©David Moskowitz

Kootenay-based environmental group Wildsight is calling for an interim moratorium on logging and road building in core southern mountain caribou habitat. The moratorium should stay in place until permanent protections are in place, says Eddie Petryshen, Wildsight Conservation Specialist. Petryshen says that in an agreement signed in February 2020, the province of B.C. committed to actions to stabilize caribou populations. These actions included increasing protection of habitat. “With one year left before the agreement expires, almost no progress has been made, and caribou habitat continues to be logged,” he said. …B.C.’s overall caribou populations has dropped from an estimated 45,000 to 15,000 over the last century. The deep-snow herds have declined from 2,500 in the 1990s to approximately 1,250 today.