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What about the west-side caribou?

Posted: 03/28/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

UNDATED -- Undated handout photo of a caribou. A federal report says that half of Canada�s boreal caribou herds are in decline and could die off this century unless their habitat is better protected HANDOUT PHOTO: CPAWS Manitoba For Margaret Munro (Postmedia News). BIODIVERSITY. (CNS)

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Re: Caribou need big habitats (Letters, March 26). Ron Thiessen of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society says the society is concerned about the province's so-called caribou action plans, which are fixated on two woodland caribou ranges, the Owl-Flintstone and the Atikaki-Berens ranges. Both are on the east side of the province.

While some of the wildlife society's concern may be legitimate, one has to wonder why the society and the government completely ignore five other woodland caribou ranges that may be impacted by a west-side Bipole III. Is it because the society is really in full support of the government's plan to keep Bipole III out of the east side at all costs?

Bipole III is the power transmission line that Hydro and the government are planning to run across Manitoba's north and along the Saskatchewan border without proper public review and notwithstanding the objections of many Manitobans.

The woodland caribou ranges that Hydro admits may be affected by a west-side Bipole III are the Wapisu range west of Thompson, the high-risk Naosap range northeast of Flin Flon, the Reed Lake range southeast of Flin Flon, the Wabowden range northeast of The Pas and The Bog range south of The Pas. Three of these ranges will be either bisected or intersected (Hydro parlance) by a west-side Bipole III. The Bog range is a potential calving area and the Wabowden range is a known wintering and calving ground for this threatened and nomadic species.

An east-side Bipole III starting at the proposed Keewatinoow converter station on the Nelson River and then running through the floating bog, muskeg and stunted trees to the north of the boreal forest zone toward Poplar River in a southwesterly direction and then carefully routed close to the east shore of Lake Winnipeg would cause comparatively little interference with woodland caribou habitat.

Garland Laliberte

Bipole III Coalition

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 28, 2012 A11

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