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Caribou Protection
A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic. - Edward O. Wilson
Roaming wild expanses of forests mountain caribou historically traveled throughout Canada and the northern United States. Tragically, this community of wandering large creatures, with their distinctive antlers, their large hooves adapted to snowy landscapes, their peculiar reliance on arboreal lichens, and their backdrop of stunning old-growth forests, have been distilled into a minor issue, an afterthought, or an obstacle. These caribou have survived two ice ages, human development, and human degradation of their land. These endangered animals symbolize the valuable remains of what once was a thriving ecosystem, with clean air, clean water, and pristine forests.
Today evidence reveals that human disturbance has caused tremendous habitat loss, and fragmented the once great population into isolated smaller groups. Their numbers in Canada and the US have plunged 30% since 1997, from 2400 to fewer than 1700 today, making them as endangered as Africa's disappearing black rhino. The Selkirk Mountain caribou population is the only caribou population remaining in the coterminous US, and is considered one of the most critically endangered mammals in the United States. This herd of around 34 caribou is a globally unique species found only in the inland temperate rainforests of southeast British Columbia and parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana.
In 1984, the Selkirk Mountain population was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Logging, road building, and motorized recreation are some of the identified causes of habitat loss, predation, and increased mortality of the species. One of the primary threats identified by federal agencies and the conservation community was snowmobiling activity, which displaces suitable habitat, increases predation, and radically affects reproduction and survival.
Snowmobile use is an extremely recent addition to the list of human disturbance. Rapid technological changes allow more and more people to travel off trails and into previously undisturbed federal land. Agencies have found themselves unequipped to manage areas already traversed by motorized use, and have been unsuccessful at resolving continued snowmobile violations. Despite Forest Service research documenting the adverse effects of snowmobiling activity on caribou, and without the research and documentation required of logging and mining activities for potential effects on our public watersheds, the Forest Service has encouraged snowmobile use in the Caribou Recovery Area.
Because of these violations of the Endangered Species Act, The Lands Council, along with other area conservation groups filed suit in federal court. This does not suggest that snowmobiles should be illegal; it asks for a minuscule yet necessary fragment of US federal land to be managed as a rare wild resource, unique to our country, and precious to endangered caribou.
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