BlogArcticRefuge

November 9 2017

Canada unites to protect the porcupine caribou herd

CPAWS Yukon Blog, BlogArcticRefuge Arctic Refuge, blog, Porcupine caribou, united

Canada unites to protect the porcupine caribou herd

Two weeks ago we launched a petition urging Prime Minister Trudeau to speak up against Donald’s Trump’s plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Any industrial activity in the Porcupine caribou’s calving grounds could have disastrous and irreversable effects on the health of the herd and the Gwitchin of Old Crow.

We have been overwhelmed with how the petition has taken off. Over 6,300 signatures! And that number is still rising. What has become perfectly clear: we are uniting in this fight. Yukon Government has spoken out against drilling in the arctic refuge, Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. has asked U.S. Senate to rethink this dangerous plan, and Yukon MP Larry Bagnell just spoke in the House of Commons about the urgency of protecting these incredible caribou. The Globe and Mail published a powerful editorial emphasizing how the drilling proposal represents an “existential threat to survival” for Gwich’in communities in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska. The Vuntut Gwitchin of Old Crow have been raising alarm bells for decades, travelling to Washington and throughout the United States in an effort to share the intrinsic connection between their lives and the Porcupine caribou.

Now we need Justin Trudeau to stand up for Canada. We need his voice telling Donald Trump that drilling for oil and gas in the incredible Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a disastrous plan. We need him to speak up for the caribou and the Gwich’in, before it’s too late.

Time is off the essence. At the end of October, the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution that brings them one step closer to opening the arctic refuge. Northerners have been resisting industry here for decades, but it’s clear we are now at a critical turning point. We need to step up the fight. If the Republicans keep getting their way, oil could be flowing from this fragile ecosystem within five years.

This is a deeply northern issue. The health of an entire herd and so many Gwich’in communities are at stake. It’s also a global issue. With a population of almost 200,000, Porcupine caribou are one of the last healthy-barren ground herds left in North America. Scientists raised the alarm last year after numbers of barren-ground caribou declined by more than half, with some of the largest herds in decline by over 80 per cent.

The Porcupine caribou herd is the exception. Thanks to a relatively intact range, this herd’s numbers helped give scientists the confidence to designate this species at risk as “threatened” rather than “endangered”. Porcupine caribou are seen as a beacon of hope amidst swift declines of the species across the arctic, but this herd, too could see quick drops in population should their calving grounds – which the Gwich’in consider sacred – turn into a construction site.

We knew Canadians were ready to speak up against Trump’s disastrous, short-sighted plan. That’s why we launched a petition. It’s one step in this fight to show our solidarity, to show that we value the few wild, intact ecosystems we have left on this earth over the short-sighted goals of the extractive industry.

In the words of Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, a leader in the fight to protect the arctic refuge: “In 50 years, we are going to be dead and the only thing that’s going to matter is whether we’ve preserved a place as unique as this.”

As this political — and deeply local and personal for so many — story continues to heat up, we’ll be doing anything and everything we can to protect the Porcupine caribou and back the incredible efforts of the Vuntut Gwitchin in Old Crow. We’ll keep the petition open until November 24th, so please share widely. We need as many voices as we can get.

Sign the petition here

Porcupine caribou photo by Peter Mather

January 11 2017

Troubling times for Canada’s caribou

CPAWS Yukon Blog, BlogArcticRefuge

News came out recently that the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has listed barren-ground caribou as ‘threatened’, which could trigger federal action to protect them under the Species at Risk Act. This Arctic species spreads from Yukon to Baffin Island, and while their numbers are known to fluctuate, the steep population decline in 12 of 14 herds is raising alarm bells that cannot be ignored. In addition to the threat of habitat loss from human and industrial disturbance, caribou populations in the North face the added pressure of an environment that is rapidly warming and being transformed at faster rates than the rest of Canada due to climate change.

The barren-ground caribou now join Canada’s boreal woodland caribou, which are also ‘threatened’ and covered under the Species at Risk Act. In many provinces, there are boreal caribou herds on the brink of extinction, due in large part to fragmentation of their habitat from human and industrial disturbance, which exposes them to more predators and decreases access to their food sources. A federal recovery strategy was released in 2012 and governments are required to be taking steps to protect the critical and undisturbed habitat of caribou. CPAWS is concerned about the slow pace of progress on this recovery strategy and in December released its fourth annual Caribou Report, which found that not enough is being done to protect critical caribou habitat. A five-year status update from the federal government is due in October 2017 and much work is required for Canada to fulfill its legal obligation to protect our endangered caribou.

Trump presidency could threaten ANWR and Porcupine Caribou

According to the latest count, the Porcupine Caribou Herd that Gwich’in people in the Yukon, NWT and Alaska have depended on for millennia is currently healthy, but the herd now faces a renewed threat in the Alaskan calving grounds. Republicans have long coveted the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil drilling, and many campaigns have been fought over the decades to protect this amazing wildlife nursery that is critical for Arctic species such as caribou, wolves, polar bears, foxes and muskoxen, as well as 200 species of migratory birds, and which is considered a sacred site by the Gwich’in people.

The election of Donald Trump has re-invigorated talk of drilling in the coastal plain of ANWR – commonly called the 1002 lands – where 40,000 caribou are born in a two-week period every spring. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that 16 billion barrels of oil could be produced from the coastal plain, making it the largest possible source of oil production in the US.

With control of the Congress, Senate and the White House, politicians such as Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski have re-stated their intention to lift restrictions on oil and gas drilling. In early January, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan introduced oil and gas legislation that would start the process of opening up ANWR to oil and gas drilling.

Alaskan environmental organizations and First Nations in Canada and the US are stepping up their efforts to defend ANWR and a delegation of Gwich’in people even travelled to the US to lobby outgoing President Obama. Yukon Member of Parliament, Larry Bagnell has also made a statement in the House of Commons urging his fellow MPs and Canadians to do whatever they can to preserve ANWR.

In response to the legislation introduced in January, the Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee stated:

“Due to major changes on our climate and thawing twice as fast as anywhere else on this planet has changed Alaskans attitudes towards protection for Alaska. Hunting our animals for food, clothing and tools is part of our identity as Natives and we cannot risk losing that. We must protect what is left and keep our land and animals healthy for future generations.”

You can visit www.patagonia.ca/the-refuge.html to see a short film about the Gwich’in people’s long battle to save ANWR and sign a petition asking for the coastal plain to be designated as protected wilderness.