Craighead Environmental Research Institute

Conservation Area Design Conservation Biology & Genetics Conservation GIS Conservation Education About Us Links Join Us The mission of the Institute is to increase humankind's understanding, appreciation, and protection of our natural environment; particularly wildlife populations and wild landscapes. Our goal is to enable human beings to live in harmony with other species.

The North Coast CERI is involved with 5 interrelated Conservation Area Designs on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. These began as separate projects but have converged into 3 complementary CADs. Initially, Round River Conservation Studies developed a CAD for (1) the Central Coast of British Columbia: CERI was involved in review of the CAD and conducted site visits in conjunction with Round River and the Raincoast Conservation Society. Recently, Round River completed a (2) CAD for the North Coast of British Columbia along with a refinement of the Central Coast CAD. CERI has been involved in review, model inputs, and site visits. The methodology used for the Central and North Coasts will be applied, and refined, for the (3) Transboundary Watershed CAD which will complete a Conservation Area Design for the coast [areas outlined in red, magenta, and yellow] based upon grizzly bear habitat, salmon, and old growth forest as the primary data layers. At the same time, The Nature Conservancy and Nature Conservancy Canada are conducting (4) the Ecoregional Plan for the Coastal Forests and Mountains Ecoregion which is outlined in blue on the map. This Plan will incorporate three approaches: representational analysis, focal species analysis, and special elements analysis, and should be complementary to the Round River CAD. Comparison and contrast of the two approaches will teach us about the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach, especially in relation to designing conservation areas on this vast scale with limited data resources. On a finer scale, Round River is completing a (5) Conservation Area Design for the Taku River drainage. This is a more detailed CAD incorporating high resolution wildlife habitat models, traditional ecological knowledge, and extensive field work. CERI is assisting with model development, field work, and CAD review.  The Kitlope Wilderness Area in British Columbia was once home to large numbers of grizzly bears. This coastal old growth forest with rich and abundant salmon runs once supported highly productive bear populations. However, due to largely unrestricted hunting, grizzly bears were almost completely extirpated from the Kitlope and surrounding areas. As the Ministry of Forests continues to approve road construction, and the forest and mining industries continue to build roads into the heart of once intact coastal valleys, ease of access for hunters has increased dramatically. There is evidence that the long-term impacts of boat and aircraft assisted hunting, even in an unroaded drainage such as the Kitlope, leads to grizzly bear population decline and prolonged population depression. At the present time, grizzly bears are beginning to return to the Kitlope. This is due primarily to the closure of the hunting season and management of the area by the Haisla band to prevent poaching and allow wildlife populations to come back into balance. Grizzlies are important to the Haisla as well as to the coastal ecosystem and the Kitlope will continue to be managed to protect them. At the same time, pressures from the logging industry are threatening to damage and alienate grizzly habitat in surrounding areas such as the Koesas watershed. The Kitlope alone does not have enough habitat to maintain a viable grizzly population over the long term of at least 1000 years. The upper Koesas also functions as a corridor connecting the Kitlope with other critical habitat.