The one billion dollar Meridian Dam is proposed to be constructed at the Alberta-Saskatchewan border on the South Saskatchewan River. Alberta's Environment Minister, the Hon. Lorne Taylor, is pushing forward with a feasibility study. Canadian Wildlife Service biologist Gary Trottier says the dam would be a disaster for wildlife. The 100 km long reservoir area would destroy some of the most important wildlife habitat in southeastern Alberta, including key portions of a National Wildlife Area and an Ecological Reserve.

Background

The South Saskatchewan River valley is a nationally significant wildlife area, home to several species of rare or endangered fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and plants, important wintering habitat for deer, nesting areas for several birds of prey, and overwintering snake dens. It contains one of the deepest canyons on the Canadian prairies. Local irrigation farmers want to use the dam to irrigate up to 160,000 hectares in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Downstream residents are concerned about the negative effect on the availability of water in Lake Diefenbaker. Alberta's new Minister of the Environment has publicly expressed support for the dam.

What you can do:

Please call or write Alberta's Premier and ask that feasibility studies be stopped. Tell him that the area is too important for wildlife to even consider constructing an on-stream dam. Express concern that the Minister responsible for protecting the environment is proposing to destroy a National Wildlife Area with this dam. Only the Environment Minister is publicly supporting the dam - it does not have Cabinet backing. Letters and phone calls will alert the Premier to the public concern and convince Cabinet not to proceed any further with this highly damaging project.

Tactics: who you should contact with your concerns

Hon. Ralph Klein
Premier, Province of Alberta
Legislature Office, #307, 10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton AB T5K 2B6 Canada
Web Site: http://www.gov.ab.ca/premier
E-mail: premier@gov.ab.ca
Phone: (780) 427-1349
Fax: (780) 420-6952

Hon. Ralph Klein
Premier, Province of Alberta
Legislature Office
#307, 10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Dear Mr. Klein:

The Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society is a non-profit organization of professionals and students in the field of wildlife biology and management. ACTWS is dedicated to wise stewardship of natural resources. Where possible, the Chapter will advise Albertans, the government and industry about the value of wildlife and ecosystems and the various land use practices that affect our natural heritage.

As you are aware, there is a proposal to construct a major dam on the South Saskatchewan River. If completed, the Meridian Dam would create a 100 km long reservoir, extending from the Saskatchewan border to near Medicine Hat. The specific purpose of this project has not been made clear, but we understand that it could be used for irrigation, power generation or recreation. Regardless of the project’s purpose, we wish to voice our strong concern that this initiative will have devastating and irreversible effects on the wildlife resources of the region.

The area to be affected by the Meridian Dam is one of the largest, relatively pristine areas of mixed-grass prairie left in Alberta. The exceptional value of this area to wildlife has been well documented in biophysical inventories conducted by the Canadian Wildlife Service at Canadian Forces Bases Suffield, an area that will be directly impacted by the development. From this work, and other studies in the area, it is well known that the region supports many species of wildlife (including plants) that are endangered, threatened or otherwise at risk in Alberta. Many of these species rely on riparian habitats along the river. Although these habitats comprise less than 1% of the uplands in the area, they are known to contain about 80% of the local avian diversity. Furthermore, riparian habitats are critical wintering and denning sites for a wide range of wildlife. The area supports one of the highest concentrations of Prairie Rattlesnakes in Canada, and the entire local population winters in hibernacula along the river. The existing riparian areas would be completely eradicated by the water impoundment, resulting in an irreversible loss of much of the provincial population of this imperilled species.

Calculations by the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Canadian military show that the lake behind the Meridian Dam will consume up to 50 km² of upland habitat on Canadian Forces Base Suffield, and up to 13 km² of a proposed National Wildlife Area. Large expanses of upland will also be lost both upstream and downstream of the Suffield block. However, the impacts of the Meridian project extend well beyond the area flooded by the new reservoir. There will be extensive destruction of cottonwood forests downstream from the dam, due to alteration of hydrological regimes. These habitats are relatively rare in southern Alberta, and support an extraordinary diversity of organisms. If the impoundment is used for irrigation, up to 160,000 hectares of native upland could be converted to non-native vegetation. The cumulative impacts of upland and riparian alteration on local flora and fauna will be devastating and irreversible, and cannot be justified based on the questionable benefit of the Meridian dam to Albertans.

The Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society appeals directly to you and your government to recognize the enormous natural values of the area that will be irreversibly destroyed if the project proceeds. We ask you to assure our membership that the current feasibility study will be terminated, and any plans to proceed with the Meridian Dam project are withdrawn.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely yours,

Conservation Committee Chairman

cc: Mike Cardinal
Lorne Taylor
Arlen Todd
Dave McKinnon

I was pleased, honored, and humbled to receive the William Rowan Distinguished Service Award in 2001. My wife and I were in Arizona during a winter trip around the southern US when I received word about the award via ‘hot mail.’ It was the very day that it was presented by Jack Nolan and received on my behalf by Awards Chairman Eldon Bruns. I thank them, the Awards Committee, and all chapter members for the award. It is special because it comes from peers in the wildlife profession. It is an attractive award and one that I will proudly hang on the wall along with the paintings of caribou, deer, and some token ducks and loons.

A downside to adopting the habits of snowbirds and peregrine falcons is missing the annual meetings of the Alberta Chapter. I can only hope that the timing of the meetings can be advanced to the last week of March. I have fond memories of my association with the Alberta Chapter and the Northwest Section as President in 1980/81. In 1988, a few Albertans attending a Northwest Section meeting in Spokane entertained the idea of an Alberta Chapter. Then Bill Glasgow, Bill Samuel, Morley Barrett, and Mike Dorrance started the ball rolling and the first meeting of the Alberta Chapter was held in 1990 in Red Deer. The annual meetings have been a fine way to meet other wildlifers in the province and to learn about results of their studies.

The vitality of the wildlife profession in Alberta is considerably abetted by the work of the Alberta Chapter. Keep the chapter strong with your active participation!

For the past few years, hunters in Alberta have been asked to voluntarily submit the heads of adult elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer killed during the fall seasons. This program continues and you are asked to yet again drop off the heads of hunter-killed adult deer and elk at any office of the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division. We are using these heads, or rather brain samples from these heads, to look for evidence of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). To date we have looked at nearly 1000 heads of wild deer and elk and have not found CWD. This short article provides an update of recent events as well as a brief overview of the disease and the management concerns associated with it. Additional information is available on the Fish and Wildlife hunting website at www.gov.ab.ca/env/fw/hunting/index.html or at any Fish and Wildlife office.

Chronic Wasting Disease is a prion disease that can affect some members of the deer family (Cervidae). Prions are abnormal proteins that, in the case of CWD, are associated with changes in the brain tissue that result in damage to nerve cells, changes in behaviour, loss of weight, and eventually death of infected animals. Although no one knows exactly how CWD passes from one individual to another, we do know that it can be transferred to other cervids by direct contact with an infected individual or by contact with contaminated surfaces. Fortunately CWD is not known to infect humans or livestock. In the wild, CWD does not appear to be highly infectious and affected populations do not show detectable declines over the short term. However, theoretical models based on information gathered in Colorado suggest that over the long term (40-50 years), localized mule deer populations may decrease.

To date, CWD has been identified in free-ranging mule deer, whitetails, and elk in a small area where Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska butt up against each other. It is more common in mule deer. Unfortunately, animals from this area were introduced onto game farms in the U.S. in the 1980s. It is now apparent that CWD also was introduced and was later unknowingly transferred to other farms. The disease has been identified in captive elk on game farms in a number of states as well as in Saskatchewan. Alberta has been monitoring farmed elk and deer since 1996 and has not found any evidence of CWD in the >1500 heads examined.

You may have heard that CWD was recently confirmed in two wild mule deer shot in Saskatchewan but close to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. This causes us great concern in Alberta. In order to improve our surveillance data from the border region and to provide a basis on which we could design future management programs for the area, Alberta Fish and Wildlife actively collected mule deer and whitetails in a corridor from the North Saskatchewan River south to Provost. The program focused on adults; however, a few short yearlings also were collected. Unfortunately we had no choice but to do this in the spring when deer were still accessible and before spring farming activities were underway. Using Fish and Wildlife staff, we shot 241 deer and, in cooperation with Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development, tested the brains of all of the adults. All of the 190 heads were negative. We also gathered important forensic and reproductive information that will be applied to other on-going wildlife management programs.

