Park Protectors

Six species at risk that the unsung heroes of Parks Canada are striving to save.

- Niki Wilson

A PARKS CANADA scientist laces up his boots, throws on a 23 kilogram pack and heads for the subalpine of the Rockies in search of a whitebark pine tree that could help save the species. Meanwhile, across the country in Prince Edward Island National Park, a resource conservation officer rises at the crack of dawn, grabs her binoculars and watches over a small group of critically endangered piping plovers for hours. Pulling species at risk back from the brink is neither a nine-to-five job nor short-term. Many such programs require years, if not decades, of oversight. And for many Parks Canada scientists and staff, it’s a critical — if little-known — part of their work.

Indeed, it’s the kind of commitment necessary to help Canada meet the targets of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. In particular, new goals formulated at the 10th meeting of convention signatories in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in October 2010 mandate Canada to meet the objectives established in recovery strategies or management plans for each species at risk by 2020. There’s a lot of work to be done, but the efforts undertaken on the following six species-at-risk conservation projects in Canada’s national park system show the promise of results on the long roads to recovery.

WHITEBARK PINE

Seven mountain national parks, Alberta and British Columbia

The view from the top of a 20-metre-tall whitebark pine tree is hard won, but worth it. After donning a harness and ropes, Jed Cochrane, a Parks Canada fire and vegetation specialist, scales the soft bark and reaches the tree’s crown covered in sap, his arms bleeding from a hundred pine needle nicks. After securing himself, he takes a moment to stare out across the Ice River Valley in British Columbia’s Yoho National Park.