Making News
Making News
Conservationists want clampdown on driving in Alberta grizzly country
CALGARY - Conservationists say the Alberta government needs to clamp down on traffic in sensitive backcountry habitat to provide protection for the province's dwindling grizzly bear population.
Alberta's grizzly bear numbers stand at less than 700 and prompted the government to ban hunting the last few years and to declare the animals threatened under Alberta's Wildlife Act.
But problems with all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other vehicles remain despite the ban.
"Nobody was ever saying the grizzly bears are in trouble because of the hunt and nobody was ever saying that removing the hunt was going to fix the problem," said Nigel Douglas, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.
... Read more »
Link to source site:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/greenpage/conservationists-w... Replace spin with conservation in Crown of Continent say conservation groups
Media Release, September 22, 2011
ALBERTA - Sierra Club Canada and the Castle-Crown Wilderness Coalition are maintaining that while it is important to have the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development’s Parliamentary Assistant, Evan Berger, representing the government today at the international Crown of the Continent Round Table in Polson, Montana, the province needs to replace its spin with actual conservation action, instead of the actions thwarting conservation in Alberta’s portion of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. ... Read more »
Moratorium on motorized access necessary for grizzly survival
Media Release, September 19, 2011
CALGARY - Industrial and public motorized access routes in grizzly bear habitat greatly exceed thresholds recommended in the Alberta government’s official Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan. This issue is so critical that several Alberta Conservation organizations are calling for an immediate moratorium on new roads.
“Now that grizzly hunting is on hold, the primary cause of bear deaths is too much contact between bears and people due to motorized access into their habitat,” says Wendy Francis, Program Director for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y). “Reducing this access will benefit not only grizzlies, but also source water quality and other species at risk,” she adds.
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Vancouver filmmaker Damien Gillis takes aim at Enbridge pipeline in Oil in Eden
When local filmmaker Damien Gillis took his equipment up to B.C.’s north and central coast and got to witness firsthand the humpback whales swimming freely, he almost got a lump in his throat. And that’s hard to do to the burly 31-year-old who looks like a rugby forward and has a baritone voice made for broadcasting.
“I love this province, and my primary function is to serve, through my media work, to highlight issues that I see as being the biggest threats to the environment and public interest in B.C.,” Gillis told the Georgia Straight by phone on February 10. “Along with [long-time radio broadcaster] Rafe Mair, through our new organization [Common Sense Canadian], we are touring the province and really talking about rivers, salmon, and oil tankers and oil pipelines.”
Read the entire article and view these spectacular photos at the link below.
Link to source site:
http://www.straight.com/article-374360/vancouver/vancouver-filmmaker-damien-gill... Alberta parks legislation on hold indefinitely
Controversial Alberta parks legislation put on hold until this spring has now been quietly postponed again, indefinitely.
Environmentalists and legal experts have criticized Bill 29, the Alberta Parks Act, for taking away formal legal protections for Alberta parks. They also said it concentrated too much power in the office of the minister.
When the bill was on the verge of being passed in November, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Cindy Ady suspended debate, saying she would review the concerns and introduce the legislation again this spring, with amendments.
"I have continued to listen to the views of Albertans," Ady wrote in an update posted to her department's website on Friday.
"While I had planned to bring park legislation back this spring, I will spend the time needed to address the main concerns raised by Albertans before moving forward with new legislation."... Read more »
Link to source site:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/Alberta+parks+legislation+hold+indefinitely/... Groups ramp up parks campaign as Minister puts off controversial Bill 29
CALGARY -- “More parks now, not Bill 29” is the updated rallying cry of lead groups, such as Sierra Club Canada, in the public campaign that last November successfully got the Stelmach government to stall passage of the Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation’s (TPR) controversial new parks legislation.
Bill 29 (the Alberta Parks Act) is designed to replace Alberta’s existing parks network and its overarching laws. Late this past Friday (4:54 pm), Minister Cindy Ady emailed an update announcing she won’t be bringing Bill 29 back to the spring sitting of the Legislature.
In November, within a few of weeks of its introduction in the Legislature, the Stelmach government received more than 2000 personal letters opposing Bill 29 - this despite no one in the public receiving advanced notice or having seen a draft of Bill 29.... Read more »
Mackenzie gas pipeline to get cabinet OK
After almost 40 years of conflict and controversy, the massive Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline project is expected to get final government approval as early as next week with one major caveat — no federal subsidies.
Senior government sources tell CBC News the federal cabinet will give a green light to the controversial $16-billion pipeline, possibly at its next meeting.
While government approval would cap four decades of studies and delays since the Mackenzie project was first proposed, the pipeline could remain a pipe dream for years to come.
Even with final federal approvals, the big issue now is whether the project still makes economic sense without hefty public subsidies the Conservative government is apparently unwilling to provide.... Read more »
Link to source site:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mackenzie-pipeline-cabinet-approval-20110111-123444-937... Japan offers hope to biodiversity summit with $2bn conservation fund
Hopes for a new global deal to conserve life on earth received a much-needed boost today with the announcement of $2bn (£1.2bn) in funds from Japan and signs that negotiators are narrowing their differences at the United Nations conference on biodiversity in Nagoya.
Delegates said 15 of the 20 conservation targets in a draft strategic plan to ease the loss of habitat and species have been agreed, up from eight just 24 hours before. The moves mark a considerable acceleration after the grindingly slow progress of the past 10 days.
Britain added to the momentum by earmarking £100m for forest protection, but delegates tempered their optimism with warnings that the biggest political hurdles have yet to be crossed and there are only two full days left until the end of the meeting.
Read the entire article here >>
Link to source site:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/27/japan-biodiversity-conference-... Global extinction crisis looms, new study says
A growing number of creatures could disappear from the earth, with one-fifth of all vertebrates and as many as a third of all sharks and rays now facing the threat of extinction, according to a new survey assessing nearly 26,000 species across the globe.
In addition, forces such as habitat destruction, over-exploitation and invasive competitors move 52 species a category closer to extinction each year, according to the research, published online Tuesday by the journal Science. At the same time, the findings demonstrate that these losses would be at least 20 percent higher without conservation efforts now underway.
"We know what we need to do," said Andrew Rosenberg, senior vice president for science and knowledge at the advocacy group Conservation International and one of the paper's co-authors.... Read more »
Link to source site:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/26/AR2010102607146... Pipeline Plan Slams into $120 Million Coastal Eco-Pact
Two Calgarians and one Ontario aboriginal will help decide the economic future of coastal B.C. They've been appointed to assess one of the most controversial energy projects in the province's history.
Their recommendations could determine whether federal policymakers approve plans by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. to build a pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to the west coast, and then ship fossil fuels on supertankers to Asia. The proposal carries huge environmental risks. It also revives a fiery economic debate.
How do you develop a pristine eco-system? Or do you develop it at all?... Read more »
Link to source site:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/10/04/PipelineSlam/ - Alberta Tar Sands and Mackenzie River Delta
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