Although the data collected during the spring are encouraging, we are still concerned about CWD being transferred from Saskatchewan. Our neighbours to the east, in conjunction with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, are working hard to identify and eliminate CWD in wild deer and captive elk. However, we need to remain vigilant that it does not cross the border into Alberta. One way to do this is to closely monitor what is happening in deer and elk along the border.

We encourage any hunter who kills an adult deer or elk in WMUs 234, 236, or 256 to collect the head and submit it to a Fish and Wildlife office. Preferably the heads should be bagged in plastic and frozen as soon as possible. In order to use the head we must receive information identifying the species, sex, date of kill, WMU, and specific location of the kill. Also, please include your WIN number! Further information is available from any Fish and Wildlife office.

Thanks again to all those who have submitted heads in the past and may do so in the future.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife and the Alberta Conservation Association are seeking your assistance.

One of the projects being undertaken this year by the Alberta Fish and Wildlife and the Alberta Conservation Association is a study of the distribution of rare small mammals in southern and central Alberta. The approach used is to find the nests and the roosts of Great Horned Owls and collect pellets that have been coughed up by the birds.

Great Horned Owls nest in trees and usually roost in old buildings. Pellets are the indigestible bones and fur that remain after the owl has consumed its prey. Because Great Horned Owls are major predators of small mammals, the analysis of their pellets provides information of the distribution of these species in Alberta.

An excellent sample of pellets was collected in the Prairie and Bow Regions last year. This year, efforts are concentrated on the Parkland Region (mainly east of Highway 2). However, the Parkland Region is far more challenging and we could use your help. If you know of any active Great Horned Owl nests, or are aware of any old buildings where they have been roosting, please contact either:

Lance Engley (Alberta Conservation Association, Edmonton)
Ph: (780) 427-1248; E-mail: lance.engley@gov.ab.ca

OR

Dave Prescott (Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division, Red Deer)
Ph: (403) 340-4309; E-mail: dave.prescott@gov.ab.ca

The basic idea is this: although odonates are important to survey for their own right, information on the odonate fauna may also provide insight into the aquatic invertebrate community and habitat quality of a wetland.

Survey efforts for odonates throughout the province have primarily been scattered and inconsistent. Multi-year surveys are needed from the same area in order to detect trends in population, as well as more surveys from the boreal and extreme southern regions of Alberta in order to better delineate species’ distributions and inventory our provincial odonate fauna.

No provincial repository exists for general odonate data, however, the Alberta Natural Heritage and Information Centre (ANHIC) is interested in records for any of their 25 tracked odonate species (see website below). If you are surveying within a protected area then park staff or naturalists (i.e. "Friends of…" clubs) may be interested lists. In addition, I am personally interested in any annual species lists from different locations throughout the province. Please do not hesitate to contact me regarding your odonate records, or for further information on beginning your own odonate survey.

Contact Information:

Christine Rice, M.Sc. Candidate
Department of Renewable Resources
University of Alberta
751 General Services Building
Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H1
Ph: (780) 492-9084
E-mail: vermivorus@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.ualberta.ca/~jhornung/dragonfly.htm
ANHIC’s tracked odonate species: http://www.gov.ab.ca/env/parks/anhic/odontrak.html

Timetable:

Odonate diversity and abundance are highest in Alberta from mid-July to mid-August. If surveys can only be conducted for a limited time over the summer, it is recommended that they occur during this time. However, the species composition of the odonate fauna changes over the summer, and surveys that occur in June and into September also provide valuable occurrence records.

Equipment:

You will need an aerial insect net, a 10 to 20-power hand lens, and some information on how to identify what you have caught. A provincial checklist and very general key is available from my website above. Species level identifications are required in order to make any scientific inferences, however information must be drawn from taxonomic references dealing with all of North America as no provincial guide yet exists (please contact me for further info).

