Wildlife

yeah I sent e-mails to my rep. and others. to keep on them. Shocked

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

Some more info on our Big White Fluffy Friends up North.

Polar bears walking on thin ice

Last week, the U.S. government listed the polar bear as a threatened species under its Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Interior Department made the decision under pressure, including legal petitions, from environmental organizations. Its reluctance to legally protect the species is evident in the caveats it has placed on the listing, most notably limiting the implications for U.S. climate-change policy. Nevertheless, the ruling does give polar bears more protection in the U.S. than in Canada.

Despite similar pressure from conservation groups in Canada, and despite recommendations from the federal government’s own committee of experts on endangered wildlife, little has been done to acknowledge the precarious position of the polar bear in this country. In April, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) as a species of "special concern" - which is one step below a "threatened" listing and two steps below "endangered" - but the government has not yet listed it as such under the federal Species at Risk Act. The bear was also assessed as "special concern" in 1991, 1992, and 2002, but in 2005, the federal government referred the issue back to COSEWIC for a reassessment. The lesser designation is to reflect the fact that the species was evaluated as a whole; although the decline of some populations has been well studied, other polar bear populations aren’t yet showing declines.

The bear is protected to some extent under provincial law: Manitoba, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador have all listed it under provincial endangered species acts.

Thirteen of the world’s 19 distinct polar bear populations - or 15,000 of the Arctic’s 20,000 to 25,000 bears - live in Canada, with 12 of those populations living a least partly in Nunavut. Studies have found that numbers for five populations are declining. But the factors in those declines - including melting ice flows caused by global warming, habitat loss, overhunting of some populations, increased shipping traffic and oil and gas exploration, and persistent organic pollutants - may put other populations at risk as well.

Although Canada’s Environment Minister, John Baird, acknowledged the role of global warming in commenting on the U.S decision, both the current government and the previous Liberal government have been dragging their feet on the issues of global warming and polar bear protection.

The U.S. government took pains to ensure the polar bear’s new legal status is not used to address the main cause of the problem. According to the New York Times, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use the listing to deal with greenhouse gases that cause global warming. That, despite his admission that "the decision was driven by overwhelming scientific evidence that ‘sea ice is vital to polar bears’ survival,’ and all available scientific models show that the rapid loss of ice will continue."

Minister Baird has at least come around to expressing concern about the link. "Let’s be clear that there's no doubt that global warming is a major factor and a major concern in this," Minister Baird told the Vancouver Sun after the U.S. announcement. "It’s not just global warming, but it’s human-induced global warming which is what we need to take action on."

The international community has also flagged global warming as a major threat to the survival of polar bears. On listing the polar bear as a "vulnerable" species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature stated: "Due to their long generation time and the current greater speed of global warming, it seems unlikely that polar bear will be able to adapt to the current warming trend in the Arctic. If climatic trends continue polar bears may become extirpated from most of their range within 100 years."

With global warming opening up northern seaways to more shipping and oil and gas exploration, the federal government must do more to protect polar bear habitat, on land and at sea.

COSEWIC’s recommendation that the polar bear be listed as "special concern" under the Species at Risk Act will go to government in August. Although a listing of "threatened" would lead to better protection, the "special concern" listing would at least require the federal government to prepare a management plan that identifies key threats and the means to address them. Provincial and territorial protection is a patchwork approach; a national vision is needed. Minister Baird must ensure that a management plan does more than outline plans for monitoring and research. It must also addresses the root of the problem by finding more ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Until this occurs, the polar bear will remain on thin ice.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

> A great little video about how changeing a small amount of land can seriously change everything in it <
Even some rare footedge of the great Spirit Bear fishing Cool

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/Suzuki.mpg

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Last edited by Drummer Dave on Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:57 pm; edited 2 times in total

David Suzuki is absolutely right. we need all our ecosystems. Sad

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

>>>> Alittle Bird Talk <<<<

The macaw, the toucan, and the manduvi

No matter how much I learn about nature, I never cease to be amazed by its mystery and complexity. That point really struck me in light of a recent study in the journal Biological Conservation about the relationship between the hyacinth macaw, the toco toucan, and the manduvi tree.

The hyacinth macaw is an endangered bird in central Brazil. It has a reputation for being picky when it comes to choosing a home: it lives almost exclusively in natural hollows in manduvi trees, which don’t grow in great numbers in the region. In an effort to help preserve the bird and its habitat, Dr. Marco Pizo and his research team at the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos explored how the manduvi tree’s seed is spread. They found that the toco toucan collects and disperses more than 83 per cent of the seeds.

