29 Of 57 Of Canada's Boreal Caribou Herds In Decline - "Not Self-Sustaining", Says Environment Min.

[hatrack]

OTTAWA — The federal government plans to release a report Thursday that finds half Canada's boreal caribou herds are in decline and may die out in the next century without changes to their habitats, The Canadian Press has learned. The finding that 29 of the 57 recognized herds are "not self-sustaining" brings the boreal caribou another step closer to possibly being bumped up to endangered species status.

Parts of the highly technical, 300-page report show caribou herds are likeliest to decline in northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. A boom in natural resources such as oil and gas has spurred industrial development in those parts of the country, disturbing the caribou's habitat. "The inherent risks associated with a small population size warrant a cautious approach when considering potential resilience to any additional disturbance," the report says.

The findings now allow the Conservative government to push ahead with a national recovery plan for the boreal caribou. They will also shape a separate report by an independent Canadian advisory panel known, as the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, which recommends changes to species' at-risk designation.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice can then accept the committee's recommendations, reject them or send them back to the panel for further study. The caribou was last assessed in May 2002 as a "threatened" species. Some environmental and conservation groups want to see the caribou's status upgraded to the more serious "endangered" designation. There are approximately 36,000 boreal caribou spread across Canada.

EDIT

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hCA63DENNmjpwFYNBmTeg3ELvWzw

[applegrove]

1. We've already wiped out the big mammals from the temporate zones. Now we wipe them out in the arctic

[pscot]

2. Extinctions are us

It's what we do.