The toll of tar sands development has been largely hidden hundreds of miles to the North. Canadian forests once provided the last undisturbed refuge in North America for migrating songbirds, ducks and geese, and the vast stretches of wilderness in northern Alberta have been ideal for wild wolves and caribou that have thrived in balance with nations of native Canadians for countless generations. But that was all before oil companies moved in and took control of the Albertan government.
A recent report from the National Wildlife Federation has drawn attention to Canada's plan to poison thousands of wolves in a desperate effort to save caribou decimated by oil development. Recent scientific studies have proved that Canada's Woodland caribou herds are heading toward extinction due to habitat destruction from tar sands and other oil development. Today's Los Angeles Times article sums up the story:
Woodland caribou herds in Canada are declining, and tar sands development is a big part of the reason why. But Canada's national and provincial governments know what do about that: Kill the wolves.
The National Wildlife Federation's biologists have concluded:
Canada's proposed solution to habitat destruction from tar sands development is to destroy the wolves that prey on caribou, instead of protecting their habitat.Two particularly repugnant methods of destroying wolves -- shooting wolves from helicopters and poisoning wolves with baits laced with strychnine -- would be carried out in response to the caribou declines. Strychnine is a deadly poison known for an excruciating death that progresses painfully from muscle spasms to convulsions to suffocation, over a period of hours. Wildlife officials will place strychnine baits on the ground or spread them from aircraft in areas they know wolves inhabit. In addition to wolves, non-target animals like raptors, wolverines and cougars will be at risk from eating the poisoned baits or scavenging on the deadly carcasses of poisoned wildlife.
Americans have been dragged into this mess via the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which would move the thick black crude under 1,700 miles of the U.S. heartland. So now the same oil companies that have ravaged Alberta's wilderness have brought their deep pockets to America to fight President Obama's prudent decision to deny a permit for this massive new tar sands pipeline.
They're running millions of dollars in TV commercials and spending millions more on lobbying. By turning tar sands into a kitchen table issue in the United States, Transcanada has drawn more scrutiny on what is really happening with the massive tar sands expansion than Alberta was prepared for.
This story is gaining a lot of attention and picking up steam and has gone viral, which isn't surprising since National Wildlife Federation is the United States' largest conservation organization with four million supporters. National Wildlife Federation was also a leading voice in the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park -- wolves imported from Canada thanks to the generous cooperation of the Canadian government in the mid-90's.
Wolves aren't the only wildlife impacted by tar sands. Waterfowl that land on the industry's toxic tailing ponds have been killed in the thousands.
You can learn more about tar sands' impacts on wildlife by reading our November NWF magazine story.
We have a voice and a role to play here in the United States. Oil companies have convinced some members of Congress to try to overrule the president's prudent decision on the tar sands pipeline. Let Congress know that America shouldn't reward Alberta's oil industry by reviving Transcanada's tar sands pipeline project. This tar sands pipeline is the oil export gateway that oil companies need to drive a massive expansion of habitat-destroying tar sands operations. And it would amount to an American seal of approval for the strychnine-poisoning of Alberta's wolves.
This post has been modified since its original publication.
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That being said, it is horrible that it even needs to come to this. Having to conduct organized culls to mitigate the detrimental effects of the oil sands on biodiversity demonstrates the pressures introduced to the native biodiversity by the oil sands. Not only are the oil sands affecting caribou, now they are having negative impact on wolves. What next? Living organisms are all connected within communities and ecosystems, and having the slightest impact on one species will undoubtedly affect another.
If only our government could understand/care about that they are not representing every Canadian's interests with their extraction of the oil sands (and that sometimes they need to consider issues extending beyond immediate economic gain), environmental perturbations that will cause extreme stress to humans and other living things in the future (or even the present as we see in this article) could be avoided.
Oh, yes, it is for the communist Chinese who desperate want Canadian tar-sand oil. Currently, there is only 1 outlet for it and it's America. Wait until the Republic'CONS' and its gas-oil industry lobbyists getting the pipeline to Texas, Americans can expect higher energy cost because they now can sell it to the highest bidder in open market.
Communist China gov't has to thank their American Republic'CONS' in Congress for their loyal support!
