Species at risk need big, linked parks: report
Ensuring Canada's woodland caribou, eastern wolf and other at-risk species survive will require bigger, more interconnected parks, a new report says.
Canada's parks are an uneven patchwork in terms of how much protection they offer endangered wildlife, concluded the third annual review of how wildlife are faring in Canada's parks released Friday by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
"There are quite a few [species] that in fact rely very heavily on parks as their main habitat," said Eric Hébert-Daly, the group's executive director. "Having really big parks, to keep large habitat in tact, having them connected to other protected areas is quite essential."
Animals tend to thrive in larger, well-managed parks, he said.
"The smaller ones that aren't connected tend to be the ones that have a hard time."
The report praised the government efforts to create more parks, including the recently announced Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area in B.C., Sable Island in ...