Border Crossing Blues

Iconic species like the grizzly bear have inadequate protection
Credit: Robert Plotz

“If a grizzly bear ambles from Alberta or Montana across the border into B.C., it goes from being protected by law to staring down the barrel of a gun,” stated the David Suzuki Foundation in a release for their recent report On the Edge: British Columbia's Unprotected Transboundary Species.

This is a grim reality for many of British Columbia’s threatened species who currently have little to no protected status within the province. Overall, the report found that more than 1,900 species are at risk of extinction or extirpation – 96% of these species are cross-boundary species that often receive higher levels of protection outside of the province.

Unlike every other province in Canada – with the exception of Alberta – British Columbia does not have a comprehensive endangered species law. The report found that only 9 percent of the 1900 identified at-risk species in the report currently have a formal protected status, and even for those 9 percent protections were found to be ‘woefully inadequate’.

The Snowy Owl is one of 1,900 identified at-risk species in B.C.
Credit: Gordon Court

Overall, the report found that:

BC is the most biodiverse province in Canada with over 4,000 known plant and animal species, the vast majority of which are transboundary (meaning they exist both inside and outside BC).
Of BC's 4,373 recognized species, 96 percent share range with at least one of our neighbouring jurisdictions: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alberta, Alaska, Yukon and Northwest Territories.
Almost half of these transboundary species are in trouble: 42 percent of the transboundary species in BC are at risk of disappearing from BC.
An especially high number of species are in trouble in southern ecosystems where many BC residents live, and most such species are transboundary: 71 percent of BC residents live in four regional districts whose biodiversity is predominantly transboundary and greatly at risk, Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Capital and Central Okanagan.
There is little legislation in BC to protect the vast majority of species at risk in B.C., including the 1,801 transboundary species at risk:
- Only 9 percent of transboundary species at risk have legal protection under the federal Species at Risk Act or BC Forests and Range Practices Act or BC Wildlife Act.
- As a result, the habitat of 1,635 transboundary BC species such as the snowy owl, Badlands tiger beetle and Townsend's big-eared bat is unprotected by law even though these species have been assessed as being of conservation concern.
Without transboundary species, significant parts of BC's biodiversity would be lost, jeopardizing the healthy functioning of many ecosystems and the provision of critical ecosystem services that sustain the wellbeing of British Columbians.