A micro blog of our current wildlife struggles in BC and those of us as individuals who are inactive, over opinionated but under-educated
If you live in B.C. currently, and you are an avid user of our province’s backcountry, our forests & our waters, I am sure you have heard what we are facing. British Columbia is not only Canada’s most ecologically diverse province, with arid desert interiors, temperate rain forests, alpine ranges and dry pine forests; it is also Canada’s most biologically diverse province as well. British Columbia is home to more than 50% of all indigenous fish & wildlife species. Our protected areas, wildlife habitat, recreation sites, cultural sites and parks contribute to 14.1 million hectares (nearly 15% of the province) where no industry or industrial development is allowed to take place. We, as in both residents and industry, are facing constantly emerging challenges, such as climate change, addressing the needs of listed species, unforeseen habitat changes (such as our mountain pine beetle epidemic, which acutely altered the ecology of our landscape which lead to significant implications for wildlife due to dramatic losses) and strategizing new policies to put in place to support impacted wildlife and the needed habitat to allow species to recover. The interface in how wildlife and humans interact is becoming increasingly complex and crowded. Wildlife needs biodiversity to thrive. Wildlife needs biodiversity to adapt. We as inhabitants of this province, and we as industry need to remain diligent to this.
Why are we ignoring science? Why are our political leaders telling us that science is no longer valid, but that our emotions and emotional based public platforms are more ethical? Why are we allowing our political leaders to voice lies, nice fluffy easy to remember round numbers; numbers that do more shock and awe than truth and why are we allowing them to promote unethical practices when regarding our wildlife? Why are we as citizens concerned over properly managed hunts, but not concerned with the fact that our forestry industry is spraying herbicide and eliminating moose habitat by planting pine (because that is what our industry dictates) to replace spruce (which is better moose habitat) and quite literally starving the moose out? Why are we not concerned about this? Yet we are comfortable voicing our opinions as fact and we are comfortable in using horribly graphic death threats to anyone that opposes our believed view. Currently there are a number of concerns from our critically endangered steelhead fisheries, our cat hunts, our backcountry access, our red listed maternal caribou penning and our moose mortality rates to just brush the surface from this already short year. (albeit these issues have been going on for a decade or longer)
We are fighting for science, we are asking public to stop blanketing their one time encounter to all wildlife. We are asking for you as citizens to ask questions, to question bias, to demand that science based conservation to be at the forefront of our psyche and political agenda. This week I have put pen to paper and wrote letters to Horgan our premier, Doug Donaldson minister of FLNRORD (Forests Lands Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development) and my regional MLA leader, these letters will not stop. Political elections are coming up, and now we are able to speak with our vote. So I encourage you, to look past the beauty store sponsored “survey” that only surveyed volunteers in one single demographic of the province, to look for bias when photo-touring companies are promoting anti-hunting-question who is their governing body and who keeps them in check, question our industries, question why our Department of Fisheries would want to bury scientists concerns over endangered steelhead, question your own intentions for conservation. Are you concerned about wildlife?- are you involved fiscally, are you involved with action, are you doing more than simply converting your plastic straw to paper? Are you involved?
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