000, up from the previous $150,000 maximum, following amendments introduced by the government last year. Penalties can also include imprisonment for up to three years, up from the previous maximum of eighteen months.

Since 2001, the provincial government has established 57 new parks, 138 conservancies, one ecological reserve and eight protected areas, and expanded almost 50 parks and six ecological reserves, protecting more than 1.8 million hectares. Today, 14.26 per cent (or more than 13.5 million hectares) of British Columbia is protected - more than any other province in Canada.

Media contact:

Kate Thompson

Manager, Media Relations

250 953-4577