What Is a Species at Risk?

A species at risk is any naturally occurring animal and/or plant that is in danger of disappearing in the wild.

British Columbia is the most biologically diverse province or territory in Canada. While it only occupies 10% of Canada’s land mass, it contains more than half of Canada’s vertebrates and vascular plants, and three-quarters of its bird and mammal species.

Despite being the steward of such treasures, BC currently does not have provincial legislation that is specifically designated to protect Species at Risk. Instead, it relies on a combination of federal legislation, and provincial legislation relating to parks, wildlife, and resource extraction.

In 2002 the Government of Canada created the Species at Risk Act (SARA), which is federal legislation that protects wildlife from becoming extirpated or extinct due to human activities. This legislation provides recovery strategies for each species listed under the act, and their habitats and ecosystems. It also ensures their protection on federal lands by making it an offence to physically harm or possess a species at risk, or damage their residence/den. However, these prohibitions only affect species that are endangered, threatened or extirpated, and not those listed as being “of special concern” – a species at-risk of becoming threatened or endangered.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) is the authority behind the Species at Risk Act. This advisory panel uses the best available indigenous knowledge, scientific research and community knowledge to assess the status of these species.

There are 4 levels of classification in which species are listed under the SARA:

• Species of Special Concern – a wildlife species that may become a threatened or endangered species because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats.
• Threatened – a wildlife species that is likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction.
• Endangered – a wildlife species that is facing imminent extirpation or extinction.
• Extirpated – a wildlife species that no longer exists in the wild in Canada but exists elsewhere in the wild.

You can check out the Species at Risk Act on this government site: Justice Laws Website (https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/S-15.3/)

Provincially, each province has its own classifications for ecosystems and species at risk as well as the SARA. British Columbia’s classifications are the following:

• Yellow – Any species or ecological communities that are apparently secure and not at risk of extinction. Yellow-listed species may have red- or blue-listed subspecies
• Blue – Any native species or ecological community considered to be of Special Concern
• Red – Any species or ecosystem that is at risk of being lost (extirpated, endangered or threatened)

Although these classifications are simply labels, British Columbia, the province with the highest biodiversity, has not yet introduced its own legislation to protect Species at Risk, which is shocking.

In 2017 the government mandated the enactment of an endangered species law, but it is still under development. Various pieces of provincial legislation in BC currently serve to protect endangered, extirpated, and threatened species, including the Wildlife Act, Forest and Range Practices Act, Oil and Gas Activities Act, Ecological Reserves Act, and the Park Act. These Acts focus on preventing direct harm to Species at Risk, and protecting critical habitat. Unfortunately, the protected Wildlife Habitat Areas created under them are stand-level measures that do little to address habitat supply, habitat connectivity, and population viability. As well, current government policy has set a limit of only allowing a one-percent impact on timber harvest levels by implementation of Wildlife Habitat Areas. It is policies such as this that show where the province’s priorities currently lie.

British Columbia needs to step up and address these deficiencies in protection of species at risk in the province. We need to be proactive and not wait until we are at risk of losing a species before we take action. Issues such as habitat connectivity and supply in the face of development and coexisting with the species around us in such a way that they don’t need to be sequestered away in protective bubbles, need to be considered if we want to succeed in preserving our biodiversity and protecting at-risk species from population decline.

We, as citizens of the West, can take a role in protecting these species and prevent other species from becoming at risk.

All your reported observations will be added to our Species at Risk database. All the data that we collect as a community will be sent to the Conservation Data Centre in Victoria, B.C, to help build up a picture of species abundance and distribution in the province.

We have researched and created profiles of these species at risk on Cortes Island, which can be found in the Species at Risk section of our website (you’re in the right place!). Here on Cortes Island, we have at least 33 different species at risk that live here part of the year or year-round!

Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI) is a charitable organization that has been active for over 25 years. Our organization exists to monitor and preserve the health of local ecosystems, and to provide educational programs that foster a greater understanding of the natural environment. Through all of our projects, we work to promote environmental integrity through community responsibility.