The Alberta government’s recent decision to suspend the province’s grizzly bear hunt for 2010 is good news for the bears. With a current population estimate of 691 bears in Alberta, the species requires legal protection from harm, not deliberate killing, say Alberta’s conservation organizations.

“We applaud the Minister for continuing the government’s commitment to removing one avoidable cause of grizzly bear deaths,” says Nigel Douglas, Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist. “It is important that that the new minister for Sustainable Resource Development has reaffirmed the commitments of his predecessor.”

Turn your passion into action!  The Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton (WRSE) is looking for Directors at Large to serve on its Board of Directors.

WRSE is a non-profit, non-partisan, charitable organization that has been providing compassionate care for our community’s injured and orphaned wildlife and promoting understanding and respect for wildlife through education since 1989.  WRSE annually treats over 1,000 wild birds and mammals, fields over 5,000 wildlife related calls from the community and provides education pertaining to human/wildlife interaction to 5,000+ students.  The Board of Directors is responsible for the governance and management of WRSE, to ensure that its facilities are operated in a manner consistent with the objectives of the Society.

We are looking for people with a variety of personal and professional backgrounds who wish to be a part of preserving, protecting and rehabilitating wildlife in Northern Alberta.  If you believe you can be an asset to this Board and are interested in learning more, please send an email to wrse_cheryl [at] shaw [dot] ca by April 1, 2010 to request further information, or leave your contact information at 780-433-0884.

Calls to protect one of Alberta’s last great unprotected watersheds received a recent boost with the publishing of the province’s new report, Status of the Grizzly Bear in Alberta. The 4,000 square kilometre Bighorn area, which sits east of Jasper and Banff National Parks, has suffered from motorized abuse, and it is now clear that grizzly bears are one more victim of that abuse.

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

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.

Trout Unlimited Canada’s Yellow Fish Road™ (YFR) program is a national program dedicated to reducing stormwater pollution through education and storm drain marking.

Despite good progress by a multi-stakeholder group in understanding issues around Athabasca River water withdrawals, Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) is concerned there will still not be protective water rules for low winter flows. AWA believes oilsands mine river withdrawals must cease during low winter flows.

Alberta conservation groups are seeking an emergency order from Jim Prentice, Federal Environment Minister to enforce habitat protection for the endangered Foothills and Oil Sands woodland caribou herds. “Minister Prentice has recently acknowledged that there is a need for industry and the Alberta government to work with Ottawa to improve Canada’s environmental reputation. Alberta’s caribou desperately need Federal help, and this is Prentice’s chance to take meaningful action,” says Rocky Notnes with the Athabasca Bioregional Society.

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.

Particularly susceptible to being killed by traffic on roads, the prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus v. viridis) is designated as a species that "may be at risk" by Alberta Sustainable Development.  The Alberta Endangered Species Conservation Committee has legally designated this animal as "data deficient".  Adam Martinson will present the results of his research investigating their spatial behaviour and patterns of road mortality risk.  It is hoped that the results of his and others’ research can be used to lessen the impacts roads are having on Southern Alberta

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