Scroll down to 15.4. Realize that the majority of the Caribou are not withing thousands of miles of The Oil Sands/
Please appreciate how HUGE Canada is? Alberta is 3 times the size of Texas with 1/10 the population.
82% of those people live in the bottom 1/3 of the province.
They have tracked wide ranging fluctuations in the Caribou herds back to the 1700's mostly through Russian and Northern European historical Data
The majority of the worlds herds are 3x the size they were in the 1970's
Do some research on (Nematoda; Protostrongylidae): A new parasite of caribou and other ungulates in high latitudes of North America.
Yes it is a closed system... Climate change allows proliferation of insects that transfer parasites that impact maternal health that impact calf survivability. The same holds true for the Wolves... truthfully... give them a few years and they would self balance as this parasite is similar to the Heartworm in the lower US States.
However... again... please realize that Wolf have a pack range. They could drop bait from Helicopters everyday of the year and impact 1/1000 of the wolf population across Canada.
This is a promotional photo-op for the prime minister so he can be seen to be doing something for Northern communities.
So anywhere where there are issues...Shooting and trapping works.
For years there was a bounty. Back in the 70's it was about $50 as I recall.
The trick being that it has to be low enough to not clean out entire areas.
Yet high enough that Hunters make darn sure they are dead. Gives a good count also.
A fast search online and They tried bounties in Alberta in 2009-2010.
You have to be a Game member and counties offer $3-500 ...limit of 50 kills per county.
So that gives you a couple of hundred dead in the province out of a population of 5000 plus.
Alaska had a bounty of $150 with 600 out of 11,000 killed.
I should just learn to walk away from topics like this but an article that has so many inflamatory buzzwords and based on so little actual fact is boggling.
I don't want to read slanted fiction in a news website. So before you hug that tree, check it for pitch.
This is not a new news "uncovered by the National Wildlife Federation". The story first ran internationally in the Guardian in September 2011. In any case, that does not diminish the concerns raised in this article and the original story.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-genovali/caribou-tar-sands_b_968632.html
Following is a link to a petition to the governor of Oregon opposing the bill if anyone reading in the US is interested in signing. Thx.
https://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-or-save-oregons-29-wolves-oppose-hb-4158
The same contempt I have for people who whine about dirty oil and don't look at the practices in their own countries and households. ... however...
How many of you have ever seen what a Wolf pack can do to decimate a Moose or Caribou population? I'm holding up my hand... anyone else? How they target the young, feed one time and let the rest rot? Anyone do research, ask what people that live with those wolves deal with? How they can't let their kids walk home from the bus stop or play in the yard?
There is more impact on Caribou with Toilet paper you use from Boreal Forests or Wheat from Mid and Eastern Canadian Farmland.
The Tar Sands footprint is about 1/10,000 of the Canadian Caribou Range
Extraction of Alberta’s tar sands has expanded steadily in recent years, to about 232 square miles.
http://interboreal.org/images/caribou/maps/Caribou-LargeProtectedAreas.png
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=wolf+ranges+canada&view=detail&id=BAC70EB2F85A5529B9F1A6400DEF1A96A16F524A&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR
I think they should give out traps and bring back the bounty system.
Then make fur coats rather than killing all those Chinese polyesters made from ...OIL.
Of course... that would be introducing logic into a government situation...
I don't believe that has ever been tried before that I can recall.
After the wolves on the mountain were killed for the same reasons the Canadians are poisoning the wolf to increase caribou populations, the deer herds populations exploded. They devoured all of the plant biodiversity that held the entire ecosystem intact. And, they, then, died off from their own too much. Plants/trees are the habitats/homes, food, shelter, nurseries and cover of all animal biodiversity, and when the deer herds exploded, they devoured all the plant diversity. The soil, with no anchors/roots in place, allowed the winds to blow away the soil of the ecosystem, and without its wolves, a vital keystone specie, became a planet more like Mars than green Earth and her life giving and supporting ecosystems.
It was Earth who chose her wolves to be in America, so the caribou, elk and deer do not devour the Earth unto the destitution of Mars. Think like an ecosystem; think like the Earth. What is Earth's opinion of her wolves?
"In Wildness is the salvation of the Earth and the preservation of all life...long known among mountains and wolves but seldom perceived by man."
Linus you are falling over the edge
The earth chose?????