The federal Recovery Strategy for the Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), Boreal population, in Canada was posted recently and the outlook remains bleak for Alberta’s caribou herds. The focus of much of much of the Recovery Strategy is rightly on critical habitat and reducing habitat...
Within the past 7 days the federal and provincial governments published documents that may result in Alberta’s Woodland Caribou going down for the count. These documents include the proposed federal Recovery Strategy for Woodland Caribou, Boreal population and the Draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP). So...
A Draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan has barely been public for a week and already the criticisms sound familiar: Conservation areas are based more on low value energy resources than high value wildlife habitat. Even then existing energy leases can be renewed. Delaying a biodiversity...
A recent decision of the Federal Court has resulted in the setting aside of the federal Minister of Environment’s decision not to recommend to the Governor in Council that an emergency protection order be issued under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to protect Alberta’s...
Environmental education and programs like the Government of Alberta’s One Simple Act are great…for what they are. I will generalize and say they are window dressing to a dire and economically costly discussion that should be occurring in government, in media and across all sectors...
[caption id="attachment_886" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sprague's Pipit (Wildearth Guardians) "][/caption] The latest ecosystem status and trends report for Canada, released last fall, indicates rapid decline of native grasslands. Grasslands are among the most endangered ecologies in the world and in Canada. Many grassland species are endangered under the...
Here are some updates on previous blog posts compiled by Laura Bowman, Staff Counsel at the ELC. The David Suzuki v. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (Killer Whale protection) case is being appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal. The Eastern Irrigation District approval for change of...
By Laura Bowman Staff Counsel Given all of the recent reports on the Oilsands released late last year, including the Royal Society report (RSC), the Liberal report, the NDP report, the report released through the Pembina Institute on behalf of various environmental groups, and the most recent...
David Suzuki Foundation et al. v. Canada (Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Minister of the Environment) 2010 FC 1233 The Federal Court released a very important decision earlier this week on the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales and the protection of their habitat under...
Despite the declines of caribou in Jasper, and the extirpation of caribou from Banff, still no plans to close Maligne Lake Road. Two articles on this: Going going gone Arbitrary Justice in our National Parks...
The 193 UN parties to the 1993 Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) are meeting in Japan this month, including Canada. This coincides with the release of the United Nations Environment Programme, Environmental Law Division report entitled Ethics, Justice and the Convention on Biodiversity. The report looks...
Current plans, even if implemented appear to aim to keep the species in a perpetually threatened and in a declining habitat, without a truly viable wild population in its former range. We should ask ourselves if it is possible to aim lower than this...
