Caribou Protection Undone - Illegally Reopened Road

[skibum]

What do you guys think, someone working up there? or someone pissed about access to recreation?


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/caribou-protections-threatened-by-illegally-reopened-road-in-northeastern-b-c-1.4378750

A caribou restoration project in northeastern B.C. has suffered a major setback after somebody illegally restored a road that was deactivated to help protect calves from wolves and other predators over the winter.
Woodland caribou herds are facing extinction in B.C. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-woodland-caribou-face-extinction-despite-government-protection-study-1.3072963), including the Klinse-Za herd in the South Peace region of the province. This year, a road leading into the herd's winter territory was deactivated in order to make it more difficult for wolves to hunt the caribou, but that work has now been undone.
In 2013, there were just 16 animals in the herd, down from nearly 200 in the 1990s. Those numbers are being restored thanks to efforts being led by the Saulteau and West Moberly First Nations.

Willson said roughly $60,000 was spent pulling out culverts and piling up trees, dirt and rocks in order to make the road impassable. He was surprised anyone would spend the time and money to reverse that.

"It probably took them the better part of a day or two. They had to pay for the equipment, pay for the fuel," he said.

"Somebody with some disposable money did this."

According to a spokesperson for the forests ministry, the incident is being investigated as a potential violation of the Forest Range and Practices Act, which comes with a maximum penalty of $500,000 and two years imprisonment.
Wolves on the hunt

"Wolves, which are a major predator, can travel up to four times faster on roads, and that makes their hunting way more efficient than under natural conditions," explained Scott McNay, the wildlife biologist in charge of the restoration program.


He said by closing the road, natural conditions were being restored, making it easier for caribou to survive.
"Predators are always going to be hunting caribou, we just want that to occur as it would naturally, rather than being assisted by humans," he said.
McNay also said the reactivation is particularly troubling as the road leads towards a maternity penning program, in which pregnant female caribou are captured and allowed to raise their calves in a protected environment over the summer before being released.

"One of the first things we noticed after the incident were two sets of wolf tracks that are using the new roads to access calving range," he said.
"That's where all the caribou were hanging out."
Willson said plans are underway to once again deactivate the road, but it represents a significant financial blow to the restoration program.
"It's a waste," he said.
"There's an animal on the edge of extinction that's there because of human activity ... and we're on kind of the crux of we're either going to have caribou or we're not."

[squamishhunter]

If it's the place near wilow flats I know of, i bet it's either to do with the pipeline work that's going on, or the logging contractor working up there.

[boxhitch]

Typical CBC story telling. They would rather write up one guys banter instead of researching the truth, the rest of the story

[123.brewski]

I didn't think wolves needed roads to travel on

[604redneck]

Helps them move faster though

[cptnoblivious]

When I read that story, I was shaking my head.

Wolves should have no problem getting around a little bit of road deactivation. So, once on the other side, they can just keep cruising along. So either there were details missing or they just weren't making sense. Unless long stretches from that road were torn up and restored...

[Xenomorph]

When I read that story, I was shaking my head.

Wolves should have no problem getting around a little bit of road deactivation. So, once on the other side, they can just keep cruising along. So either there were details missing or they just weren't making sense. Unless long stretches from that road were torn up and restored...

It's media, do you expect clarity and common sense over inflammatory rhetoric and misinformation? What world do you think you live in, wonderland?

[skibum]

Agree on trusting CBC to contain all the facts -

On the deactivation, I question it too --- One of wolves I shot was out of a pack that was moving smoothly along a skidder trail that I have trouble walking on to retrieve the kill

[Brez]

I didn't think wolves needed roads to travel on
They don't. Neither do we. it's a lot faster with a road though, don't you think? Wolves are not stupid and will cover a hell of a lot more ground much quicker with roads all over the place. This gets them to a different food supply that much quicker and hence, the wolf populations do a lot better. Everyone says shoot the wolves but no one wants to bite the bullet to make it tougher on wolves by getting rid of unneccesary roads. With all of the access in northern Alberta due to all of the logging roads, logging clear cuts, cut lines, seismograph lines, pipe lines and fossil fuel access roads, the wolves are having a field day. My friends will trap and kill 25 - 30 wolves per year in the same area and the next year there will be easily as many wolves there again.

[Brez]

Agree on trusting CBC to contain all the facts -

On the deactivation, I question it too --- One of wolves I shot was out of a pack that was moving smoothly along a skidder trail that I have trouble walking on to retrieve the kill
Jeeze man, you gotta give it time to grow in

[Dannybuoy]

When I read that story, I was shaking my head.

Wolves should have no problem getting around a little bit of road deactivation. So, once on the other side, they can just keep cruising along. So either there were details missing or they just weren't making sense. Unless long stretches from that road were torn up and restored...
When they deactivate the roads , they now pile brush and tear them up so bad a deer can't even walk on it , at least here in the WK that's what they started doing.

