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May 2009
Welcome to On the Wild Side, WCS Canada’s e-newsletter. Through this newsletter we hope to keep our colleagues and supporters informed about the great wildlife conservation work being done by WCS across Canada. The newsletter appears approximately six times a year and we welcome any comments or suggestions, which can be emailed to wcscanada@wcs.org. Information on subscribing and unsubscribing is at the bottom of the newsletter.
Big fish stories
Dr. Jenni McDermid is making a name for herself with her fish work in Northern Ontario. As well as doing regional media interviews about the state of the all-important recreational fishing industry, she has been interviewed for newsletters and podcasts by Wilderness North, one of the area’s largest outfitters. Jenni’s scientific work has focused on identifying key species for conservation planning— the current short list includes lake sturgeon, lake trout and walleye – and this research is about to be submitted for publication. Fish are a big part of northern living — and of healthy northern ecosystems — so we expect that Jenni’s research will continue to be closely followed by both scientific colleagues and fishing enthusiasts alike.
Quiet, please
Thinhorn sheep have to be thick-skinned to survive the harsh winter climate of northwestern Canada, but even they have their limits. WCS Canada’s Research Scientist, Dr. Don Reid, is working hard to map thinhorn sheep winter habitats before further development affects their range. The primary threats are mining and adventure tourism — primarily heli-skiing. So these sheep may have to deal with more roads and/or with the noise and disruption of helicopters ferrying skiers over their territory. Understanding what areas are important to the sheep can help planners avoid putting roads or flight paths through critical areas. Don has now provided both the provincial government and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation with detailed information on sheep winter habitat.
Leave it to beaver
Global warming means that the interior of Canada will be warmer and drier. This will have major ramifications on water levels in streams, rivers and wetlands that harbour significant wildlife. A potential ally in conserving ecosystem resiliency, particularly freshwater systems, in the face of climate change may be the beaver, which is widely known for its engineering role in altering the flow of water. WCS Canada’s Dr. John Weaver has started a new project studying the role of beaver in conserving water and how this may help mitigate some of the effects of climate change. He hopes to demonstrate that beavers and their dams will be critical to maintaining water supplies for farmers and landowners in the western interior and that protecting the beaver is the easiest and most economical way to keep the taps flowing.
Getting it right in Ontario's boreal
WCS Canada Executive Director Justina Ray was invited to be on a nine-member scientific advisory team — the Far North Science Panel — struck by the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources with the mandate “to provide the best scientific and technical advice to the Minister of Natural Resources on how to achieve the government’s vision for the Far North.” That vision was announced last July by Premier McGuinty, who committed the government to protecting at least one-half of Ontario’s northern boreal forests (approximately 225,000 km2) within the framework of a formal land use planning process.
Thanks to four years of investment in northern Ontario research, WCS is well-positioned to provide information to inform this process regarding the status, distribution, and ecology of caribou and wolverine — wildlife vulnerable to land use change. Additionally, Justina was appointed to serve as the terrestrial mammal co-chair of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and to serve on the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO), the federal and provincial bodies, respectively, for assessing species at risk.
(Photograph by Garth Lenz)
Welcome Cheryl – Thank you to the W. Garfield Weston Foundation
With generous support from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation, WCS Canada is delighted to announce the recent arrival of our newest staff member, Cheryl Chetkiewicz who joined us in March as Associate Conservation Scientist for Northern Ontario. Cheryl’s interest in wildlife and wild lands was nourished by a childhood spent in Zambia, England and Alberta ultimately leading her to a career as a conservation ecologist. In her research, Cheryl has focused primarily on carnivore conservation. She received a Masters of Science from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and recently completed her PhD at the University of Alberta, where she focused on identifying and designing local wildlife corridors for cougars and grizzly bears in the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation corridor.
Caribou and the North
Don’t forget to pick up your copy of Caribou and the North: A Shared Future which provides a great introduction to caribou biology and also outlines the significant threats facing this keystone species. The foreword was provided by Robert Redford and the illustrations by Robert Bateman. The book was coauthored by WCS Canada Executive Director Justina Ray and Monte Hummel of WWF. You can order a copy online directly from its publisher, Dundurn Press or, check your local book store.
On the Wild Side is published six times a year for
colleagues and supporters of our wildlife conseration work. To subscribe, click here. To unsubscribe,