Government should review Partnership Agreements following new data on caribou population, says Connolly

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. – The Province of British Columbia released a report reviewing a five-year experiment of a wolf reduction program in an effort to restore caribou populations within the South Peace.

In the report, it found that, due to the wolf reduction program, the caribou herds had increased by almost 50 percent from 166 individuals in 2016 to 247 in 2019.

Kathleen Connolly, a member of Concerned Citizens for Caribou Recovery and Executive Director of the Dawson Creek Chamber of Commerce, feels that the findings from the report are “common sense” and that predation was a major factor in the caribou’s decline.

“I think it’s common sense. I think that if you look at the conversation that’s been happening in the South Peace over the past year, it has been about predation, predator-prey dynamics and the fact there are more wolves than caribou. The data now proves that predators are a big part of the problem.”

Connolly says the Government should review the Partnership Agreements with the new data and continue the reduction program to ensure that herd populations are restored before implementing a permanent Caribou Recovery Program.