Survey Protocol:

Since odonates are aquatic obligates the easiest place to find them is at the waters edge, be it a wetland, lake, stream, or river. Surveys should occur on warm (i.e. >15 C), low wind (i.e. <Beaufort 4) days. Choose a priori if you are going to sample an entire wetland site or only a portion of it. Surveying odonates in a repeatable, measurable way involves walking a transect line (=200 m) every time a census is done. The transect will likely be a serpentine shape that runs parallel to the shoreline and zigzags its way through the different bands of vegetation within the aquatic/terrestrial interface. For example, if you have decided on a 200 m section of shoreline then begin by walking 200 m at the waters edge, then turn around and walk the same 200 m but this time in the emergent vegetation just behind the open water, and so on until you have surveyed the dry upland vegetation zone.

The transect should take no more than two hours to walk (at a very slow pace), and should coincide with places that odonates frequent. High density odonate locations are primarily at the aquatic/terrestrial interface, but other ecotypes should be included to a lesser degree. Also make certain that the areas you select for transects have enough room for you to swing a net. Open lanes in a wooded habitat are good.

Small wetlands (i.e. sites that are completely surrounded by drift fence) should be sampled by a transect that includes the whole wetland. If you have decided to sample a portion of a wetland make certain to mark the area. Also try to have your transect representative of the micro-habitats present at the wetland or in your area. For example, if you have sedges, cattail, and eroding banks at site then include all of these types of micro-habitats in your transect, or if you have open areas like clear cuts or meadows dominating the landscape – sample those too.

The final words on choosing a transect: don’t be too critical. Choose a nice ‘stroll’. Dragonflies are mobile beasts and can come to you to a certain extent – just get close enough. Also, make your transect manageable. A short ode-ing transect will entice you to complete it. If you want to do extra, there is room for that, just make sure the transect is sampled.

Data

Record the area you have surveyed, the time at the start and end of your survey, and the odonates you captured (preferably identified to species) or spotted (identified to the lowest taxa level possible). Voucher specimens will be necessary in order to confirm identifications, range extensions, or new provincial records.

• try to visit the transect at least once a week.
• record: date, time start and time stop, observer, species, teneral/adult, breeding evidence (tandem, wheel, ovipositing, just presence absence data, with any type of breeding information).
• make sure to record time spent looking so comparisons can be made (e.g., species found).

The 2002 meeting will be held at the Doubletree Hotel Spokane Valley, in beautiful Spokane, WA. Mark it on your calendar and make room reservations now!!

Theme: This year’s session will focus on the future of wildlife management and research in two primary areas:

1. How is our changing society affecting the future of our profession? What can we do to adapt to those changes and even to take advantage of them to improve wildlife management and research?
2. What are the latest tools for research and management? What do we see as the future of those tools as well as some of our old ones?

Changes in societal values, demographics and wealth are dramatically affecting how the public views and uses wildlife, and how they view wildlife management and managers. How the profession adapts (or fails to adapt) to those changes will largely determine the future of the profession. This session promises to focus on innovative ways to respond to changes now and in the future. In addition to the usual topics reporting on the latest research and management, the 2002 session will focus on:

• tapping into increasing societal wealth for funding;
• communication skills and tools;
• working with "opposition" groups to avoid ballot initiatives and other actions that may adversely affect wildlife management and research;
• understanding what our publics want and being responsive to them;
• the latest in management and research tools and their future;
• the future of older tools in light of changing societal values;
• approaches to working with the public to preserve those older tools.

Workshops are yet to be finalized but likely topics include:

• Use of DNA in wildlife research and management;
• Managing Human/Wildlife Conflicts: an emphasis on non-lethal methods of animal damage control;
• Communication skills and tools for wildlife biologists.

Watch the Washington Chapter website (below) for more details as they’re finalized.

Schedule is tentatively as follows:

Lodging. The Doubletree Hotel Spokane Valley has reserved a block of rooms at the very special rate of $65/night U.S. (single or double occupancy), $75/night U.S. (triple or quad.). Reservations can be made at 1-800-222-TREE (1-800-222-8733). Be sure to request the group rate for The Wildlife Society. Make reservations early to assure that rate.

