NEWS UPDATE: August 23, 2010 – B.C.’s Auditor General says B.C. lacks the plans necessary to protect nature in B.C.’s parks and protected areas. In the report, the Auditor General finds that despite a sound vision of parks protection, the government falls short in actual plans for protecting parks. Download the report.

CPAWS REACTION: We’re heartened by the Auditor General’s findings. B.C. Parks suffer from chronic underfunding. It’s time for B.C. to properly care for these precious ecosystems and beautiful parks. We hope the B.C. government takes the recommendations of the Auditor General to heart and moves quickly to plan, implement and appropriately fund our parks system, on the eve of B.C. Parks 100th anniversary. It’s not a priority to nurture protected areas. It’s a necessity. Keeping wild places intact is the simple solution to our current and future environmental problems in British Columbia.

–Chloe O’Loughlin, CPAWS-BC Executive Director

See the Vancouver Sun story: http://www.vancouversun.com/Environment+ministry+failing+preserve+parks+auditor+general+finds/3433336/story.html
Photos: Mike Beedell

 Help create a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen!

Join us Thursday, September 9 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Wine, refreshments and a great cause. It promises to be a unique and wonderful occasion with a thrilling prize to Knight Inlet Lodge and an appearance by “Beaker” the burrowing owl.

Find out more. Register here!

Brasilia, Brazil - A report commissioned by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is calling for a "conservation and wildlife management plan" for the transboundary Flathead and a new management plan for the Flathead River Valley that "gives priority to natural ecological values and wildlife conservation."

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and 10 other conservation groups petitioned the World Heritage Committee to draw attention to threats posed to the Waterton-Glacier World Heritage Site by proposed energy and mining development in the adjacent Flathead.

Press Release

Download full report (2 MB)

Story on theglobeandmail.com

Photo - Harvey Locke 

We’re celebrating Canada’s national parks! There are 42 of them. Pick one. Create a two-minute video about why that park is so amazing. And you could be eligible to win a guided river excursion through the breathtaking Nahanni wilderness in the Northwest Territories, plus airfare from a major Canadian city.

Valued at $15,000, the coveted Nahanni trip is the top prize. But you could also win a camera, national park passes, and gift certificates to Mountain Equipment Co-op.

Create your video: You don’t need footage of the park. You can just chat on a webcam. It’s easy! Check it out: www.celebrateparks.ca
We’ll post your video, along with all the others across Canada. Everyone can vote for their favourites. You have until October 12th to submit your video.  CPAWS will announce the top videos and the grand prize winner in November.

Good luck!

CPAWS would like to thank Parks Canada, Nahanni River Adventures and Mountain Equipment Co-op who helped make this contest possible.

 Our news release

Rocky Mountain wonderland could get protection

Great news out of the G8 and G20 summits! President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper deliberated over B.C.'s precious Flathead Valley. Now, an international conservation agreement is in the works for the American and Canadian Flathead River watershed - a Rocky Mountain hotspot for animals that straddles the Montana-B.C. border.

The White House even issued a statement!

Looks like a deal is getting close. CPAWS needs to ensure that this deal provides the highest protection possible for B.C.'s Flathead Valley - home to the greatest density of inland grizzly bears in North America. And we also need to ensure that the upcoming agreement includes meaningful wilderness corridors.                                                           

See the Vancouver Sun article

Photo: Joe Riis, iLCP

National marine conservation area now established

On June 11, 2010, the House of Commons and Senate Committees approved the proposal to establish the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve (NMCA) and Haida Heritage Site! This is Canada's first NMCA.

Marine conservation area and island park officially joined

The 3500 square kilometre seascape protected in parliament surrounds the spectacular Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve. The land and sea ecosytems of these B.C. islands are interdependent. Both are now protected. This means that an area stretching from the mountain tops of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve to the deepest seabeds of the National Marine Conservation Area is permanently conserved, protecting some of Canada's most iconic coastal and underwater life.

Congratulations to all!

CPAWS congratulates the Haida Nation who worked for decades with Parks Canada, CPAWS, and many others to conserve this special place. And we sincerely thank the members of the Parliamentary Committees who set aside their political differences to support protection of Canada's treasured national heritage.

For the news release

For more information, see our Gwaii Haanas page.

Television segment explores one of Canada's most endangered ecosystems and the long wait to give it permanent protection.

View it here.

Visit the local campaign site to create the South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve.

 Photo: Graham Osborne

Prehistoric reefs considered a submerged “Jurassic Park”

CPAWS celebrates the long-awaited announcement that B.C.’s extremely fragile Glass Sponge Reefs are headed for permanent protection. Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, has declared an “Area of Interest” for a future Marine Protected Area around the reefs, considered one of the great wonders in Canada’s oceans.

“These are the only living glass sponge reefs known in the world and are precious beyond words. We are so glad that they are finally on a firm road to permanent protection,” says Sabine Jessen, CPAWS national oceans program manager. Thought to have gone extinct 30 million years ago, the 1987 discovery of these reefs in Hecate Strait stunned the scientific community.

For the news release

To learn more about the Glass Sponge Reefs

Groups sign world’s largest conservation agreement 

Twenty-one member companies of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) and nine leading environmental groups, including CPAWS, unveiled an unprecedented agreement that applies to 72 million hectares of public forests licensed to FPAC members. This agreement will conserve significant areas of Canada's vast Boreal Forest, protect threatened woodland caribou and provide a competitive market edge for participating companies.  READ MORE

Boreal Caribou in B.C.

Photo: Wayne Sawchuk