COMMITTEE ON THE COMITÉ SUR LA SITUATION STATUS OF ENDANGERED DES ESPÈCES EN PÉRIL WILDLIFE IN CANADA AU CANADA ANNUAL REPORT TO THE CANADIAN ENDANGERED SPECIES CONSERVATION COUNCIL (CESCC) MAY 2003 COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF ENDANGERED WILDLIFE IN CANADA (COSEWIC) MARCO FESTA-BIANCHET CHAIR 1 PREFACE COSEWIC was given its mandate in 1976 by recommendation 6 of the 40th Federal- Provincial Wildlife Conference. In June, 1988, the Canadian Wildlife Directors directed COSEWIC to report to their Committee. In March 1999 the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council (CESCC) released new Terms of Reference for COSEWIC. COSEWIC determines the status in Canada of wildlife species whose future may be in doubt and releases to the public the information upon which the designation of status is based. The twenty-sixth annual report of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is herein provided to you, the Canadian Wildlife Directors’ Committee, for your review and comment. ----- ----- ----- 2 PART 1 November 25-29, 2002 meeting General Information The fall, 2002, meeting of COSEWIC took place at the Cartier Place Suite Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, chaired by Dr. Marco Festa-Bianchet. All members were in attendance. World Wildlife Fund Canada, Canadian Nature Federation and Canadian Wildlife Federation attended the meeting as continuing observers. Workshop/Presentation/Special Meeting On November 25 during the afternoon a Workshop entitled “Approaches to Status Assignments Below the Species Level” took place. All members were in attendance as well as a number of observers. Several presentations were made by members and invited guest speakers. On November 26 in the evening, a meeting took place between members of COSEWIC as well as some observers at the Species Assessment Meeting, Lynda Maltby, director of the Species at Risk Branch of the Canadian Wildlife Service and two representatives of the Canadian Wildlife Directors’ Committee (CWDC), Bruce Morgan, British Columbia and Steve Bowcott, Ontario. Marco Festa-Bianchet, chair of COSEWIC, was invited to attend part of a meeting of the CWDC during the week of February 10, 2003 in Victoria, British Columbia, to address mutual concerns with the CWDC as well as other issues which arose during the course of the Species Assessment Meeting held that week. On November 27 in the evening, members/observers attended an interesting and informative presentation by Steve Carr on the “Use of Molecular Genetics to Identify Taxonomic Units”. Approval of Changes to Membership It was decided that following public calls for membership in Species Specialist Subcommittees (with the exception, of course, of co-chairs) renewals/new member selections will be recorded in the minutes of the Co-chairs Subcommittee meeting and that it was not necessary for these changes to be provided to the full committee. Note: A reallocation of responsibilities for the Plants & Lichens Specialist Subcommittee was announced. Erich Haber will be responsible for all vascular plants and René Belland will not only handle mosses but will also be responsible for lichens. The following committee members were recommended for approval for a four-year term effective January 1, 2003: 3 Species Specialist Subcommittee co-chairs Following a public call for members and submission by the chairs of Selection Committees of top candidates where there were more than one applicant, the members voted either by e-mail or at the full committee meeting with the following results: Marty Leonard is the new co-chair of the Birds Specialist Subcommittee. Gerry Mackie, renewed as co-chair for Molluscs of the Lepidopterans & Molluscs Specialist Subcommittee Ron Brooks, renewed as co-chair of the Amphibians & Reptiles Specialist Subcommittee. Non-government Member Steve Carr, renewed. Jurisdictional Members Juanita Ptolemy, new alternate from British Columbia. Gilles Seutin (formerly alternate), now member from Parks Canada. Earl Wiltse, (member from Saskatchewan) announced he will no longer be the member. Irene Bowman announced that she will be retiring from Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and as COSEWIC member from Ontario). The above membership changes/renewals are herein submitted for your recommendation to the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council (CESCC). A schedule of renewal dates for jurisdictional members was circulated and Marco stated that this process needs to be clearly defined. Organization and Procedures Manual - Version # 17 • Steve Brechtel, outgoing chair of the Organization & Procedures Manual Working Group attended to present this version. Marco thanked Steve for his hard work and dedication to this task. The members of the working group, Michael Bradstreet, Ron