If we don't give a hoot about spotted owls, what will move us? - Globe and Mail

By: Dr. David Schindler, Karen Kraft Sloan & Dr. Rick Smith

You think you had a bad week last week? Be thankful that you're not an endangered plant or animal.

A British study released on March 18 showed that butterfly species in recent decades have declined 71 per cent, bird species declined 54 per cent, and plant species showed a decrease of 28 per cent. Scientists say the study is further proof that we are in the midst of an extinction crisis akin to the one that killed the dinosaurs 63 million years ago.

The last extinction phenomenon was likely caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth, but the current crisis is caused primarily by human activity that is destroying the places that endangered plants and animals need to survive.

Reversing the extinction trend will require a serious commitment from many sectors, but it cannot be done without government leadership.

How have our governments measured up to this challenge? In British Columbia last week, it was revealed that the provincial government secretly authorized wildlife officials to shoot a protected species, the majestic golden eagle, ostensibly in an effort to save the highly endangered Vancouver Island marmot. The scientists on the marmot recovery team who are doggedly trying to save the species were not even made aware of the killings.

The primary threat for the marmot is not the eagle. Even if there were enough golden eagles to comprise a meaningful risk for the marmot, it would be minuscule compared to the threat caused by industrial activity in the marmot's habitat. Similarly, while the B.C. government admits that clear-cutting is leading to the extinction of the spotted owl, it has steadfastly refused to do anything about it.

The federal government's efforts to protect species have not been much better. After a long and bitter campaign by environmental groups, scientists and back-bench MPs, the Liberals finally passed a Species at Risk Act (SARA) in 2002. The law was supposed to come into effect last June, but Environment Minister David Anderson let government bureaucrats -- who opposed the protections set out in the law when it was passed -- delay implementation for an extra year.

Once the act finally comes into force, it states that the places where a species feeds and rears its young will be protected. Feeding areas were specifically added to the law by MPs when the legislation was being passed, a move strongly resisted by bureaucrats at the time. In a discussion paper released last week, bureaucrats have now decided they will thumb their nose at parliamentarians, and refuse to protect feeding areas, despite the law's inclusion of the term.

The law's protections for the habitat of endangered plants and animals apply only to species lucky enough to find themselves on the 5 per cent of Canada within federal jurisdiction -- that is, national parks, defence lands and, yes, post offices. But animals tend not to know when they are stepping outside of federal land. And as soon as they do, the protections are no longer automatic.

The law does allow the federal government to step in when provincial laws are not adequately safeguarding a species, which should be good news for B.C.'s spotted owl. The owl is the most-endangered bird in Canada, having declined by 67 per cent between 1992 and 2002. Just 14 adult owls were recorded last year in B.C., the only province where it is found. B.C. has no endangered-species law, and the province is ignoring the advice of its own government scientists, who have recommended protecting the owl's habitat.

It's hard to think of a more compelling case for federal intervention than the spotted owl. Yet Mr. Anderson has indicated that he doesn't want to use his authority to protect species. In response to

a request to intervene to save the spotted owl earlier this month, he stated, "I don't think we want to test the act for its muscle."

Without protection of its habitat, the spotted owl will be gone forever, as will hundreds of other species, each of which uniquely contributes to the global ecosystem. They will join the Labrador duck, Dawson's caribou, and dozens of other species that we have already quietly lost.

Mr. Anderson would prefer to wait before deciding what to do about Canada's endangered plants and animals.

But the failure to act now to save species that are circling the drain is very much

a "decision." It is an extinction decision, and one that both federal and provincial governments should be held accountable for.

Dr. David Schindler is the Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology at the University of Alberta. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was recently named to the Order of Canada. Karen Kraft Sloan is Liberal member of Parliament for York North and a former parliamentary secretary to the minister of the environment. Dr. Rick Smith is the executive director of Environmental Defence Canada.

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