So far, so good. But here’s the kicker: The toucan is the macaw’s main predator. Besides feeding on the whole seeds of the manduvi, the toucan also has a big appetite for macaw eggs. The researchers also observed toucans taking over macaw hollows and killing the nestlings.

And so, ironically, the macaw depends on its main predator, the toucan, for its survival.

This fascinating relationship has led to what the report’s authors call "a conservation biology puzzle" because "any conservation plan for hyacinth macaws must take into account the toucans, which would not normally be done because of their predator status and because toco toucans are not particularly threatened."

It’s a puzzle that illustrates the importance of seeing the big picture when it comes to protecting the environment. Attempting to manage a single species in isolation can’t work because nature is just too complex. Take the caribou, an iconic species found throughout Canada. Caribou are in trouble across their expansive range. In British Columbia, populations of mountain caribou that inhabit the Interior rainforests have plummeted to an estimated 1,900 individuals from historic levels of about 10,000. The main threat is the destruction of its old-growth forest habitat by commercial logging, but scientists believe that predators, like wolves and cougars, may have also played a role in the caribou’s decline. Because of this, the B.C. government has initiated a plan to kill wolves and other predators, in addition to protecting significant areas of the caribou’s habitat. Such "predator control" wildlife management practices are increasingly being proposed or used elsewhere in Canada. However, because the science of predator-prey interactions is poorly understood, these methods can have severe and unintended consequences. In the case of the hyacinth macaw, killing its main predator would ensure its demise.

We must understand the broader context if we want our wildlife management plans and conservation efforts to succeed.

Governments have been talking about this "ecosystem approach" for some time, but so far they’ve been slow to follow the talk with action. The official (and somewhat bureaucratic) name for one area off Canada’s West Coast even acknowledges this broader-context approach: the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area, or PNCIMA. This 88,000-square-kilometre marine region next to B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest encompasses the central and north coast and Haida Gwaii and is home to a fascinating variety of life, from basking sharks and blue whales to massive kelp forests and glass-sponge reefs. Although the federal government has committed to using an ecosystem approach for managing the PNCIMA, it has taken little action to implement the process. Environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, used World Ocean Day, June 8, to draw attention to this fact and to the lack of marine protected areas in Canada’s ocean territories.

Like the Earth’s forests, oceans are complex environments where everything is interconnected. Whether on land or at sea, large population changes (including extinction) in one species can have cascading effects throughout the ecosystem.

Good conservation planning requires efforts by local communities and governments at all levels to base decisions on an understanding not just of each species in isolation but of ecosystems as a whole. And we must keep in mind that we’re a part of that whole, even though our relationship with nature is often as complex and tricky as the relationship between the hyacinth macaw and the toco toucan.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

	Drummer Dave wrote:
	>>>> Alittle Bird Talk <<<< It’s a puzzle that illustrates the importance of seeing the big picture when it comes to protecting the environment. Attempting to manage a single species in isolation can’t work because nature is just too complex. .

That's so true. Everything is connected in some way to everything else. Despite all the knowledge that we have accumulated over the millennia, we are just beginning to scratch the surface when it comes to understanding the world we inhabit.

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"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

^

You got it Bushrat. As smart as we think we are,.... we really barely know anything. I mean, yes, we have come along way in just 100 years, but thats just in progress in what we want to learn.... War, Power, Tech, Destruction. We are good at that. But very few of use want to take care of what we have, & not destroy are land, No matter where you live on this planet.
But as of lately, it seems that more & more people are looking at what we are loseing, and wanting to help fix it Cool

To little to late ? i like to think not !. We may just get on the right track here soon. Fingers crossed.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

good point dummer dave. I hope that there is still hope. Very Happy

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

>

< Some rain Forest Talk

Growing alternatives in the rainforest

Recent photos of an "uncontacted tribe" of Amazon Indians on the border between Peru and Brazil have reminded us once again of how much we still have to learn about the world’s tropical rainforests. The people, some of whom are painted bright red and are brandishing bows and arrows at the airplane from which the photos were taken, are believed to have so far avoided contact with the "outside" world. They are no doubt unaware that high-level global talks now taking place in that outside world could have a profound effect on their lives.

That’s because of the important role forests play in global warming. We know that reducing carbon emissions is the primary way to slow climate change, but preserving forests is a key component as well. Forests are carbon sinks; that is, they absorb and store carbon. When trees are cut down, that carbon is released into the atmosphere, thus speeding up global warming. In fact, scientists estimate that about 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. Governments and conservationists have considered a number of ways to protect the forests in ways that will allow the people who live in them to survive and even prosper.

