A fresh case of illegal caribou harvesting on the winter road northeast of Yellowknife is being investigated, the NWT government says. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources says officers found “nine caribou suspected to have been illegally harvested” inside a Bathurst herd no-hunting zone on March 18. Evidence was collected by officers at the scene. The investigation remains open,” the department stated. An additional case related to the “suspected wastage of one caribou” northeast of the Ekati diamond mine is also being investigated. Anyone with information about that case is asked to call North Slave wildlife officers on (867) 873-7181. “Most hunters on the winter road are harvesting safely and respectfully out on the land, and we are all working together to support the conservation and recovery of threatened barren-ground caribou herds,” the department stated.

As protesters gathered for their weekly effort to share their ‘Free the Permit’ message, MLA Jackie Tegart arrived in Merritt with other opposition members to support the Aspen Planers employees and contractors affected by recent closures and curtailments at the company’s Merritt mill. Tegart said she and her colleagues were there to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with forestry workers, who she said are being ignored by the provincial government. Along with Tegart, BC Liberal MLAs Mike Bernier and Michael Lee also joined protestors as the official critics for forestry and indigenous relations, respectively. Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz was also in attendance to show his support. “These workers and their families are hurting. They need reassurance that the government is working swiftly to get them back on the job,” said Tegart. 

A series of ancient landslides have been “reawakened” in BC’s Cariboo region, costing hundreds of millions in federal disaster assistance funds and prompting warnings that logging is connected to the problem. The slides and flooding in spring of 2020 and 2021 washed out roadways surrounding Quesnel, where geotechnical studies have also linked ongoing land movement beneath hundreds of homes with historic, slow-moving landslides. …A B.C. government web page attributes the “unprecedented slides and road washouts” in the Cariboo to wildfires and weather patterns linked to climate change, saying the historic slides were “reawakened” and “reactivated.” But University of B.C. forestry professor Younes Alila says forest loss due to extensive logging, as well as mountain pine beetle infestation and wildfires, is playing a key role in the hydrological disruptions behind the slides. Alila said he’s concerned money being spent on rebuilding roads will be wasted if officials and engineers don’t account for that.

Decades of logging has led to a “consistent and strong warming effect” in several salmon-bearing rivers across central BC, adding another layer of heat stress to already struggling juvenile fish, a new study has found. The research, published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences last week, examined 28 tributaries of the North Thompson River between Kamloops and the Rocky Mountains. Along riverbanks where a third of trees had been logged over the past 50 years, average temperatures were found to spike beyond 17 degrees Celsius — enough to stress juvenile coho salmon before they get a chance to migrate toward the sea. …Juvenile coho thrive in rivers with water temperatures between 12 and 15 C in the summer. As water warms, it holds less oxygen. Anything higher than 17 C can stress juvenile coho. …As Cunningham put it: “The health of our streams is deeply connected to the health of our forests.”

Public feedback is requested to inform the next stage of the Lakes Resiliency Project to create a forest landscape plan, co-developed with First Nations and forest and range licensees. British Columbians are encouraged to submit their feedback …through an online questionnaire …until May 12, 2023. The draft Current Condition Report examines forest and ecosystem health in the Lakes Timber Supply Area, a 1.5-million-hectare region in north-central British Columbia that consists of several communities, including Burns Lake, Decker Lake, Grassy Plains and Danskin. The report contains the condition of resource values and factors for the area, such as First Nations values, ages and growing stock of trees, as well as the current states of fish, water, wildlife and wetlands. Public responses to the report will support the creation of the forest landscape plan (FLP), aimed at strengthening healthy ecosystem management, including biodiversity, silviculture, visual management, water and wildlife habitat.