West Athabasca Watershed Bioregional Society

Ecojustice in court to fight Coalspur Mines’ attempt to expand Vista thermal coal mine without federal impact assessment

CALGARY/TERRITORIES OF THE BLACKFOOT AND PEOPLES OF TREATIES 6 AND 7, HOME TO MÉTIS NATION OF ALBERTA, REGION III – Ecojustice is in court today and tomorrow on behalf of Keepers of the Water, Keepers of the Athabasca, and the West Athabasca Watershed Bioregional Society to fight against Coalspur Mines (Operations) Ltd’s attempt to overturn the designation of the Vista thermal coal mine expansion project for a federal impact assessment. Read More

Issue Brief: Vista coal mine expansion

Updated: September 3, 2020

The Coalspur Vista mine is one of the largest thermal coal mines in Canada, and the proposed expansion could almost triple its capacity. Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson declined in December 2019 to order a federal impact assessment, but he reversed this decision on July 30 so the project will undergo a federal impact assessment. Coalspur Mines has launched a legal challenge to the Minister's decision.

Latest updates

The Perfect Storm — Unregulated Access in our Eastern Slopes

Tens of thousands of Albertans are calling for strict limits on off-highway vehicles (OHVs) along Alberta’s Eastern Slopes, and for a ban of OHVs in Alberta’s parks and protected areas. Poor management of the cumulative impacts of industrial development from oil &gas, forestry and mining along the east slopes has created the perfect storm of unregulated access from OHV users. Read More

Groups Seek Emergency Order to Stop Caribou Extirpation in Alberta Oilsands and Foothills

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. Read More

Woodland Caribou herds declining toward extinction in Alberta

Provincial recovery plan for caribou authorizes more logging, and oil and gas development in Alberta’s foothills caribou forests

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. Read More

Coalition Launches Green Ribbon Campaign

The Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta (CNFA), comprised of a number of Alberta grassroots organizations, launched its province-wide Green Ribbon campaign today to try and convince the provincial government that investing in green renewable energy sources is the right choice for meeting our future electricity needs rather than the the costly and risky nuclear option being considered.

"The government has stated it will set policy on nuclear before the end of the fall sitting of the Legislature," says Adele Boucher Rymhs, Read More

Action Grizzly Bear Launched

Alberta Asked to Commit to Recovery and the Dollars Required

Media Release : Wednesday Nov 19th

Calgary: Today, local, national and international conservation organizations have launched "Action Grizzly Bear." Based out of Alberta, which for many years has been on the receding edge of grizzly bear numbers and range in North America, the new collaborative campaign is focused on achieving Alberta and Canadian government action on grizzly bear recovery at a level comparable to what has been ongoing in the United States for more than a decade with positive results. It provides citizens with a vehicle to have their voices heard on behalf of the fewer than 500 grizzly bears remaining in Alberta; a number sharply down from the 1,000 the province committed to retaining habitat for in 1984. Read More

Conservation Groups Call for Release of Habitat Report, Parks and Funding to Save Grizzlies

Alberta Wilderness AssociationDefenders of Wildlife CanadaCPAWS — Northern AlbertaFederation of Alberta NaturalistsNatural Resources Defense CouncilJasper Environmental AssociationWest Athabasca Bioregional SocietySierra Club of Canada

Media Release For Immediate Release: Oct. 24, 2007

Calgary — Local and national conservation organizations are calling on Alberta's Sustainable Development Minister, Ted Morton, to release the scientists' report outlining core grizzly habitat areas to his Grizzly Bear Recovery Team and the public. To make up for the five years of lost time during the protracted recovery planning process, they are asking Morton and the Minister of Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture, Hector Goudreau, to quickly move on establishing three wildland parks, which encompass core grizzly habitat long known to be important to the bears' future and which have already gone through various assessment and review processes. Read More

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