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BC Wolf Management Plan Scapegoats Carnivores

Let Minister Steve Thomson (Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations) know how you feel about his ministry’s “Draft management plan for the Grey Wolf in BC.”

Here are some key points.  Contact info is below.

  • It’s a deeply flawed plan with scientifically unsound and uninformed objectives.
  • The plan represents an exaggerated view of the impacts of wolves on livestock and hunting opportunities, while failing to consider the many ecological and economic benefits of having significant wolf populations in BC.
  • The plan identifies wolf conservation as important, but focuses almost exclusively on predator control.
  • The recommended strategies inappropriately conflate and confuse management of wolves with conservation of wolves.
  • The plan promotes contradictory strategies that include protection of wolf populations, hunting and trapping of wolf populations, control of wolf populations, protection of livestock on public lands, and culling of wolves to protect caribou.
  • Despite rhetoric about conservation, the main thrust is clearly predator control.  The goal is to reduce predator impacts on huntable species like moose, elk and deer, plus contribute to a presumed reduction in livestock conflicts. Any rational review of the impact of wolves on BC’s hunting opportunities, as well as livestock industry, would demonstrate that there is no “problem” in need of solving.

Raincoast Conservation Foundation is strongly opposed to any increase in wolf hunting and/or trapping and recommends that BC revamp and reconsider the fundamental assumptions behind hunting predators.

More details

Download the Province’s proposed wolf management plan 2012 (PDF)1

Download Raincoast comments on BC Wolf Management Plan (PDF)

Write to: Minister’s Office, Honourable Steve Thomson

PO Box 9049 Stn Prov Govt  Victoria, BC  V8W 9E2
Email: steve [dot] thomson [dot] mla [at] leg [dot] bc [dot] ca
Telephone: 250 387-6240  Fax: 250 387-1040

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  1. Download Province’s proposed wolf management plan (original link, broken: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/public-consultation/grey-wolf/docs/PublicConsultation-WolfManagementPlan.pdf)

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Coastal wolf with a salmon in its month.
Photo by Dene Rossouw.