Conservation Values of the Proposed Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park e c n e r w a L m i J On the urgent need to fully protect the last remnants of a priceless natural heritage in the Central Selkirk Mountains, including some of the rarest stands of inland temperate rainforest and some of the best habitat for a herd of 85 endangered mountain caribou January, 2011 Valhalla Wilderness Society Box 329, New Denver, British Columbia, Canada V0G 1S0 Phone: (250) 358-2333, Fax: (250) 358-7950, E-mail:
[email protected], Web: www.vws.org i Table Of COnTenTS SUMMARY INFORMATION ABOUT THE PARK PROPOSAL Preface: About the Park Proposal iii MAP: Location of the Park Proposal 1 MAP: The Park Proposal 2 Executive Summary 3 Summary of Conservation Values of the Park Proposal 4 Species and Ecosystems at Risk in the Park Proposal 5 Holes in the Mountain Caribou Plan 6 Connecting the Parks 7 GAPS IN PROTECTION BC: The Last Refuge for Many Large Wildlife Species 8 Park Proposal is in Shrinking Core Grizzly Bear Habitat 9 Existing Parks 10 Cedar-Hemlock Forest 11 Inadequate Protection of Inland Temperate Rainforest 12 THE PARK PROPOSAL MAP: Biogeoclimatic Zones of the Park Proposal 14 Upper Incomappleux/Battlebrook 15 MAP: Old-growth of the Park Proposal by Planning Units 16 The Duncan Watershed 17 The Lardeau Watershed 18 Mountain Caribou Habitat in the Park Proposal 19 BIODIVERSITY AT RISK Lichens in the Park Proposal 16 Why Should We Protect Lichens? 21 Scientific Research Documents Extraordinary Biodiversity 22 A Major Wetland under Threat of an IPP 24 Park Proposal Rivers Critical for Bull Trout 25 Hydro Development Threatens Fisheries 26 Extermination Logging or a Park? 27 References 30 ii “We are so damaging the habitats in which other species live that we are driving them to extinction, the only truly irreversible consequence of our environmental assaults, at a rate that is hun - dreds or perhaps even thousands of times greater than natural background rates ...