Of Birds and Caribou – Wildlife habitat must be protected by
John D. Jacobs Published in The Telegram – St. John’s, 20 August
2012 Latest reports indicate that the George River Caribou herd
has declined to less than 4% of its 800,000 high of 40 years ago
(http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2012/env/0816n03.htm).
Multiple causes are suggested, but experience across Canada’s
boreal forest region has shown that woodland caribou populations
do not do well when their range is under pressure from
industrial development and associated infrastructure such as
roads, pipelines and transmission-line corridors
(www.borealcanada.ca/pr/07-13-2011-e.php). Labrador is in the
midst of such a development boom, and this does not auger well
for the recovery of any of its declining caribou populations. A
parallel situation is seen in a recently published study, The
State of Canada’s Birds 2012, based on bird population data
gathered by amateurs and scientists over the past 40 years
(http://www.stateofcanadasbirds.org/). This