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CPAWS Southern Alberta

@cpawssab

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Albertans dedicated to protecting our public lands and waters 🌲💧🐻 🐟🏔🌾⁣⁣

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⚠️ BREAKING ⚠️

@YourAlberta has removed provincial habitat protections for the endangered #GreaterSageGrouse without ANY public consultation or official announcement.

Just last week, we were celebrating this beautiful species, emblematic of Alberta’s #grasslands. Now, we’ve learned that protections for ~2,800 square kilometers of land — a whopping 74% of the bird's protected area — have been eliminated ❗

This is a staggering blow and, as Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta Mark Boyce is warning, "Without these habitat protections we will lose Greater Sage-Grouse from Canada” 💔

What’s more, the @AlbertaEnergyRegulator has *already* approved the construction of a plant site by a helium extraction company in what WAS a recovery area for the bird.

Helium development such as this will require new well-sites, processing facilities, vertical structures, and roads — infrastructure that was limited by the now-removed provincial habitat protections, and which is known to have severe impacts on Alberta’s ‘most at-risk' species 🚧

We couldn’t be more disappointed, or disturbed, by the Government of Alberta’s reckless decision to endanger the few remaining Greater Sage-Grouse we are so fortunate to have in our province, and which have held on only through serious and sustained conservation efforts.

#Alberta #SpeciesAtRisk #Wildlife taken in Alberta, Canada by @cpawssab

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14 hours ago

When we started this series, we set out to show examples of when forestry operations in #Alberta are insufficient to the task of protecting both at-risk species like #NativeTrout and their #CriticalHabitat.

It’s also worth noting that the examples featured in ALL six of the posts are from the same watershed: Daisy Creek, a key watershed supporting westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout in the Upper #OldmanRiver Watershed.

In the last post in our series, we have an example of westslope cutthroat trout being observed immediately upstream and downstream of a new logging bridge over Daisy Creek. Moreover, a spawning event was observed just upstream of the bridge.

The creek is also Critical Habitat for #BullTrout, which are known to spawn here.

The risks from access roads and crossings built in highly sensitive threatened trout habitat is inherently very high – and we've seen that failures to protect habitat are widespread across the region.

The examples in this series are not one-offs, nor are they cherry-picked:

These problems are systematically occurring across the region (as documented in reports published by both @AlbertaWildernessAssociation and @CPAWSSAB) and acknowledged by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, who this year said, “Despite these legal protections, it appears that the protections are not fully effective in protecting Bull Trout and their critical habitat”.

We call on @FisheresandOceansCan and logging companies across Alberta to do better: The survival of our native species depends on it. taken in Oldman River by @cpawssab

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6 days ago

This Thursday, we want to highlight one of #Alberta’s most at-risk species:

The #GreaterSageGrouse.

This beautiful — and, admittedly, a little bizarre — bird dwells in the southeastern corner of our province and is listed as endangered under both the Alberta Wildlife Act and Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

It’s the largest of the North American grouse species and its uniquely adapted to sagebrush habitat found in our #grasslands 🪶

However, they are sensitive to disturbance and to habitat loss. Much of their habitat has been lost, or degraded, through cultivation, resource extraction, and other human development. Today, there are fewer than 100 individuals remaining in Alberta.

There have been significant efforts to improve remaining sage grouse habitat, including the decommissioning and reclamation of oil and gas wells.

“We’re seeing more reclamation on the landscape than I’ve ever dreamt of in my career. The hope is to keep our population on the landscape long enough for it to respond to this reclamation work” - Joel Nicholson, Senior Wildlife Biologist with Environment and Protected Areas (EPA).

It wasn’t so long ago that sage grouse numbered in the thousands in #Canada and were found over a wide range in southern Alberta 💛

This is just one reason — and an urgent and important one — that we need to keep fighting for effective species at risk legislation and the integrity and expansion of #AlbertaParks and protected areas.

🎥 BBC taken in Grasslands by @cpawssab

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8 days ago

The latest blog in our #SustainableTourism series is out now 👀

This time, we're tackling a thorny question: Striking the delicate balance between growing #Alberta's tourism economy AND protecting the landscapes, and communities, which make our province such an incredible destination.

Spoiler alert — it requires far more than a single policy. We believe that sustainable tourism demands a coordinated approach that incorporates:

🏔️ Comprehensive land-use planning;
🦉 Expansion of Alberta's #ProtectedAreas;
🪵 Responsible development assessment and management;
🍃 Climate adaptation and mitigation;
💬 Accountable, informed, and transparent management;
🪶 Indigenous leadership and meaningful consultation; and
🥾 Local economic opportunities and equitable community benefits.

