In the heart of Alberta, the Bow Valley is a nature lover’s dream.
Where else can you spot majestic creatures like grizzly bears, elk, moose, deer, cougars, black bears, weasels, and bobcats, all within a stone’s throw of a bustling city?
It’s a testament to our province’s natural splendour and the awe-inspiring benefits of living here, but it begs the question: Are we doing enough to ensure these creatures continue to thrive?
As Alberta gears up to double its population to a whopping 10 million by 2050, ecologist Brad Stelfox shares some sobering statistics that we should all sit up and take notice.
Wide Open Spaces?
Canada’s sprawling landscapes might seem like ample space for wildlife.
But Stelfox’s recent talk in Bragg Creek revealed a startling truth: wild mammals now make up only a fraction of Alberta’s total mammal biomass.
Over the past century, Alberta has seen a significant shift.
Our mammal biomass has doubled, but not due to an increase in numbers of wild creatures. Instead, this surge is due to the addition of cattle, horses, pigs, and pets.
In fact, the combined weight of all our pets accounts for a staggering 136.8 million kilograms of biomass! That’s 56 percent more than the combined weight of all of Alberta’s wild mammals!
“They were dumbfounded that wild mammals make up such a small number,” Stelfox told The Tyee.
A WildLife Homeless Problem
The threat to Alberta’s wildlife from urban sprawl, habitat fragmentation, and human activity is growing. Habitat destruction is leaving our province’s wild mammals homeless.
Although it may seem like our province is teeming with animals, the current numbers are nothing compared to a few hundred years ago.
Stelfox used a sophisticated computer model, ALCES, to compare historical wildlife biomass with today’s realities. The results were disheartening.
”In my heart as an Albertan, I had thought we would be comparatively less developed and have more of our native mammal biomass remaining,” reflected Stelfox.
But that’s far from the case.
He discovered that three hundred years ago, Alberta was home to about one billion kilograms of wildlife, dominated mostly by bison, elk, moose, and pronghorn.
Today, 92 percent of that wild biomass is gone, while the biomass of humans, livestock, and pets in the province has increased by over 700 percent!
The Double Whammy, Fires and Smoke
A report by The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute found over a quarter of the forest in Alberta’s northeast corner burned during last year’s epic wildfires.
Before the wildfires, it was one of the few areas that had remained relatively untouched by human expansion.
“An increased frequency of extreme fire years with the added effects of human disturbances will drive declines in forest age, representing potential rapid, large-scale and ongoing changes in habitats and resulting biodiversity which could undermine ecosystem function,” the report says.
Does More People Mean Less Wildlife?
Stelfox warns that as Calgary expands in the coming decades, the Bow Valley’s mammal wildlife biomass could shrink even further.
“If we are going to feed, employ and house millions of more people, we are going to see a proportional loss of what’s left,” Stelfox said.
Add to this the effects of human-caused wildfires and a warming climate, and the future of wild mammals in our province is bleak.
Stelfox concluded that, per capita, Albertans consume more natural resources and generate more waste than 99.9 percent of all people on Earth.
This sobering statistic should give us all pause.
That’s not a badge Albertans should be happy to wear.
A Better Future
Something has to change if we want to protect and provide habitats for our wild neighbours.
People move to Alberta attracted by some of the most untouched, beautiful lands on Earth, but at the rate we’re using them up, we’ll be taking the wild out of Wild Rose country much quicker than we think.
As we look to the future, we must ask ourselves: Can we maintain our province’s natural beauty and abundant wildlife despite a doubling human population?
It’s a question that deserves our attention, for the sake of our grandchildren and future generations.
