Syilx Okanagan Nation files emergency order to protect caribou from logging
Three mountain caribou herds face extinction as old-growth forest habitat continues to be cut. The Frisby-Boulder herd is functionally extinct with just eight animals.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
The Syilx Okanagan Nation has petitioned the federal government to invoke emergency powers under Canada's Species at Risk Act to protect three southern mountain caribou herds threatened by ongoing logging of critical habitat.
On May 28, the Nation filed for an emergency order under Section 80 of SARA to compel Environment and Climate Change Canada to act. The Frisby-Boulder herd west of Revelstoke is already functionally extinct with only eight caribou remaining. The Central Selkirk herd east of Nakusp continues declining and sits at around 27 animals. The Columbia North herd in the Monashee Mountains has the best survival prospects at roughly 185 caribou, though long-term habitat recovery remains uncertain.
Okanagan Indian Band Chief Dan Wilson said in a statement: "The current provincial and federal recovery measures have failed to address ongoing habitat destruction and cumulative effects across caribou ranges. Without immediate and enforceable habitat protection measures, styíłca̓ɂ (caribou) will be lost forever."
Section 80 of SARA allows the federal government to intervene when a species faces imminent threat. It's a rarely used tool—the feds have invoked it only three times before, for greater sage grouse in Alberta and Saskatchewan and for the western chorus frog in Quebec. The Nation says provincial and federal governments have not yet finished mapping critical caribou habitat, complicating enforcement of their own forestry protection standards.
