Canadian Wolf Coalition Newsletter

THE WOLF MUSE

July/August edition, 2010 Remember to check for updates and "Wolves in the News" on our website at www.canadianwolfcoalition.com J u l y / A u g u s t e d i t i o n , 2 0 1 0 This July the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) released a Review of "The State of Canada's Parks". It indicates that the list of species at risk of extinction in Canada is growing, & that the proximal cause of this risk is "lack of adequate protection for their habitats". The CWC is in complete agreement with the solutions suggested, ranging from "expanding park borders…; establishing conservation corridors to connect parks…; curtailing harmful activities within parks…". In other words, not only wolves but all of Canada's wildlife needs MORE, BIGGER, and CONNECTED protected parks. This is in accordance with our Buffer Zone campaign for the national parks in the Central Rockies. Featured in the report was the Eastern wolf, a good news story for wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park as CPAWS played a key role in establishing zones of protection in counties around the park. To view the full report visit: http://cpaws.org/news/archive/2010/07/parksreport.php

CAMPAIGN UPDATE : Opposing Predator Control for Mountain Caribou recovery in BC….the efforts to increase public awareness continue at the Northern Lights Wolf Centre where over 1,000 signatures have been collected from the sign-on letter put together by Valhalla Wilderness and Animal Alliance. These will be submitted in the fall when we meet with our MLA Norm MacDonald to discuss this issue again. In the meantime, we have received a response from BC and Federal Ministers of Environment to a letter submitted by us and other groups in November 2009. This will soon be posted on the CWC website, along with our reply.

New promises have been made to protect the Boreal forest across Canada, but will it be enough and will the protection come into effect soon enough to help dwindling caribou herds? Several groups, including the CWC are irate with exceptions still being granted for mineral exploration within habitat designated as "protected". (See website under

Wolves in the News). There should be no exemptions for resource extraction of any kind, nor commercial recreation or development in areas called "protected".

Lichen it or not….wilderness is a delicate balance.

Indeed, hunting and trapping of wildlife is allowed in most provincial parks in BC and other Canadian provinces too! In BC wolves and coyotes are grouped as Class 3 furbearers r

"The European Union has done more to protect Canada's grizzly bears by banning the import of their fur than our own government" –Casey Black2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, designated by the IUCN as a global issue. As biodiversity is explored in greater depth, the issues of hybridization and speciation are analyzed and argued over, with Eastern wolves, grey wolves and coyotes being a prime example. Do we consider genes, body measurements, or behaviour when determining a species? And how do these definitions affect wildlife management decisions for "conservation"?

To view the presentations and learn about the topics covered at the Midwest Wolf Stewards Conference in Dorset, Ontario this past April visit:

The June edition of Canadian Geographic suggested coyotes may be saving eastern wolves from extinction (through interbreeding). It is important to recognize which species is still driving such threats even if this (cont'd)

explanation is valid, (ie.

homo sapiens). A talk done by Linda Rutledge from Trent University at the Ontario conference presented a slide "Forest clearing & wolf eradication led to eastern invasion by western coyotes". Rutledge also points to the important fact that Canada's "Endangered Species Act and COSEWIC think in terms of species and population size". This was also discussed at the conservation conference in Edmonton this July. The recently released book "The World of Wolves; New perspectives on ecolgy, behaviour & management" discusses the confusion generated when Canis is considered as a species, subspecies, hybrid, etc. and how this applies to conservation management.

The Lords of Nature screening was a great success at the Northern Lights Wolf Centre's annual open house. Over 200 people attended the event, and several joined in the discussion with our panel of local experts. Many thanks goes out to the individuals who made this happen, sharing the table together were a Parks Canada carnivore specialist, local hunter experienced in nature & the outdoors, a wolf conservationist from NLW, a young woman representing youth/ future, a wildlife photographer / author from Switzerland who has observed ecosystems with and without top predators maintaining the balance. Check out our website to view the ACTION ALERT generated for the event!

Maps below indicate the need for wolf buffer zones in Canada's Central Rockies. Dotted lines indicate national park boundaries, coloured sections represent wolf pack territories extending outside. INSIDE these parks there are highways and railways, millions of tourists each year, and more focus on visitor experience instead of ecological integrity. Dr. Paul Paquet has described them as "ghetto parks". Watch for Peter Dettling's upcoming book release "The Will of the Land", where he relates stories of wildlife struggling to survive in these "protected areas". He has timed the release of the book to coincide with Banff National Park's 125th anniversary.