Dear George Smith:
Your email regarding caribou management in British Columbia, has been referred to me for a response.  This is an important and complex matter, and I encourage you to visit our website at http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/speciesconservation/mc/index.html where you will find additional information to my summary below.
British Columbia has a global responsibility to conserve woodland caribou.  For many years, the province has taken a variety of other actions to assist at-risk caribou herds in BC.  BC has removed over 2 million hectares of high suitability habitat from the risk of logging or road building and over 1 million hectares is closed to recreational snowmobile use.  
Please allow me to further illustrate our efforts with the example of two imperilled caribou herds: the South Selkirk and the South Peace herds.  Significant areas of caribou habitat have been protected for the caribou herd in the South Selkirk area.  Approximately 108,000 hectares of caribou habitat is protected in this area under a variety of protective land designations.  Protected caribou habitat in the South Selkirk herd’s area includes 67,000 hectares in no harvest Ungulate Winter Range, 13,600 hectares in provincial parks (West Arm and Stagleap Provincial Parks), and 27,500 hectares in the Darkwoods Property.  Additional habitat is also protected in Idaho and Washington States.  A significant portion of South Selkirk core caribou habitat, approximately 61,000 hectares, has been closed to snowmobile use and a moratorium is in place for new commercial winter recreation tenures.  
Similarly, the province’s Peace Northern Caribou Plan has protected 323,526 hectares of high elevation winter caribou habitat from coal mining, 478,674 hectares from new land tenures (such as wind farms), and 468,016 hectares from oil and gas tenures.  Over time, the province is committed to further expansion of habitat protections.   The province also developed management objectives and best management practices in lower elevation winter caribou habitat to minimize habitat fragmentation and support beneficial long-term habitat conditions.  Nonetheless,  the ministry’s professional wildlife managers are convinced, as is the scientific community, that without predator control no other recovery action will be effective.
The Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan draws upon the Mountain Caribou Science Team for scientific and technical advice.  The Science Team reported in 2005 that predator management is a measure to be taken in conjunction with other management options.  Wolf removal is being undertaken in both the South Selkirk and South Peace herd areas.  Several measures have been deployed in the South Selkirk and South Peace herd treatment areas and other innovative projects have been tested that could be deployed in the future.  
A summary of initiatives include:
•	An augmentation project was undertaken at the nearby Purcells South herd.  The results were not what was anticipated (i.e. most of the transplanted caribou died within 1 year), but much was learned from the project.  
•	A pilot project to examine the feasibility of limiting wolf predation by sterilizing or removing wolves was undertaken in the Quesnel Highlands near the City of Quesnel.  While there was evidence of reduced wolf density and some indications of reduced predation, the project was expensive to apply and required specialized skills that were difficult to acquire.  
•	A moose reduction project is underway near Revelstoke.  The objective is to reduce moose, the primary prey of wolves, by hunting.  The anticipated response is reduced wolf density near caribou herds.  This project is still being examined, but it has reduced moose and wolves, appears to have stopped the decline in caribou, and is possibly enabling recovery. 
•	Two maternal penning projects are operating near Revelstoke and Chetwynd.  The primary objective is to reduce bear predation on calves, but there are benefits to both cows and calves from all predators.  Each project has completed its third year.  For the Klinse-Za maternal pen project near Chetwynd, ministry staff  believe there has been a positive effect from the predator control program in 2015.  In 2014, caribou cows and calves released from the Klinse-Za maternal pen faced significant mortality through the summer and fall.  After the 2015 wolf removal operation, caribou released from the pen in 2015 suffered no predation-related mortality in the 9 months since released.  While not conclusive, this is a reasonable indication that the control program has had some positive effect.  The effectiveness of this program will be re-evaluated after 5 years of operation.
 
Each of these projects is being undertaken as a trial or passive adaptive management experiment.  The rigor of control groups and large sample size is difficult to achieve in large scale projects in the wild.  Each of the projects attempted to compare results to nearby “untreated” herds.  Monitoring is a major component of the projects.  Results are given close scrutiny by scientific staff.  Some of the results form the basis for academic study.  We are trying to garner as much information and insight as possible from the various pilot projects underway and adjust plans as appropriate.  As we gain confidence in the results, these trial methods can become operational.
The provincial government has recently embarked on a vigorous new campaign to restore and conserve woodland caribou in British Columbia.  The Caribou Recovery Program is a long-term commitment that will include all BC caribou herds in a comprehensive and uniform approach to conservation, based on traditional knowledge and science.  The province has already committed to $27 million to ensure a strong start.  This program will build on the efforts noted above.  I hope you will agree that BC has a significant program in place to help recover caribou in the province. 
Yours truly,
Chris Ritchie
A/Executive Director, Species at Risk Recovery Branch
Resource Stewardship Division
pc:       Honourable John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia
Honourable Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development