PETITION
The Eastern Slopes include regions with some of Alberta’s highest biodiversity, are home for a majority of Alberta’s endangered species, and hold significant cultural and environmental value for Albertans. However, the ecological integrity of these public lands is increasingly threatened by extensive industrial and recreational developments.
Outside of the national parks situated along the continental divide (Waterton, Banff and Jasper) and a few provincial wildlands parks such as the Castle Wildland Provincial Park, the Province of Alberta manages the Eastern Slopes lands under a policy regime which provides government officials with extensive discretion under a plethora of sectoral legislation and the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, all of which are guided by the rubric of ‘multiple use’: a policy which falsely assumes a landscape can support an unlimited number of activities concurrently without compromising its ecological integrity.
The Eastern Slopes tell a different story on the ground: Death by a Thousand Cuts. The fallacy of ‘multiple use’ has led to a scarred landscape of cumulative impacts from roads, clearcuts, well sites, pipelines, mines, dams, cattle grazing, and off-road vehicle trails, all of which are threatening the overall ecological integrity of the Eastern Slopes. It is time for real and effective legislated protection for these cherished public lands.
If you would like to join with Timberwolf in calling for real and effective legislated protection for Alberta’s Eastern Slopes, please consider signing this Petition by providing the following information
The Timberwolf Wilderness Society calls on the Government of Alberta to enact legislation that will permanently repeal the ‘multiple use’ policy and replace it with non-discretionary absolute statutory protection for the Eastern Slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, including protection and respect for:
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the Oldman, Bow and Red Deer River watersheds;
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old growth forests;
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critical habitat for endangered species such as the grizzly bear, westslope cutthroat trout, and whitebark pine; and
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Aboriginal treaty and non-treaty rights and Indigenous laws governing traditional land-use.
This new legislation will override the existing regulatory and non-regulatory mechanisms which currently govern land-use in the Eastern Slopes under legislation such as the Alberta Land Stewardship Act, Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, Water Act, Forests Act, Mines and Minerals Act, Public Lands Act, Provincial Parks Act, and the Wildlife Act.