One of the more admirable ideas is to increase the value of renewable resources from tropical rainforests, such as fruits, nuts, rubber, and medicinal plants, and to promote activities like ecotourism. But despite efforts of companies in the developed world to create new markets for rainforest products, it’s simpler to cut down the trees for forestry and agriculture, including ranching. In a recent article in Conservation magazine, anthropologist Ricardo Godoy of Brandeis University is quoted as saying that "tropical rainforests are worth more for their global than for their local value."

Many believe that if we in the rich countries want to save the world’s rainforests, we’ll have to pay. It could turn out to be a comparative bargain. Some economists, including former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern, have concluded that preventing deforestation is the most cost-effective method of keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.

But how do we go about it? One idea discussed at the United Nations climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, in June is referred to as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD. The initiative, introduced by the governments of Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica at UN climate change talks in Montreal in 2005 and included in subsequent discussions, is expected to be a major part of the agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2013.

Two main strategies are being considered under REDD, both of which involve carbon credits and carbon trading. One would allow industrialized nations to meet Kyoto emissions-reduction targets by providing grants to developing countries if they reduce rates of deforestation. The other would allow countries that avoid deforestation to earn carbon credits that they could sell on the global carbon market.

Regardless of the method or methods, a lot of work still needs to be done to make sure the plans succeed in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a way that benefits the people who live in the tropical rainforests.

The issue is complicated and the potential pitfalls are many. For example, the market-driven system of selling carbon credits may not benefit those people who live in the forests and make their living off the products of the intact ecosystem because it would only pay those who are currently logging to stop. We also have to face up to the fact that when providing grants to countries that reduce deforestation, it can be difficult to ensure that the money benefits the people and not corrupt governments.

In some areas, indigenous people have already lost land and rights because governments have turned over forest "reserves" to companies charged with protecting them.

Let’s hope that the UN discussions lead to some viable solutions – solutions that preserve biodiversity and include all the inhabitants of the rainforest, including the uncontacted tribes. It’s unlikely that money will solve everything, but it may be a start to addressing the problems of poverty, economic change, and global warming.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

I only caught the headline but the photographer faked the discovery.

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No man (or woman) will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself/herself, or to get all the credit for doing it. -Andrew Carnegie

^ How do you " fake " a discovery ? .. maybe the headline about the photogragher was " fake " ? to cover up somthing, Just to throw people off.
One never knows in this day & age.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

I like turtles Very Happy

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Limitations are created only in the mind.
Only by ignoring them can one truly be great.

I feed my wild birds.

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

	Drummer Dave wrote:
	^ How do you " fake " a discovery ? .. maybe the headline about the photogragher was " fake " ? to cover up somthing, Just to throw people off. One never knows in this day & age.

Per your inquiry I looked into the whole story. The photographer works for the government by mapping the areas where the tribes live so that the land can be protected. The photographer was overzealous and was trying to prove that not contacting the tribes was better overall for the tribe itself. He feels that because the tribe members were painted red that means that they were ready for war and defending their territory. It turns out that the tribe was already a known tribe. The mixup about the tribe being a "lost" tribe was a miscommunication between Survival International and the media.

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No man (or woman) will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself/herself, or to get all the credit for doing it. -Andrew Carnegie

Ah, ......... thanks for clearing that one up Dutchman. Cool

Cheers

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

I didn't know that thanks. Very Happy

_________________
I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

This is some good news for Canadians but all can read it. Cheers

Keeping the true north strong and free – from our own footprint

Are Canadian politicians finally paying serious attention to the environment? Recent events and announcements give us reason for optimism.

Last week, we wrote about the federal Sustainable Development Act and how all the political parties put aside their differences to support this important new law. We’ve also seen a lot of progress lately on the part of some provincial governments regarding global warming. The Ontario government’s recent commitment to protect 50 per cent of its intact boreal forest offers further hope that governments are getting serious about protecting the planet.

On July 14, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty committed to preserve 225,000 square kilometres of northern boreal forest under the province’s Far North Planning Initiative. That’s an area one and a half times the size of the Canadian Maritimes! It’s a significant commitment, and it’s something more than 1,500 of the world’s scientists had asked for, including us.

The boreal forest stretches across the northern part of Canada, touching almost every province and territory and covering 35 per cent of the country’s total land mass. It represents about one third of the world’s circumpolar boreal system and one quarter of all intact forests remaining on the planet. The region supports three billion migratory songbirds and more than 200 species of animals, including dozens of threatened or endangered species such as woodland caribou, grizzly and polar bears, wolverine, lynx, and white pelican.

