WCS Canada Annual Report 2017

"WCS is one of the most impressive, foremost organizations working to save the world’s wildlife." - Sir David Attenborough, January, 2017


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We Stand for Wildlife

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Linking big wild areas has big potential

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"Protecting large wild areas like Alberta's Bighorn Backcountry can give species room to adapt to climate change.

The idea of conserving a critical wildlife corridor along the spine of the Rockies is the kind of big picture thinking WCS Canada embraces. We understand that if we want to keep species like grizzly bears, wolves, and caribou thriving in a wild landscape, they need room to move, especially in the face of a rapidly changing climate. That’s why we have been working hard to protect two key pieces of this corridor – the Bighorn Backcountry in Alberta and the Peel Watershed in Yukon.

Our plan for protecting the Bighorn, a rugged mountain landscape nestled next to Banff and Jasper National Parks, has been well received in Alberta. As an area that is a critically important source of water for millions of Albertans, there is little doubt about the economic importance of protecting this slice of mountain heaven, but it is equally valuable ecologically. The Bighorn contains some of the best remaining habitat in southern Alberta for species such as wolverine, grizzly bears, bighorn sheep and cutthroat trout thanks to its remote and roadless habitat, cold water streams, and deep river valleys. We are optimistic that the Alberta government will use the scientific research developed by WCS Canada Senior Scientist Dr. John Weaver to add another jewel to the province’s crown of mountain parks.

Further north, a legal battle has been in full swing over protection of the pristine Peel Watershed in Yukon. WCS Canada Scientist Dr Don Reid played a central role in developing recommendations for the protection of this ecologically diverse and jaw-droppingly beautiful area. However, when the territorial government tried to reverse a widely supported plan to protect 80% of the area, First Nations and conservation groups fought back. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in early December 2017 that the previous government’s actions had been unacceptable. The recently elected Yukon government says it will restore the strong protection in the original recommended land-use plan in cooperation with First Nations.

That’s a great step forward because as research by WCS scientist Hilary Cooke makes clear, we need to protect big wild areas if we want to protect wildlife. Dr Cooke spent months analyzing the thousands of watershed catchment areas that make up the Yukon’s Boreal Mountains region looking for the largest most intact areas that can form the building blocks of a robust conservation lands network in the territory. Using cutting-edge computer modelling she mapped out a number of options for creating such a network and ensuring a wild future for Yukon. Dr Cooke explained the importance of this work in an interview with CBC radio last spring. It’s all part of the work of bringing big conservation visions to life on the ground.

WCS Canada researchers are in the field collecting the information we need to better conserve wild places and wildlife.

Capturing Arctic sounds

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Who is watching the land?

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Right now, there is a big blind spot in many of our efforts to ensure that wildlife and wild places remain healthy in the face of climate change and new developments. In far too many places, no one is actively monitoring changes.  And if no one is watching, how do we know what the impacts of new developments such as roads and mines really are? How will we understand how wolverines are responding to climate change, fish to new dams, or caribou to clearcuts? 

To shed a little light on this issue, WCS Canada has been reaching out to the people who often know the land best – First Nations – to talk about developing Community Based Monitoring (CBM) efforts. As people who regularly travel across wild landscapes, Indigenous peoples are well positioned to describe the changes they see and gather information about wildlife populations or health, changes to the land and social changes brought about by new roads, climate change or other new developments. 

To support these outreach efforts, we have produced a new report, Watching, Listening, and Learning to Understand Change that discusses best practices and highlights CBM programs from around the world. Our Ontario Landscape Lead, Cheryl Chetkiewicz explains the value of CBM on our Muddy Boots blog.

 

First Nations are well positioned to track what is happening within their traditional territories, including changes brought about by development.

Inidgineous people's connection to the land allows them to quickly see changes.

Could bats benefit from a trip to the grocery store?

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"We need to understand where bats are in order to deploy measures to help them survive WNS.

WCS Canada is investigating whether bats could benefit from the same probiotic approach that has taken foods like yogurt by storm. The idea is relatively simple. Bats are dying by the millions due to a fungal disease called White-nose syndrome (WNS). If “good bacteria” to fight the WNS fungus could be applied to bats, it might be possible to reverse at least some of the devastation being caused by the disease. WCS Canada bat researcher Dr Cori Lausen is working with colleagues at Thompson Rivers University in B.C. and McMaster University in Ontario on developing such a probiotic treatment, which could slow the growth of the fungus that is wreaking havoc on bat colonies in eastern North America.

Now that the WNS-infected bats have been found in Washington State, researchers believe it is only a matter of time until the disease appears in B.C. and Alberta. Protecting bats in the West is urgent, but we know from extensive field research that western bats do not gather in large colonies to hibernate during the winter like eastern bats do, so simply spraying colonies with a probiotic treatment is not an option. This is why WCS Canada’s ongoing efforts to better understand western bat behaviour is so important – we can only help bats if we can find them before WNS does.

Crawling through caves to deploy acoustic monitors and track bats is all part of a day's work for our bat scientists.

Fresh perspectives

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WCS Canada’s W. Garfield Weston Fellows program is helping young scientists make an impact across Canada. By supporting graduate student research on important conservation issues, these fellowships give us new insights into both conservation challenges and help to develop new research approaches.

 

 

Help make species saving science happen

Stand with us to protect wildlife and wild places by making a donation to our conservation science across Canada.

 

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Your support for our scientific research, knowledge sharing and policy development helps us to go further, learn more and paint a better picture of what is at stake in Canada’s wild places. Our unique blend of on-the-ground field science, cutting-edge conservation research and well-informed policy input has helped to protect key areas like Nahanni National Park, the Peel Watershed in Yukon and bat caves in British Columbia. But we focus on more than individual places or species – we also look at how to change perceptions, approaches and even laws to better keep the wild alive across Canada. Our supporters – large and small – make this work possible and we thank you for being a part of our work to save wildlife and wild places. Together, we stand for wildlife.

 
 

Thanks for your support

Together, We Stand for Wildlife

 
 

Phone:

(416) 850-9038

E-Mail

wcscanada@wcs.org

Address;

344 Bloor Street West, Suite 204, Toronto, Ontario. M5S 3A7

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