Save Our Caribou From Extinction

Canada's southern mountain woodland caribou are teetering on the brink of extinction. In the past two decades, the total population of southern mountain caribou has been nearly cut in half. This year, at least two herds in the Kootenays have been declared functionally extinct.

We need to act now if we are going to save our caribou.

Caribou require large areas of undisturbed, interconnected habitat where they can separate themselves from predators, modify their movements to avoid natural and human-caused disturbances and activities, and be close to a sustainable food source.

This past summer, the federal government determined that the southern mountain caribou population is facing imminent threats to its recovery. While Alberta has not taken action, a draft recovery plan was released in BC earlier this summer. However, the plan would not recover enough habitat to match the total amount of land being developed by industry, plus development continues to fragment key caribou habitat.

This is not a recovery plan: it's an extinction plan. The federal government now needs to decide how to move forward with emergency protections to fill in the gaps left by the provinces.

We need your help to up the pressure. Sign and urge the federal government to protect critical habitat this fall, and maintain them until the provincial governments ramp up their efforts to protect the future of Canada's caribou and the wild places they call home.