Brooks, Joe Brazil and Ruben Boles, were also thanked. • Steve stated that the working group built on the work of many people, first Bob Campbell and then Theresa Fowler and for two and a half years tried to pull together existing practice, make improvements and put together a cohesive text. • Steve recommended that a permanent subcommittee be set up with least one jurisdictional member, one co-chair and one non-government member and someone from the Secretariat as ex officio allowing the manual to continue to evolve without taking up too much time at future meetings. • Michael Bradstreet was chosen as chair of the Organization & Procedures Manual Subcommittee which will include the following members: Ron Brooks, Jake Rice, Siu-Ling Han, Lynda Maltby and someone from the Secretariat as ex officio. • The subcommittee was charged to begin working under its Terms of Reference to monitor operations and procedures of COSEWIC, identify opportunities to improve efficiency and/or compliance with appropriate guidelines and policies and propose changes as appropriate. Terms of Reference for COSEWIC 4 Some modifications to the Terms of Reference (ToR) were discussed and a further draft of the revised ToR was circulated after the meeting for review/comment by members. Reports from Existing Ad Hoc Working Groups a) Instructions to Authors Working Group (WG) Gerry Mackie, chair, provided a revised draft for review along with eight motions which were approved. The WG will finish these Instructions for the spring, 2003 Species Assessment Meeting. b) Intellectual Property (IP) WG Ruben Boles gave a presentation on IP matters after which it was agreed that status reports will now undergo an additional step wherein the draft report will be revised by the report writer who will produce a “background report”. A second contract will then be issued, possibly to the same individual who wrote the draft report, to produce the interim report. c) Taxonomic Coverage within COSEWIC WG Gerry Mackie, chair, provided a report following which it was recommended that a new Species Specialist Subcommittee (SC) be added to COSEWIC resulting from the separation of the current Lepidopterans and Molluscs SC into Molluscs as one separate SC and Lepidopterans being included in a new SC for Arthropods. This will create one additional vote and two additional co-chairs. d) Guidelines for Data Deficient WG Following discussion, David Green was charged to provide by e-mail appropriate wording for further review/comment. New Ad Hoc Working Groups Established a) Template for Technical Summary WG David Green, chair and Gerry Mackie. b) Habitat and Threats WG Jake Rice, chair, Erich Haber, Gerry Mackie and Gina Schalk (Secretariat). It was suggested that this Working Group liaise with someone from the Recovery Secretariat as a succinct identification/reporting of threats is very important for recovery purposes. The Chair of COSEWIC and the Chair of RENEW (Lynda Maltby) are to meet to discuss how the two committees can better liaise. c) Designatable Units WG Gilles Seutin, Sherman Boates, Howard Powles, David Green, Suzanne Carrière, Jeff Hutchings, Mart Gross are to provide wording for the O & P Manual under guidelines for listing units below the species level. Marco suggested that this working group should liaise with the Ecozones Working Group. d) Ecozones WG 5 Bob Campbell, chair, Maureen Toner, Rosemary Curley, Howard Powles, Gilles Seutin, Tom Jung, Andrew Trites or Hal Whitehead, Gerry Mackie, someone from the Secretariat, Mart Gross (unsure). e) Criteria for Delisting WG Dave Fraser, chair, Lucie Métras, Al Dextrase, David Green, Sherman Boates. f) Long Term Planning WG Jim Duncan, chair, René Belland, Suzanne Carrière, Tom Jung, Dave Fraser, someone from Secretariat. Report from the Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge (ATK) Subcommittee. Henry Lickers, interim Co-chair of the ATK Subcommittee advised as follows: • There was a good meeting with the Aboriginal Working Group (AWG) • It was decided to retain the word “Recovery” in the ATK Terms of Reference (ToR) because native groups feel that recovery is very important. • The AWG is looking across the country for people to serve on the ATK Subcommittee. • They are also trying to decide who will be other co-chair. • They think it is a good idea to meet with the WMBs, COSEWIC and the Recovery Secretariat. • The AWG hope that by the next meeting, they will have people who can provide advice - contacts within each major ecozone of Canada. David Green added that reference to Recovery in the ToR of the ATK Subcommittee will allow them to obtain information about assessment and recovery all at once rather than contacting the elders twice). Emergency Assessments A request for an emergency status assignment for two populations of sockeye salmon.