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Canada Office
P.O. Box 40001
Canmore, Alberta T1W3H9
Fax:
The staff in the Canada office of Defenders of Wildlife promotes wildlife and habitat conservation throughout Canada, focusing on carnivores, transportation and wildlife in western Canada. Defenders is addressing policies, practices and perceptions that can improve the prospects for environmental protection.
The key constituencies include targeted public audiences, federal and provincial ministries and local governments, rancher and other landowners, resource industries, ecological researchers and fellow conservation organizations.
Key Projects:
Conserving Grizzly Bears: New data shows fewer than 500 grizzly bears in all of Alberta, Canada. Defenders is pushing improvement and implementation of the province’s grizzly bear recovery plan and works to reduce conflicts between bears and people. In British Columbia, Defenders is working to augment the grizzly bear population in Manning Provincial Park.
Helping wildlife cross the road: Defenders is working with Alberta and British Columbia to make wildlife conservation a fundamental component of highway design. The Canadian Pacific Railway is the leading human-related cause of grizzly bear mortality in Banff National Park. Defenders is working to convince the railway to stop spilling grain, that attracts animals to the tracks, and to take other steps to avoid collisions with wildlife.
Reducing predation and conserving wolves: Wolves in southwestern Alberta connect US and Canadian wolf populations. With ranchers and other allies, Defenders is gaining a better understanding of wolf behavior and pioneering non-lethal methods to reduce livestock predation by wolves.
Saving Polar Bears: As the climate changes, polar bears are losing the snow and ice they need to den, travel and feed. Defenders is encouraging the federal government to provide better protection under the Species at Risk Act and is working with provinces and communities to protect habitat, reduce hunting quotas and reduce bear-human conflicts.
Greening the political landscape: Defenders is working to improve prospects for environmental protection by addressing policies, procedures and public perceptions. Defenders is also helping to strengthen the voice of the conservation community in Canada.
Key Accomplishments:
- Brought Canadian Pacific Railway’s role as the number one human-related cause of grizzly bears deaths in Banff National Park to national attention (2006-2007) and convinced Canada's principal railways to commit a total of Cdn$40 million to repair hopper cars that leak grain onto the tracks, attracting grizzly bears and other wildlife to their deaths under freight trains (2007).
- Led efforts to convince Alberta to release population data and suspend the grizzly bear hunt for at least three years (2006).
- Helped establish a provincial BearSmart program in Alberta and local WildSmart program in the Bow Valley to reduce bear-human conflicts (2005).
- Produced report on wildlife corridors and collisions on Highway 93 in British Columbia (2005).
- Led efforts that secured wildlife crossings on the Trans-Canada Highway on the final section through Banff National Park (2005).
- Helped secure additional habitat protection for wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park (2004).
- Encouraged non-lethal methods to reduce livestock predation by wolves, documented wolf numbers and activities and promoted protocol for lethal control of wolves as a member of the Carnivore Advisory Group in Alberta (2003-2007).
- Secured “as good as we could get” wildlife corridors around new developments in western Alberta’s Bow Valley (2003-2007).
- Maintained a constant and helpful field presence with southwestern Alberta ranchers to address wolf activity and predation (2003–2007).
- Defenders is featured regularly on local, provincial, and national news (2003-2007).
