{"id":7162,"date":"2015-04-09T06:38:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T11:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7162"},"modified":"2015-04-09T06:38:18","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T11:38:18","slug":"wolves-scapegoated-while-alberta-government-sells-off-endangered-caribou-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7162","title":{"rendered":"Wolves Scapegoated While Alberta Government Sells Off Endangered Caribou Habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/desmog.ca\/2015\/04\/08\/wolves-scapegoated-while-alberta-sells-off-endangered-caribou-habitat\" target=\"_blank\">Wolves Scapegoated While Alberta Government Sells Off Endangered Caribou Habitat<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/desmogblog.com\/crywolf\" target=\"_blank\">Culling Alberta\u2019s wolves\u00a0<\/a>without prioritizing caribou habitat protection and restoration is like \u201cshoveling sand,\u201d according to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cfc.umt.edu\/personnel\/details.php?ID=1133\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Hebblewhite<\/a>, associate professor of ungulate habitat biology at the University of\u00a0Montana.<\/p>\n<p>Hebblewhite says the Alberta government is sponsoring a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/desmogblog.com\/crywolf\" target=\"_blank\">wolf cull<\/a>\u00a0without doing the one thing that could possibly scientifically justify it: conserving and restoring critical caribou\u00a0habitat.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>That\u2019s the tragedy here: the Alberta government blew the opportunity to do the right thing,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s all shoveling sand without real commitment to habitat\u00a0conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have warned of Alberta\u2019s caribou losses for decades and in recent years have argued the majority of the herds are endangered with some facing an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ualberta.ca\/~rbchrist\/littlesmokyproject_files\/Page326.htm#?1#?1#WebrootPlugIn#?1#?1#PhreshPhish#?1#?1#agtpwd\" target=\"_blank\">imminent risk of local extinction<\/a>. Provinces have until 2017 to formulate provincial caribou recovery plans under the new\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca\/virtual_sara\/files\/plans\/rs_caribou_boreal_caribou_0912_e1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">federal caribou recovery strategy<\/a>\u00a0released in\u00a02012.<\/p>\n<p>The goal for each province is to maintain 65 per cent undisturbed habitat in all caribou ranges, according to Duncan MacDonnell, public affairs officer for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (<span class=\"caps\">ESRD<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>It is\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">ESRD<\/span>\u2019s responsibility to implement recovery plans,\u201d for Alberta, MacDonnell said, adding that since 2004 the province has had a wolf cull in place \u201cto hold the line while the habitat recovery plans take place and are\u00a0implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since 2006 more than 1,000 wolves have been shot in the Little Smokey and A La Peche caribou\u00a0ranges.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wolves Scapegoated While Alberta Government Sells Off Endangered Caribou Habitat Culling Alberta\u2019s wolves\u00a0without prioritizing caribou habitat protection and restoration is like \u201cshoveling sand,\u201d according to\u00a0Mark Hebblewhite, associate professor of ungulate habitat biology at the University of\u00a0Montana. Hebblewhite says the Alberta government is sponsoring a\u00a0wolf cull\u00a0without doing the one thing that could possibly scientifically justify it: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1082,103,4680,4682,4681,4679],"class_list":["post-7162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-canada","tag-caribou","tag-environment-and-sustainable-resource-development","tag-esrd","tag-wolves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7163,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7162\/revisions\/7163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}