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Next, the stated goal is to articulate actions over the next five years that government will take to support the recovery of woodland caribou populations to the point where they sustain themselves. However, in a huge leap from reality, there is no explanation regarding how quality habitat (i.e. caribou-friendly climax forests that can support self-sustaining herds) will appear in light of continued habitat alteration by humans and a changing climate.

Finally, the plan to continue the wide-scale killing of wolves and other wildlife in seven caribou ranges and considered expansion of predator killing to ALL caribou ranges is glaringly unrealistic in terms of protecting functioning ecosystems, the ultimate goal for conservation.

The tax-funded program started in the Little Smoky and A La Peche herd ranges and has since expanded to Cold Lake, East Side of the Athabasca, Redrock-Prairie Creek, Narraway and Chinchaga ranges. Approximately 2,500 wolves have been killed since Alberta’s wolf-killing program under the guise of caribou conservation began in 2005 — shot from helicopters, slowly strangled in killing snares, or asphyxiated by strychnine after undergoing excruciating convulsions.

In the 2017-18 fiscal year, Alberta killed at least 413 wolves, presumably for caribou. Given the proposed expansion, a future average of 500 wolves killed per year is a conservative estimate. Arithmetic tells us that approximately 2,500 wolves would be killed for this program in the next five years. As each wolf family is wiped out, dispersing wolves will recolonize that area to perpetuate an annual cycle of killing. How many tens of thousands of wolves is Alberta willing to kill?