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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1071224
FEBRUARY 2019 BCBUSINESS 15 DAVID MOSKOWITZ R oss Cloutier wants to help save B.C.'s southern mountain caribou—but not at any cost. Renewed efforts to protect the threatened animals could hit his $150-million industry hard, says the executive director of Helicat Canada, which represents the country's heli-skiing and cat- skiing operators. "Things are happening very fast right now, and we have some real concerns that deci- sions are being made based more on opinion than science," explains Kamloops-based Cloutier, whose group's mem- bers include 30 companies in B.C. "I think all sectors have a part to play in mountain cari- bou, and our industry is defi- nitely willing to be a partner." There's no time to waste. Last May, federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna put B.C. on notice: do more to save the mountain caribou, or Ottawa will use the Species at Risk Act to impose conserva- tion measures. Cloutier has been lobbying on Helicat's behalf as the provincial govern- ment scrambles to reach a bilateral conservation deal with the feds. Saving the mountain cari- bou will require uncomfortable choices between economy and ecology. Since 2006, the prov- ince, the federal government and industry have spent more than $12 million on caribou conservation efforts such as controversial predator culls, maternal penning (provid- ing predator-proof corrals for mothers and their calves), and radio collaring of wolves and caribou. B.C. has also set aside some 200,000 hectares of cari- bou habitat outside national and provincial parks, using a government action regulation (GAR) to prohibit logging. Helicat Canada members already follow special moun- tain caribou operating guide- lines, including a minimum 500-metre flight distance from the animals, and offer special training for pilots and guides. They're willing to do more. For example, the province recently agreed to share caribou collar telemetry data, something the industry has been requesting for years. Cloutier says that will enable Helicat to conduct a "real-time ski run management trial" this season. In most areas south of Prince George, though, the mountain caribou continue Down for the Count As the push to conserve the province's dwindling southern mountain caribou population gathers steam, heli-skiing and forestry are just two industries feeling the squeeze by Andrew Findlay E N V I R ON M E N T ( the informer ) O N T H E R ADA R HERDING BEHAVIOUR 3/18 Known southern mountain caribou sub-populations in B.C. that haven't seen decrease or extirpation 1,200 The province's southern mountain caribou population, versus about 2,500 in 1995 UNDER SECTION 80 of the federal Species at Risk Act, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna can issue an emergency order and make decisions about resource extrac- tion, tourism and other land use activities that are normally provincial responsibilities if it decides a province isn't doing enough to recover a threatened species LOCKING HORNS The local decline of a species is putting ecology on a collision course with the economy SOURCE: GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 2 Times the feds have issued an emergency order: in 2014 to protect the greater sage grouse in Alberta and Saskatch- ewan, and in 2016 for the western chorus frog in Quebec