Alberta’s grizzly bear is a threatened species that needs special protection. In 2002, Alberta’s Endangered Species Conservation Committee (ESCC), representing scientists, universities, First Nations, industries, hunters, conservationists and ranchers, recommended that the grizzly bear be listed as a Threatened species under Alberta’s Wildlife Act. Unfortunately, the government so far has failed to implement this recommendation and Alberta’s grizzlies continue to suffer from a wide array of threats.

At roughly 600 bears, Alberta’s grizzly population remains far below provincially and internationally recognized thresholds.

The province has embarked on a further status review and, eight years later, it will ask the ESCC once again to re-examine whether the grizzly bear should be listed as a protected species.

Once the status review is complete it will be up to Mel Knight, the newly appointed Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, to decide if the grizzly bear will be listed as Threatened and given legal protection.

Please take a moment to contact Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight and let him know your thoughts on grizzly bear recovery, including legal listing and habitat protection.

 Learn more at CPAWS Southern Alberta

As you’ve likely seen in the news, CPAWS is warning that Boreal woodland caribou in Alberta’s oil sands region will perish unless the province moves to protect at least half of this area’s intact forests and wetlands.

• Read our news release and CPAWS’ open letter to Premier Stelmach
• See media coverage at the Globe, where you can add your comments, and in Canwest papers across Canada

Since 1993, nearly half of the Boreal woodland caribou in the area where the oil sands industry is concentrated have disappeared. You can make a difference. Please sign the petition now to protect at least 50% of Alberta’s Lower Athabasca planning region.

This region, part of CPAWS’s Athabasca Heartland campaign, contains some of the most pristine wilderness in the province. It’s threatened by heavy industrial development, including Alberta’s oil sands.

Take action!

• Sign the petition to protect Alberta’s last great wilderness: for people, for wildlife, forever.

Edmonton, Alberta — Alberta must act fast to protect 50% of the oil sands area from industrial use so that wilderness, biodiversity and traditional use can continue into the future.

That is the key advice contained in an open letter to Ed Stelmach from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). CPAWS wrote the letter to the premier on the occasion of World Wetlands Day, February 2, and the International Year of Biodiversity.

The province and energy industry have been criticized by leading thinkers and governments for their rush to extract fuel from the oil sands without regard for the environmental costs. Alberta has a chance to prove the critics wrong, says Helene Walsh, Boreal Conservation Director for CPAWS, Northern Alberta

Know someone who has made a significant contribution to conservation over their lifetime? Someone whose achievement is worthy of recognition?

We want to know about them!

About the J. B. Harkin Award

The J.B. Harkin Medal is Canada’s most prestigious conservation award. Since 1972, the award has been presented by CPAWS to living individuals who:

• have made a significant life-long contribution through words and deeds to the conservation of Canada’s parks and wilderness;
• or have made a special one-time contribution to national conservation;
• and have not been otherwise recognized.

The award is named for James Bernard Harkin, Canada’s 1^st Commissioner of National Parks. Learn more about the J.B. Harkin Medal and see a list of previous participants at the CPAWS website.

Parks Canada is preparing a new management plan for Jasper National Park that will guide its activities for the next ten to fifteen years.

If you share some of CPAWS’ concerns about this plan, please take a moment to send your comments to Parks Canada.

As with Banff, CPAWS is concerned that the new plan could open the door to new, non-traditional uses at the expense of Jasper’s sensitive wildlife, ecosystems and traditional visitor experiences.

We’re also concerned that the new plan could could permit a private recreational airstrip to re-open and new gravel pits, and commercial activities to operate in ecologically sensitive wilderness areas. We’re recommending that the park plan support the recovery of threatened caribou and grizzly bear populations while offering traditional low-impact park experiences for all visitors.

Take action!

• Find out more about CPAWS’ position and how you can comment on the draft plan.
• Support CPAWS’ work on parks and protected areas across Canada

Rural and provincial conservation groups today distributed copies of a new provincial government recovery plan for Alberta’s endangered woodland caribou. The ‘Action Plan for West-Central Alberta Caribou Recovery’ authorizes ongoing logging and oil and gas development in the caribou home ranges north of Hinton and Grande Cache. The groups also displayed more than two dozen Alberta government and science reports, consultations and recovery plans for caribou released since the late 1970’s, showing industrial impacts on forests and wildlife as the root cause of caribou decline.

The groups highlighted the fact that the government did not act on the previous plans written since the 1970’s, while at the same time Alberta’s caribou population has declined by almost two-thirds, from a high of an estimated population of 7,000 - 9,000 in the 1960’s to an estimated 3,000 today. Last year, a Canada-wide scientific review found that Alberta’s herds of woodland caribou were the most in danger of extinction among all provinces. Logging and oil and gas allocations increased rapidly during the 1980’s and 1990’s and now blanket Alberta forests.

CPAWS Northern Alberta is inviting you to join us at…

Parks Canada’s Jasper National Park Annual Planning Forum

Thursday, November 26, 2009

• 5 - 7:00 pm Open House
• 7-8:15pm Presentations
  • Year in Review
  • Parks Management Plan Review
  • Q&A Discussion Session
• 8:15-9:00pm Open House continues 

Parks Canada is preparing a new management plan for our National Parks that will guide its activities for the next ten to fifteen years. This plan is important for Jasper National Park. It will also set the direction that could be taken for all of the other Rocky Mountain parks, including Banff National Park.

Location

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is Canada’s voice for the protection of wilderness and parks.  Our Southern Alberta Chapter has a wonderful employment opportunity for a community spirited individual who has skills in accounting bookkeeping, project coordination and office administration. This individual will bring strong, financial management organizational skills and a team player attitude to our Chapter. 

Scope

This key position in our Southern Alberta Team is responsible for the financial and administrative duties for the CPAWS Southern Alberta chapter. The position supports the Executive Director, Conservation Planner and Director of Education in achieving CPAWS conservation goals.

Alberta environmentalists (including Alberta Wilderness Associatiion, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sierra Club Canada and UTSB Research) are hoping that the Alberta government will resist concerted lobbying efforts to introduce a spring grizzly bear hunt. Rather the government should heed the advice of its own scientists, who have consistently emphasized that such a hunt would not be sustainable.

At last count, there were only 490 grizzly bears left in Alberta. Alberta grizzly bears are seriously endangered and urgent action is needed.

Take action!

• Send a letter to the Premier demanding action on grizzly bear recovery