Ontario’s northern boreal region makes up 43 per cent of the province’s land mass, extending from the northern limits of the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence forest to the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Under the plan, half of this massive region would be protected in an interconnected network of conservation lands.

The announcement is significant not just in terms of conservation but also because it marks the first time a government in Canada has explicitly recognized the role nature conservation must play in combating global warming. The boreal’s forests and peatlands absorb and store massive amounts of carbon, making them a hedge against global warming caused by emissions from human activity. Scientists estimate that Ontario’s northern boreal alone absorbs 12.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

It’s difficult to describe the global significance of Canada’s boreal forest. It’s one of the last places on earth where human activity hasn’t yet upset critical predator-prey relationships, natural fire regimes, and hydrological cycles. And economists conservatively estimate that the ecosystem services provided by the boreal, such as water filtration, pollination, and carbon storage, have 2.5 times the economic value of market resources extracted each year, such as oil, minerals, and timber.

As significant as the Ontario government’s announcement is, we have to be cautious in our optimism. For one thing, we don’t know if protecting 50 per cent will be enough to conserve the region’s biodiversity, particularly species like caribou that depend upon vast tracts of intact habitat. And we have yet to learn what areas will be put off limits to development. Fortunately, the government has committed to working with First Nations in the region to develop comprehensive land-use plans.

We must also ensure that the government doesn’t use its announcement to protect the sparsely populated and largely unthreatened northern boreal as justification for further expansion of industrial development in the southern boreal, which is far more attractive to industries such as forestry and mining. Already the southern boreal has been heavily fragmented by logging, mining, and roads, leading to steep declines in populations of some sensitive species such as caribou.

The areas not slated for protection under this plan – in both the northern and southern boreal – must be managed in a sustainable way based on sound scientific principles. Furthermore, the government should reverse its recent decision to give the forest industry a one-year exemption from new habitat-protection regulations under the province’s Endangered Species Act.

Still, with this announcement, Ontario has taken an important and courageous step, one that we hope other provinces will follow. For example, Quebec has protected less than five per cent of its own boreal forest, and although it has plans to increase this, it has yet to make a commitment as visionary as Ontario’s.

The recent attention governments have been paying to the environment are positive signs. But successful conservation efforts can’t be limited to aspirational goals announced at news conferences. We all have a responsibility to make sure governments live up to their commitments.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

I signed a petion to save the Boreal Forest and think that is wonderful news. Very Happy

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

High diesel prices for trawlers not enough to protect “idiotfish”
Reprieve doesn’t let federal government off the hook

July 31, 2008 VANCOUVER – High fuel prices have kept bottom-trawl boats from fishing the longspine thornyhead off Canada’s Pacific coast this year, but the federal government must still impose an immediate interim closure of the fishery to ensure the “idiotfish” and its sensitive habitat are protected, according to the David Suzuki Foundation.

“This is the most unsustainable fishery in Canada’s Pacific waters under any scientific criteria. It targets a species at risk, and takes place in sensitive deep-water habitats,” said David Suzuki Foundation senior conservation specialist Bill Wareham. “This fishery is akin to a mining operation for precious metals, scouring miles of precious habitat for little fleshy nuggets.”

The Foundation wants the fishery closed until Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) implements a management plan to rebuild the population and protect its habitat, and develops a transparent public-advisory process to oversee the fishery. Although high fuel prices combined with market factors have led to a curtailment of this fuel-intensive fishery, government regulation is needed to ensure the longspine thornyhead – referred to by industry as “idiotfish” – and its sensitive habitat are protected from bottom trawling.

“It took crude-oil prices of $125 a barrel to change fishing practices. Given that DFO’s own scientific-review process has clearly identified concerns with the fishery, it makes you question why the fisheries-management system hasn’t been changed to date,” Mr. Wareham said.

The David Suzuki Foundation asked the DFO in March for an interim coast-wide bottom-trawl closure in all waters deeper than 600 metres, but attempts to deal directly with government and industry on reforming the fishery have not resulted in any progress.

In August 2007, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) officially listed the longspine thornyhead as special concern. Later this year the federal government will decide whether to legally list it under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

The bottom-trawl fishery in Pacific waters has made tremendous progress over the last decade to become more sustainable. However, the deep-sea component of this fishery remains as one of the most destructive in Canada.

“This diesel-based fishery closure is an opportune time for conservation groups and industry to work together to come up with an ecosystem-based management plan,” Mr. Wareham said.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

thats intresting. let us know what happens. I am with the idiotfish. Very Happy

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud