Re: Canada's So-Called Secret
One fact the story about marbled murrelets omits is that there are over
50,000 of these birds on the coast of BC and an equal or greater number off
Alaska. There is no indication of population decline. The populations off
California were probably never as high as this is the southern extent of
their range. Also, the coastal areas of California, Oregon and Washington
State have been far more deforested for farming and urban development than
will ever be the case in BC, where the mountains go right to the sea. It is
ludicrous to suggest that there will be an insufficient supply of large
limbs on the BC coast for Murrelets to nest in. There are so many cliffs and
inaccessible areas covered in old trees that the logging here will never be
a threat to the murrelet's survival. As with the spotted owl, the murrelet
is being used for preservationist goals when there is no chance that logging
would ever cause their extinction.
And about the salmon: the big problem is Alaskan fishermen refusing to
reduce their catch of fish that originate in Canadian rivers. Canada has a
very good record in salmon conservation. The salmon treaty between the US
and Canada must be resolved but it is difficult due to problems on the US
side, not Canada.
Cheers
Patrick Moore, Greenspirit
http://www.greenspirit.com
May the Forest be With You
Snail Mail:
4068 West 32nd Avenue
Vancouver, B.C. V6S 1Z6
Canada
-----Original Message-----
From: DavidOrr <DavidOrr@aol.com>
To: FOREST@listserv.funet.fi <FOREST@listserv.funet.fi>
Date: Saturday, April 18, 1998 1:59 PM
Subject: Fresno Bee: Canada's Dirty Little Secret
Canada's dirty secret
(Published April 18, 1998)
Consider the contrast between California and Canada in efforts to
protect an endangered sea bird, the marbled murrelet. Congress and the
state are in the process of ponying up $380 million to buy a prime tract
of bird habitat in Northern California's Humboldt County, the ancient
redwood grove called Headwaters. Loggers are prohibited from cutting the
tall trees that would kill the birds. Landowners who wish to log in bird
habitat must devise complex plans to preserve habitat while logging.
Meanwhile up in Canada, in far too many cases, all loggers have to do in
order to clear-cut murrelet habitat is to leave one or two trees
standing and post a "do not disturb" sign on them.
Animals know no political boundaries. The United States, at considerable
taxpayer expense, is seeking to preserve species up and down the coast,
most recently the chinook salmon runs in Washington's once-pristine
Puget Sound. It is both unfair and unconscionable for neighboring
Canada to benefit from our environmental efforts (its fishermen can
catch rejuvenated salmon species off the coast) while making the U.S.
environmental efforts more challenging by the degrading of their part of
overlapping species ecosystems.
The Clinton administration got nowhere in 1997 when it asked Canada to
strengthen its environmental laws. As efforts to protect the species
increase domestically, so must diplomatic efforts aimed at Canada.
The problem with Canada's Endangered Species Act is that it mandates no
methods to protect any of the 291 species that it has identified as
endangered. As one environmental lawyer told the New York Times, "It's
like a hospital that registers its patients but doesn't treat them."
While there appears to be some domestic sentiment within Canada to put
some teeth in its environmental laws, volatile domestic politics are
preventing that. Pressure to keep power within Canada's 10 provinces
prevents the country's federal government from passing nationwide
reforms.
Yet in the provinces where some of the worst damage is occurring, such
as British Columbia, the resource extraction industries hold a lock on
power. Provincial leaders don't want to enact tougher rules without
other provinces simultaneously doing so.
It is a recipe for inaction. And it somehow must be broken. The Clinton
administration's February proposal to list the chinook salmon of
Washington under the Endangered Species Act may make the inadequate
environmental efforts in Canada seem less remote and
disconnected. The problems are very much the same. In the end, so must
be the solutions.
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