When: September 19-21, 2001
Where: Edmonton, AB
For more info: http://www.recycle.ab.ca/events.htm

Conserving Nature in the Edmonton Region Conference

When: October 15-18, 2001
Where: Kananaskis Village, AB
For more info: 

Old-Growth Forests in Canada: a science perspective

When: October 18, 2001
Where: Calgary, AB
For more information: http://www.areacanada.com/whatsnew.htm

Transitions in the Conservation Landscape; 63rd Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

Coté, S.D., Festa-Bianchet, M., Smith, K.G. 2001. Compensatory reproduction in harvested mountain goat populations: A word of caution. Wildlife Society Bulletin 2001 29(2): 726-730.

Dyer, Simon J., O'Neill, Jack P., Wasel, Shawn M., Boutin, Stan. 2001. Avoidance of Industrial Development by Woodland Caribou. Journal of Wildlife Management 65(3): 531-542.

Norton, M.R., Hannon, S.J., Schmiegelow, F.K.A. 2000. Fragments are not islands: Patch vs landscape perspectives on songbird presence and abundance in a harvested boreal forest. Ecography 23(2): 209-223.

Schneider, R.R., Wynes, B., Wasel, S., Dzus, E., Hiltz, M. 2000. Habitat use by caribou in northern Alberta, Canada. Rangifer 20(1): 43-50.

Smith, K.G., Ficht, E.J., Hobson, D., Sorensen, T.C., Hervieux, D. 2000. Winter distribution of woodland caribou in relation to clear-cut logging in west-central Alberta. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78: 1433-1440.

Please send any references of recently published articles to sue.cotterill@gov.ab.ca. Articles of interest include those authored by ACTWS members on Alberta wildlife.

The Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is arguably Alberta’s most "at risk" species. An estimated population of 3000-6000 Sage Grouse was found in Alberta in 1968. Numbers have been dramatically reduced with an estimated population of 400-500 in 2000. Both the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and Alberta’s Wildlife Act currently list Sage Grouse as an endangered species. Historical and anecdotal data suggests that the species once occupied a range of approximately 40,000 km² in Alberta. Current species’ range is around 4,000 km². The population in Saskatchewan has undergone similar declines. In the western United States, the bird’s status ranges from extirpated to secure, depending on the locality.

Sage Grouse are at the northern limit of their range in Alberta. Sagebrush, in particular silver sage (Artemisia cana), provides most of the diet of adult birds. Their range is currently limited to the southeastern corner of the province, within the sagebrush range of the mixed grass prairie. Conversions of native prairie to agricultural lands, oil and gas development, and over-grazing over the long-term are detrimental to Sage Grouse habitat.

Monitoring of Sage Grouse in Alberta has been somewhat sporadic since it began in 1968, however recently a more concerted effort has been made to visit all known strutting grounds each spring in order to estimate population size and trend. This involves surveying the 35 known lek sites and counting the number of displaying males at each site. To increase the accuracy of the survey, it is essential that all the sites be visited in a one or two day period. Doing this minimizes double counting of birds that move between different leks. This means importing a lot of help for the surveys, so each year about 20 people are enlisted from all over the province to help with the annual count. The 2001 count was no different, and staff from Fish and Wildlife, Parks and Protected Areas, and Land and Forests converged on the rustic Manyberries Hotel as Sage Grouse survey central. Staying in the old hotel is nearly as unique an experience as seeing the magnificent Sage Grouse strutting on their leks!

Counts this year revealed 108 males displaying, down from the previous year’s 126. This small decline is not encouraging, the population continues to be alarmingly low and improvement in numbers is not occurring. This year’s count would indicate the population is still hovering around approximately 400 individuals. One interesting development in the 2001 survey was that of three male grouse displaying on a lek where birds had not been observed since 1976. The keen eyes of biologist Sue Cotterill from AB Fish and Wildlife in Edmonton made this interesting observation. This activity at a lek site 25 years after it had been considered abandoned was exciting to document, and reaffirms the importance of these breeding areas.

Research is now being undertaken to identify factors affecting the Sage Grouse population and habitat. A major habitat initiative is also getting underway. Successful long-term recovery of the Sage Grouse will depend on major co-operation between wildlife agencies, researchers, industry, and landowners. Hopefully this unique dancer of the Canadian prairie will not be lost from Alberta.