Nine environmental organizations, including the Jasper Environmental Association and the Sierra Club of Canada, have sent a letter to new Environment Minister Rona Ambrose asking her to direct Jasper National Park to “return to the drawing board” and come up with a different recovery strategy for woodland caribou.

“Woodland caribou are a species of national signifigance,” said Rachel Plotkin of the Sierra Club. “It seems that the recovery plan in Jasper has been limited to a very local and immediate perspective.”

The recovery plan was laid out by a group of eight local stakeholders, but the groups recommend that a panel of independent scientists should be the body making the recommendations.

While the release of the letter corresponds to the formation of a new government, both Plotkin and Jasper Environmental Association chair Jill Seaton say that the timing is more coincidental than anything.

“We have been putting this together for a while,” said Seaton. “It seemed to us that we really needed to get the support of other groups for these bigger issues in the Park.”

Seaton echoes the Sierra Club’s concerns about the recovery planning process to this point.

“If you’re just talking to local stakeholders, you can’t really make a final decision,” she said. “You can’t blame the local people, it’s difficult for them to make decisions that would actually save the caribou.”

Steve Blake, the resource conservation manager for Jasper National Park, said that it is important to remember that the current recovery plan is an ongoing process.

“One of the common critiques of our plan is that we haven’t been inclusive enough of the national, regional and aboriginal perspective,” he said. “We will be working towards that level of participation through subsequent recovery planning processes.”

Blake also defended using locals in this early phase of the recovery plan.

“The recovery team was made up of Parks Canada biologists, guides, local environmentalists, and it did include some business interests. To say that it was biased, everyone at the table had their own biases and the attempt was certainly made to balance those biases.”

Parks Canada values community-based decision making, Blake said, adding that the proposal to have a select panel of scientists formulating the recommendations would not fit with that approach.

“I think that biologists play a key role, but no single group anywhere in Canada should be making the decision.”

Another reason that the groups have decided to publicize their concerns at this time is a recent application from Marmot Basin. The ski hill has presented an environmental screening report for a proposed trail that Seaton worries is the beginning of a gradual encroachment into Whistlers Creek, valuable caribou habitat.

“It’s absolutely vital animal habitat,” she said. “The creek runs parallel to the Yellowhead area and it gives caribou an access point to travel over Marmot Pass and into the Tonquin Valley.”

The project proposed by Marmot Basin involves some minor tree cutting in order to allow an exit from the Tres Hombres trail. This exit is needed to ensure skier and avalanche control crew safety, according to the document, which has been posted on the Parks website for public comment. Blake acknowledged that the area was considered important for caribou, but said that Parks staff were currently in the process of reviewing the project and the mitigations proposed. Marmot Basin has suggested that if caribou activity was reported in the area, the trail would be closed. Blake is unaware of how effective this measure might be, given that there are no similar situations currently existing in the park. 

Once the report has been reviewed, Blake anticipates that the updated version will be circulated to the public.

“Given the amount of feedback we’ve received, I would forsee us sending it out for another round of public review,” he said. 

Seaton has her doubts about allowing even a small project in the area.

“I think they know it’s going to be quite controversial, so they are trying to get it through under the guise of just cutting a few trees down,” she said.