These 'pathways' can't operate independently, either — each of the above addresses a different aspect of our tourism economy and ecosystem — and progress on one depends on progress across all.

Head to the link in bio to learn more 🔗

📷 Mitchell Leong | @mitchell.leong

#AlbertaParks #AlbertaTourism taken in Alberta, Canada by @cpawssab

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9 days ago

👀We spy a wetland surrounding the stream channel of a tributary on Daisy Creek — Critical Habitat for #BullTrout and #WestslopeCutthroat Trout — that’s been logged right *up to the edge* of the wetland.

With absolutely NO protective buffer in place.

Wetlands like this one are all part of the same hydrological system in the Upper #OldmanRiver Watershed that support native trout survival. With the trees removed, they can easily dry out. We need to protect them just like we need to protect creeks, streams, and other waterways.

#easternslopes #speciesatrisk by @cpawssab

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13 days ago

Conservation, as we have said before, must be an act of reconciliation 🪶

It also must be one of decolonisation if we are to begin healing, and making material reparations, for the wounds inflicted on land, water, wildlife, and the First Peoples of Turtle Island by colonisation.

Today, on #NationalDayforTruthandReconciliation, we encourage you to reflect — to read, listen, learn, or commit to an act or service — that furthers the principles of Truth and Reconciliation in #Alberta and #Canada 🧡

It is not a holiday. It is an opportunity to consider the ways in which all of us — in conservation and across sectors, industries, and society writ large — continue (knowingly or otherwise) to perpetuate colonialism.

At @cpawssab, we are proud that we have committed through our bioDIVERSITY work to continuously advance conservation that disrupts and, we hope over time, contributes to the dismantling of the social, economic, and environmental policies, institutions, and frameworks that sever the #IndigenousPeoples of #Treaty7 and beyond from their land, culture, language, cosmology, and lifeways 🦬

We also know that we still have so much work to do. We are firmly committed to doing it and, consequently, our offices are closed today so that our staff can participate in the learning, and unlearning, that this day asks of all of us.

So, if you've made it this far, consider pausing, closing this app, and exploring the ways in which you can meaningfully participate ⛰️ taken in Turtle Island by @cpawssab

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16 days ago

Conservation is a key part of wildfire resilience.

Emergency response will always be crucial, as will community programs like @firesmartalberta, but they don’t address the underlying conditions that are increasing wildfire risk, like forest degradation, biodiversity loss, land-use decisions, and climate change 🔥

If we want landscapes that are able to withstand and recover from wildfire, we also need to invest in creating and maintaining healthy ecosystems. We need to protect intact forests and habitat connectivity, conserve biodiversity and ecological processes, and support Indigenous stewardship.

And in heavily logged forests, we also need to look at how forest management can support resilience, by maintaining greater tree diversity, retaining more fire-resistant species and, where appropriate, using tools like tree thinning 🌲

@cpaws_national has a great new article that dives deeper into how we should be rethinking wildfire resilience in #Canada, and why conservation needs to be part of the wildfire toolbox.

Link in bio to check it out 🔗

📷 Ryan Peruniak of #Waterton post-wildfire

#Wildfire #CanadaWildfires #AlbertaWildfires taken in Waterton Lakes National Park by @cpawssab

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17 days ago

Fish, Forests, and Logging: Part 4 💧

We’re back with the next post in our joint series exploring forestry operations gone wrong.
 As a reminder, Daisy Creek watershed is in the headwaters of Napi-tahtaa (the #OldmanRiver) and is home to both westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout, both of which are #SpeciesAtRisk 🍃🐟🌲
 Here, we have a crossing of a mapped #CriticalHabitat stream where trout were observed ~750m downstream. Erosion and sediment control measures were installed — but as is the case all too often, they have failed.
 Sediment has flowed from overwhelmed cross-drains on the road upstream and is draining directly into the stream.️ This sediment directly impacts trout survival – it degrades spawning habitat, reduces food availability, and increases mortality ⚠️
 The bridge also fails to span the entirety of the wet groundwater saturated riparian area and riparian vegetation has been *removed* under the bridge where equipment was driven across the stream, causing further damage to habitat.
 The measures put in place at this location were simply not good enough — and DFO should not be issuing permits that allow habitat to be impacted in this way. by @cpawssab

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20 days ago

🚨Every single designation under this Act has removed public lands from the protected areas system🚨

In case you missed our reels last week, here’s what’s happening to Alberta’s parks and protected areas right now:

The All-Season Resorts Act, which was introduced less than two years ago, is being used by @youralberta to open up lands parks and protected areas to commercial development. ❗Already, it has been used to remove nearly 3,000 acres of previously protected public lands.