[cptnoblivious]

When they deactivate the roads , they now pile brush and tear them up so bad a deer can't even walk on it , at least here in the WK that's what they started doing.

Thanks for that, it's different than what I'm used to (i.e. dig out culverts, make a bigger hole and pile stuff up on the other side)

[HappyJack]

Deactivation's won't slow the wolves down much, they deactivate to keep people out not wild animals.

[Drillbit]

Deactivation's won't slow the wolves down much, they deactivate to keep people out not wild animals.

No kidding.

Anyone that thinks deactivating a road will slow down a wolf they should work for the CBC

[mooze]

No kidding.

Anyone that thinks deactivating a road will slow down a wolf they should work for the CBC


a major purpose is to keep sledders out. Sleds compact the snow so that wolves walk on the tracks easily and cover distance. So if you block roads for sledders and have them grow over again, the goal is achieved. Not an immediate solution though, willows and trees need time.

[Walking Buffalo]

When they deactivate the roads , they now pile brush and tear them up so bad a deer can't even walk on it , at least here in the WK that's what they started doing.

There is a nugget in this post.

Besides making predator travel less efficient, road deactivation makes these roads less attractive to prey.

One factor in road/predator mortality rate is the probability predators will make contact with prey.

The less often prey use the roads, the less chance predators will find them.

[303savage]

illegally restored a road that was deactivated to help protect calves from wolves
Since when has deactivating road stopped wolves?

[sthdslayer]

Read post number 15

[Dannybuoy]

Since when has deactivating road stopped wolves?
Apparently the powers that be have decided that it indeed does , maybe a biologist saw a photo in a magazine that showed an elk killed by a wolf on a road ? Gotta love science !! Not !

[Dannybuoy]

Read post number 15
Yeah .... like sleds need roads ....

[BRvalley]

no biologist said road deactivation "stops" wolf movement, it's mitigating the beneficial impact that human development gives wolves, they do move faster on linear features and increase their search rate, which equals more prey killed....it wasn't a photo in a magazine, it was gps collars

it seems most folks on here agree wolves need to be managed, but the only HBC approved solution is hunting...so how successful is the average hunter at shooting wolves? how many active trappers out there? new trapper recruitment? newbies get ripped apart for even asking questions about wolves, "leave that to the experienced guys, you dumbasses are only educating wolves" lol

what's so offensive about biologists utilizing non hunting measures to help mitigate the impact from wolves? it's not the end all answer, but it's a piece of a complex solution

[HappyJack]

no biologist said road deactivation "stops" wolf movement, it's mitigating the beneficial impact that human development gives wolves, they do move faster on linear features and increase their search rate, which equals more prey killed....it wasn't a photo in a magazine, it was gps collars

it seems most folks on here agree wolves need to be managed, but the only HBC approved solution is hunting...so how successful is the average hunter at shooting wolves? how many active trappers out there? new trapper recruitment? newbies get ripped apart for even asking questions about wolves, "leave that to the experienced guys, you dumbasses are only educating wolves" lol

what's so offensive about biologists utilizing non hunting measures to help mitigate the impact from wolves? it's not the end all answer, but it's a piece of a complex solution

Non hunting measures? Like poison?? Or live trap and spay? OR??

[BRvalley]

OR??.....road deactivations, as was mentioned in the article.....

specifically targeting road deactivations that lead to critical winter range and calving pens

I have no issue with trapping to kill or poison programs

[Dannybuoy]

OR??.....road deactivations, as was mentioned in the article.....

specifically targeting road deactivations that lead to critical winter range and calving pens

I have no issue with trapping to kill or poison programs
Sorry but my recent interactions with bios involving fish and wildlife have left me wondering what planet they have been studying.
Having said that there may be some merit to road deactivation in some m u's but in the rugged terrain I seriously doubt that .

[BRvalley]

my conversations with bio's in region 7a & b have been pleasant, even when they denied releasing aerial survey data to me lol, but agree some decisions in the province are questionable

I do think the road in question falls in the "some merit" category though

[Bugle M In]

When they deactivate the roads , they now pile brush and tear them up so bad a deer can't even walk on it , at least here in the WK that's what they started doing.
I was starting to wonder what they meant as well...
But how much of these roads do they tear up....all of it?
If so, ok, I can see that working, but 100 yards or so, I can't see that making a difference.

[Cordillera]

The type of work being done to reduce predator movement is not like normal deactivation. It is pretty thorough and involves long stretches of road. It is more “restoration” than deactivation. Imagine tearing up the road, planting trees then tossing a bunch of debris all over plus maybe the odd windrow that is hard to get over. In some places they have tried fences etc etc. There is a pile of research in places like Alberta on how to do it including using collars and game cameras before and after. The science is showing that if it’s done right wolves use these rehabilitated features less and that therefore they kill fewer caribou. But it’s new in bc.