Pincher Creek, AB - Twenty dollars. That’s how much grizzly bear habitat and trout spawning streams are worth to the Alberta Government. Twenty dollars is the amount of money that the Alberta government receives in royalties for each truckload of non-merchantable timber removed from the Castle. Read More
After missing a mandatory legal deadline to submit a draft recovery strategy for woodland caribou by four years, the federal government has also failed to produce a final recovery strategy for woodland caribou on time. Read More
ALBERTA - Newly-released documents reveal that the Alberta government’s decision to go ahead with deeply unpopular clearcut logging in the Castle Special Place, west of Pincher Creek, Alberta – despite widespread public opposition – was made by Forestry staff in a seeming vacuum. Fish and Wildlife staff were given minimal opportunity for input, and documents show that input was ignored. Extensive public opposition to the logging, which saw rallies, a protest camp and even arrests, was also discounted. Read More
Extreme trail erosion, due to high water levels and unsustainable levels of motorized recreational activity, has preempted the closure of some parts of the Bighorn Backcountry to motorized users. Current levels of damage and degradation are so extreme it is hard to imagine the trails will be usable for the 2012 season. Read More
The Government of Alberta has quietly signed a new 20 year Forest Management Agreement (FMA) with Sundre Forest Products, apparently bypassing the imminent North Saskatchewan planning process. The deal will make watershed and wildlife conservation more difficult in the FMA’s 5600 km2 area of North Saskatchewan and Red Deer River forested headwaters that affects the water security of over a million Albertans downstream. Read More
The recent decision by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) to close trails in the Bighorn Backcountry area to all motorized traffic due to “extreme erosion” confirms what AWA has been saying for over a decade: this important wilderness area cannot handle motorized recreation, and OHV trails are not an appropriate development for these pristine valleys. Read More
Canadians support renewed efforts to recover Threatened caribou in our Mountain National Parks – and we are willing to make sacrifices to allow that recovery to take place. This is one of the significant findings from a newly released Parks Canada report, Conservation Strategy for Southern Mountain Caribou: What we Heard.
In November 2011, a draft Conservation Strategy was released, and the Canadian public were asked to provide comments. Around 150 individuals and organizations obliged, and their responses are summarized in the new What We Heard document. Read More
Almost half of all (44%) of all bird species found in Canada have experienced population declines since 1970 according to a recently released report on the state of Canada’s birds. Of particular concern, populations of grasslands birds have declined by 45% on average since 1970. Read More
Every spring anxious eyes turn towards the sage-grouse mating grounds (known as “leks”) of southern Alberta to see whether or not Canada’s sage-grouse made it through the winter. This year’s spring population counts observed only 13 males at Alberta leks, showing no improvement since last year. In Saskatchewan, the only other Canadian province in which sage-grouse persist, huge population declines were observed. Only 18 males were counted at Saskatchewan leks, a dramatic decrease from the 42 males last recorded. Read More
