GRASSROOTS ENVIRONMENTAL DECLARATION

For British Columbia’s

INLAND TEMPERATE RAINFOREST REGION

The undersigned agree that any credible program to stem species loss in the Inland Rainforest Region must include the following elements. We join together in urging the Canadian, British Columbian, and First Nations governments to implement these actions as quickly as possible, and we hereby issue a plea to the world to help us achieve these changes.

1. SUBSTANTIALLY MORE PROTECTED AREAS AND WILDLIFE TRAVEL CORRIDORS must be created and permanently legislated.

2. REDUCE THE ALLOWABLE ANNUAL CUT – a dramatic reduction in the annual volume of forest harvested is necessary to maintain other critical values and functions of the forest.

3. FULL PROTECTION FOR ALL OLD-GROWTH FOREST 140 YEARS OR OLDER, including low- and mid-elevation Interior Cedar-Hemlock.

4. REMAINING INTACT AREAS – roadless areas that contribute to ecological integrity by providing seclusion for wildlife or stability for watersheds and wild rivers must be identified for full protection or other conservation zoning.

5. PROTECTION FOR ALL SUBPOPULATIONS OF SPECIES AT RISK — in BC the most threatened subpopulations of species at risk are sometimes subjected to harmful human impacts, using the excuse that the population is too small to recover. It is argued that protection efforts must be focused elsewhere, where populations are highest. This practice, which takes place even inside parks, dooms species-at-risk to extinction through a process of cumulative local extirpations, especially on the fringes of their shrinking home range. All habitat capable of being used by species at risk is high-value habitat. No mountain caribou herd, nor other endangered subpopulations such as the Granby grizzly, should be “abandoned;” in other words, their habitat should not be subjected to developments and activities that will disturb or displace them. Recovery will include increased, fully protected habitat for each subpopulation.

6. RESTRICT MOTORIZED RECREATION — recreational use of ATVs, snowcats, snowmobiles and helicopters should be eliminated from critical habitat of high-elevation species at -risk such as mountain caribou, grizzly bears and wolverines.

7. OPEN PUBLIC PROCESS — public process managed with the collaboration of the First Nations, provincial and federal governments and must identify the various conservation zones.

8. HABITAT RECOVERY ZONES FOR AREAS ALREADY LOGGED – critical for mountain caribou to survive, logged areas must have recovery techniques such as thinning of forest and brushing alongside roads. There should be no logging adjacent to critical caribou habitat until the forest recovers to natural early seral levels, to reduce alternate prey.