MEDIA RELEASE

Legal action challenges Feds to protect caribou in BC

Controversial mine could wipe out entire herd

Environmental groups initiated a legal challenge late yesterday concerning the proposed Tulsequah Chief Mine project located in the northwest tip of British Columbia. The project would include construction of a 160 kilometre access road into a pristine, rich and sensitive ecological area, with devastating impacts on local wildlife including a herd of caribou that are supposed to be protected under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Sierra Legal, on behalf of the Transboundary Watershed Alliance, is targeting both Transport Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and is demanding that federal authorizations for construction of the mine and access road be denied until the federal government fulfils its legal duties under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) and SARA. In particular, the lawsuit will ask the courts to ensure the federal government upholds its legal duty to protect the East Atlin caribou herd. This herd, which roams the BC-Yukon border region, is part of the Northern Mountain population of Woodland Caribou listed as a species of special concern under SARA.

“Canadian Wildlife Service, Yukon Government and independent scientists all agree that the impacts from this project would be devastating on the caribou,” said David MacKinnon, Executive Director of the Transboundary Watershed Alliance. “Moose and grizzly bear populations will also suffer. By approving this project, our federal government has failed miserably to protect the Taku's wildlife populations and environment.”

The federal government ignored federal laws by not implementing measures to protect the Taku’s SARA-listed caribou herd, but also the advice of both independent and government scientists in coming to its own politically motivated approval of the project in 2005. Many species including grizzly and black bears, wolves, moose, woodland caribou, migratory birds, mountain goats occupy the huge wilderness of the Taku River watershed, through which the access road is to pass.

“This is just the latest example illustrating the federal government’s blatant disregard to protect endangered species as it is required to do so by law,” said Randy Christensen, Sierra Legal Staff Lawyer. “We are asking for the court to rule that no federal authorizations be issued until the glaring problems with the federal approval of this project have been remedied.”

For further information please contact:

David MacKinnon, Executive Director, Transboundary Watershed Alliance, 867.668.5098, 604.809.5098

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