Alberta First Nation fears for bison flock if mega oilsands cave opens
Dene elder Roy Ladouceur’s voice grows still as his eyes settle on a cellphone print of a bison slaughtered by poachers.
The animal from a Ronald Lake herd, that grazes in a boreal timberland between Fort McMurray and a northern Alberta village of Fort Chipewyan, has been decapitated, a body left to rubbish divided in blood-splattered snow.
“Why would they kill something that vast and customarily chuck a beef away?” Ladouceur said. “I mean, that’s disregard to wildlife, let alone a land.”
Roy Ladouceur sits inside his cabin during Poplar Point and looks during a print of a slaughtered bison. (David Thurton/CBC)
Ladouceur is ardent about a land and a bison. The 64-year-old is a customarily member of a Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation to live off a land year-round.
He calls himself a “guardian of a bison.”
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The herd he loves is special: distinct others in Alberta, it’s disease-free — but its numbers are disappearing as a outcome of poaching and, Ladouceur said, oilsands developments. Environment Canada pronounced a herd’s numbers have forsaken from an estimated 200 bison to 100.
But now, Ladouceur worries those numbers could dump faster than ever before.
He pronounced he’s endangered a mega oilsands cave designed for a southern corner of a bison’s medium could doom a herd.
Mine a distance of a city
This map shows a plcae of a Ronald Lake Bison Reserve in propinquity to a Teck Resources mine. (CBC News Graphics)
The Frontier cave is approaching to be one of a largest oilsands open pits ever built. At 292 block kilometres, a footprint is approaching to cover an area roughly half a distance of Edmonton.
“This is a customarily place that has not been overwhelmed yet,” Ladouceur said. “You meant to tell me, they are that miserly for energy and income to go and repairs a sourroundings here?”
The mine’s proponent, Teck Resources, is undergoing a sovereign environmental review. Company officials declined an talk request. But in a statement, Teck pronounced it is committed to advancing a cave in a approach that respects Indigenous people and a environment.
Roy Ladouceur looks for signs of bison on Mar 8. (David Thurton/ CBC)
CBC News accompanied Ladouceur and another Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation rope member on a margin revisit to see a herd.
Ladouceur led a procession of snowmobiles to a herd from his cabin during Poplar Point, haven land that sits halfway between Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan.
Riding side-saddle on his Yamaha over dunes of snow, Ladouceur pointed out bison marks leading into willow rags and forest. No bison were seen during a day-long 56-kilometre trek.
Band member Lisa Tssessaze said sightings of hoof prints and piles of scat offering small declaration that a flock is thriving.
“I know since they are so skittish. They have been so over-harvested in a final 6 years,” said Tssessaze, executive of a band’s attention family corporation.
“I cruise [the poaching is happening]Â deliberately since of a oilsands and a exploration. They wish them out of a approach so they can puncture adult a oil.”
Lisa Tessasseze from a Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation searches for a Ronald Lake Bison flock on Mar 9. (David Thurton/CBC)
The matter Teck Resources supposing to CBC News did not privately residence either a scrutiny and investigate inside a bison medium has spooked or spoiled a population.
But it did contend a association has been enchanting with Indigenous communities for some-more than a decade and has advocated with First Nations for inventory a flock underneath a Wildlife Act, that reduces sport pressure.
Federal supervision has concerns
Despite a company’s charge efforts, Environment and Climate Change Canada pronounced a supervision is disturbed about a health of a flock if a oilsands cave is approved.
Government wildlife biologist Greg Wilson said there are concerns about how a animals will conflict to sound and light pollution.
“Given that [the mine]Â overlaps with partial of a operation for a Ronald Lake herd, it will positively be a detriment of habitat,” Wilson said.
Development in a area competence also make it easier for cougars, wolves and bears to chase on a bison.
Traditional sport practices threatened
Concerns about how a cave will affect other animals in a segment have also been raised.
While snowmobiling to Poplar Point from a Fort Chipewyan winter road, rope member Russel Voyageur shot a moose customarily after cooking time.
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation rope member Russel Voyageur harvests a moose during Poplar Point on Mar 8. (David Thurton/ CBC)
A integrate of hours later, he returned with his fiancée and other volunteers to assistance cut adult a animal fibbing in a bush.
In waist-deep sleet and underneath flashlights and an uncountable sea of stars, Voyageur cut up the moose. Steam rose into a night as he placed its organs on a snow.
“If they are going to be building an [oilsands] plant, we will remove out on opportunities like this of fundamentally removing a moose, bringing it home and feeding people,” Voyageur said of a normal land-use practice.
‘Going to be a tough sell’
Elder Pat Marcel believes Teck’s cave will mistreat a bison herd, but the band’s lead adjudicator pronounced there’s no interlude it.
He pronounced past environmental reviews have shown that oilsands companies in Alberta customarily win when it comes to environmental assessments.
And so, Marcel said, his First Nation is improved off removing a best understanding with a companies and operative together to rise a government devise that best protects a herd.
“I am being pulled in really most dual ways,” Marcel said. “For a elders, it is going to be a tough sell.”
Ladouceur could be one of a elders who won’t be swayed. He’s austere he will do whatever he can to stop a capitulation and construction of a mine.
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“I don’t caring what a cost and what a cost tab is going to be,” Ladouceur said.
“These animals were always here for a Dene people. There’s a time and indicate where somebody is going to take a stand.”
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Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/frontier-oilsands-mine-bison-threatened-1.4580604?cmp=rss