(May 30, 2008) The trans-border region encompassing the watershed of the legendary South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories and adjacent areas in southeast Yukon Territory comprises some of the last, large wildlands in North America.  Across these boreal forests and mountains roams one of the most iconic but vulnerable species of Canada:  the woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou).  In this context, a chronicle of caribou travels in a relatively pristine landscape can provide ...

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(October 30, 2007) The "southern Canadian Rocky Mountains" -- between Banff National Park and Glacier National Park at the U.S. border -- support an assemblage of carnivores that appears unique in North America for its intact diversity.  Due to their particular geographic position, the southern Canadian Rockies also represent one of the most strategically important sections in maintaining broad ecological connectivity in the western mountains of North America.  A new WCS Canada report, the third in this ...

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(October 19, 2007) In 1972, the original boundaries of Nahanni National Park Reserve were established to protect the famed canyons and waterfalls of the South Nahanni River from a proposed dam and reservoir. In early 2003, the Canadian government made an interim withdrawal of 23,000km2 from development, based in part upon Dr. John Weaver’s initial field survey of grizzly bears. However, this withdrawal order left out over 5,000km2 in five separate enclaves with mineral potential scattered across this huge wa...

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(September 19, 2007) Introducing a new WCS Canada Conservation Report, the second in our series, entitled Freshwater fish in Ontario's boreal: Status, Conservation and Potential Impacts of Development.  This report, by David R. Browne, is a comprehensive review of freshwater fish conservation issues and research gaps with a geographic focus on the northern half of Ontario --the most intact boreal forest/wetland area in North America. It provides important context for impending land use decisions in this region ...

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(June 02, 2007) Following fishers, a member of the weasel family, is full of pitfalls. Conservation biologists generally tell how many fishers are in an area by using tracking boxes, a non-invasive device that will record a fisher's tracks. Unfortunately, if there were several fisher tracks in the same area, it was always impossible to tell whether one or many fishers actually left them. That was until Dr. Justina Ray, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Canada, and colleagues, were sitting aroun...

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(June 01, 2007) A workshop organized by WCS Canada the Canadian Boreal Initiative and was held February 28 and March 1, 2006 at the University of Ottawa with habitat needs of woodland caribou as the central focus.  The goal of the gathering was to explore how much consensus there is among caribou scientists about what is and what is not caribou habitat, and on parameters or thresholds for maintaining sufficient woodland caribou habitat in the face of large-scale anthropogenic disturbances.  Presently,...

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(June 01, 2007) Too small, too narrow - this is the problem facing Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories. Created in 1972 to protect the spectacular falls and canyons of the famed South Nahanni River, the park is only 8 km wide in some sections. Dr. John Weaver, a WCS conservation biologist who has studied wildlife in the Yellowstone-to-Yukon region for more that 3 decades, has now completed a 4-year study of grizzly bears, Dall's sheep, and woodland caribou throughout the Greater Nahanni E...

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(June 01, 2007) WCS Canada has completed mapping the Human Footprint of the Northern Appalachian / Acadian Ecoregion - a quantitative assessment of the continuum of human influence on the lands surface. The Human Footprint methodology developed by WCS and CIESEN scientists has been tailored to this forested ecoregion by 1) increasing the resolution of analysis to 90m, 2) using regional spatial data and 3) tailoring the assessment of human impacts to the region. This analysis reveals that 16% of the ecoregion st...

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(July 05, 2006) Park boundaries must be expanded to safeguard grizzlies, caribou and Dall’s sheep Download

(July 05, 2006) Park boundaries must be expanded to safeguard grizzlies, caribou and Dall’s sheep Download