Open Letter on Issues Regarding BC's Mountain Caribou Recovery Planning

February 11th 2008

In an open letter the Mountain Caribou Project describes why the project's ten ENGO partners have decided to support the BC government's recovery implementation plan for mountain caribou. That plan was announced October 16, 2007.

Mountain Caribou Project partners have worked towards the recovery of mountain caribou for many years, either through earlier processes such as the Recovery Implementation/Action Groups, through Higher Level Plan processes, or through public and marketplace campaigning.

We decided to support the current recovery plan because the plan, if effectively and completely implemented, will give mountain caribou a much better chance at full recovery than current management. Significant amounts of forested habitat, mostly old-growth forests, will be protected. Protecting these forests will also protect habitat for at least 21 other endangered species, including grizzly bears, wolverine and bull trout.

That said, much more old-growth forest needs to be protected in the Inland Temperate Rainforest, and our organizations will continue to work towards that goal. It is critical that all those who are concerned about mountain caribou and the Inland Rainforest remain vigilant and focus their energy on ensuring the plan is fully implemented as announced.

The recovery plan commits government to:

• Protect substantial amounts of currently unprotected habitat, which is of course central to recovery success. Where identified by herd experts the new protection will include low elevation habitat.
• Manage the rapidly expanding human recreational footprint in caribou habitat.
• Manage predator populations only where they are preventing recovery of mountain caribou.  Elevated predation rates are explicitly recognized as a secondary effect of habitat loss and fragmentation; the plan requires that predation management be supported by publicly reviewed scientific rationales.
• Augment smaller herds (between 10 and 50 animals).

In the open letter we outline the commitments made by government on October 16, 2007, and our view of the current status of progress on those commitments.