This is absolutely NOT what Albertans have been asking for. In fact, the government’s own summary of consultation for the most recent All-Season Resort Area designation for the Silvertip Gondola stated that public feedback emphasized “that provincial park boundaries and protected areas are established through extensive planning and should be maintained to ensure long-term conservation.”

CPAWS Southern Alberta is urgently calling on the Ministry of Tourism and Sport to stop using protected public lands to accommodate large private commercial developments.

📧 Send your letter today to demand that the government:

1. Stop removing protections from Alberta’s parks and protected areas to accommodate private development.

2. Complete proper land-use planning before approving All-Season Resort designations, to avoid ecologically important areas (Wildlife corridors, areas already experiencing congestion, etc.)

🔗 in bio to learn more and take action.

#DefendAlbertaParks #defendABparks #kcountry #bowvalley #banff #canmore by @cpawssab

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21 days ago

Hey @youralberta, there IS a way to grow tourism sustainably in this province.

Using the All-Season Resort Act (ASRA) as a backdoor to remove protected lands and open them to private development IS NOT IT. (In case you missed it, check out our Conservation Specialist Emma’s reels on ASRA from last week.)

But that doesn’t mean we can’t welcome visitors to Alberta’s incredible landscapes.

In our latest blog, Emma breaks down six research-backed principles for building a tourism economy that would actually benefit Albertans.

Rather than taking a ‘more, everywhere’ approach, these principles highlight the importance of making sure tourism dollars benefit local communities and economies, taking a big-picture approach to planning and managing cumulative impacts across the landscape, supporting Indigenous-led tourism, and building accessibility into the process from the start.

Don’t let the government and developers convince you that tourism growth has to come at the expense of conservation. It simply isn’t true.

🔗Link in bio to learn more about what tourism in Alberta *could* look like if we start doing things right.

📸 by @mitchell.leong by @cpawssab

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23 days ago

❗Breaking❗ More protected land stripped of its status to make way for private development.

Today, Alberta’s Ministry of Tourism and Sport approved the designation of lands associated with the proposed Silvertip Gondola as an All-Season Resort Area.

This decision removes land from Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park and removes the ecological safeguards that previously prevented the Silvertip Gondola from proceeding because it was incompatible with existing land-use protections.   Rather than choosing a more appropriate location for development, @youralberta has chosen to simply remove protections from this part of the park.

The proposed gondola would run directly through the Upper Silvertip Wildlife Corridor and up to the top of Mount Lady MacDonald. It is expected to bring 300,000 visitors a day into this sensitive area. 
This is the first new All-Season Resort Area designation since the original three (Fortress, Nakiska and Castle Resorts) were announced when the All-Season Resorts Act was launched. 
🚨All four designations have removed public lands from the protected areas system.  The All Season Resorts Act is being used as a back door to remove public lands from the protected areas system, despite the MASSIVE public outcry during the #DefendAlbertaParks campaign in 2020, and despite recent polling that shows the majority of Albertans want MORE protected lands, not less.

Yesterday, this land was part of Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, and today it is open for private development.   Our parks will continue to be chipped away if we don’t act now.

📧Link in bio to send your letter today.  
#defendABparks #BowValley #Canmore by @cpawssab

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a month ago

🪵 Logging has been approved in the #Highwood, and could soon be approved in Loomis Creek, despite the fact that both areas contain important, federally protected Critical Habitat for threatened native trout.

For logging to proceed, @FisheriesOceansCan (DFO) must grant West Fraser Cochrane a permit allowing them to destroy Critical Habitat. They have already granted one for the Highwood.

One of DFO’s main justifications is offsetting — the idea that habitat lost in one location can be compensated for by restoring habitat elsewhere nearby. West Fraser claims its offsetting plans will fully compensate for the destruction of #bulltrout Critical Habitat in the Highwood and Loomis Creek.

Unfortunately, the evidence doesn’t show that offsetting is a reliable way to protect species at risk.

Learn more about the questionable logic behind claims that these offsetting plans will make the Highwood and Loomis Creek logging “no net loss” in our latest blog. Link in bio.

#defendalbertaforests #KananskisClearcut #speciesatrisk #KCountry #Fishing by @cpawssab

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a month ago