Today's News

December 21, 2005: Re: Leslie Scriveners Marmot article

B.C.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ingmar Lee <ingmarz@gmail.com>
Date: 20-Dec-2005 20:08
Subject: Re: Leslie Scriveners Marmot article
To: lettertoed@thestar.ca

Dear Toronto Star editors,

Leslie Scrivener's article, "The marmot interview" fails to explore the reasons for the virtual extinction of Canada's most endangered mammal, namely the most voracious, unregulated private land clearcutting anywhere in Canada.

Scrivener plays into the hypocritical greenwash that captive breeding and predator control combined with perpetual logging can save the Vancouver Island marmots

The marmot is being used as a 'guinea pig' in a diabolical experiment which is funded primarily by the logging companies which own marmot habitat.

The ancient forests which surround the marmot colonies have been virtually exterminated, while the second growth forests at the foot of the mountain are being logged down to 30-40 year rotation cycles. 

While several of the treeless marmot meadows have been protected, industrial logging continues apace in the valleys through which wild marmots must travel from peak to peak to prevent genetic inbreeding.

Marmot habitat includes this animals connectivity requirements between its colony sites at the tops of the mountains.

The Marmot Recovery project and its logging company financiers are playing Russian Roulette with Canada's most endangered species to manage marmot populations in a perpetual logging zone.

Just like the liquidation/conversion management scheme which which converts ancient forest to nursery-bred tree plantations, marmot scientists now annually broadcast a fresh crop of lab-bred marmots across the extirpated colony sites, with a hope and a prayer that they might take.

Sincerely, Ingmar Lee
#22 Rue Francois Martin
Pondicherry,  India
ingmarz@gmail.com



On 20/12/05

The marmot interview
Q&A | Standing guard in the flower-filled meadows of Vancouver Island has
its moments, a `marmot shepherd' tells Leslie Scrivener

TORONTO STAR


Dec. 18, 2005. 01:00 AM


The Vancouver Island marmot, a heftier, more muscular cousin of the
squirrel, has led a perilous existence in recent years.

Some call the marmot - with its rich fur and white muzzle - Canada's most
endangered mammal. It was on a list, released last week, of vulnerable
species that make their homes in a single small part of the world. But
marmot lovers have had reason to rejoice - the numbers are on the rise.

Vancouver Island marmots are being bred successfully in zoos, including 19
in Toronto. Some of those being returned to the wild are surviving, their
numbers more than doubling in the past seven years to 155, thanks to a lot
of help from humans.

Vancouver Island marmots make their burrows only in the lush subalpine
meadows below the craggy, lichen-crusted mountains near Nanaimo, B.C.

For the past three summers, the Vancouver Island Marmot Recovery Foundation
- which has a $900,000 budget - employs "marmot shepherds" to protect the
growing colonies from predators. Crystal Dawn Reid, 26, is one of them.

Below, she answers our questions about keeping watch in the flowery meadows.



Why did you become a marmot shepherd?

I love to be outdoors and with animals. I just fell in love with marmots. I
like to watch them - before hibernation, they collect mouthfuls of grass
that hang out the sides of their mouths and they bring it to their burrow
for their bedding. It's really neat.

The two main ones at the site are named Haida and Onslo, a breeding pair,
and sometimes they'll sit together on the rock, have their bodies touching
or touch their noses. One will face in one direction and the other in
another, like they are looking out for each other.

The meadows are full of beautiful wildflowers, all different colours: red
paintbrush, purple lupine and bluebells. Sometimes, they hold a flower with
their two front paws and bring it close to their mouth. They go from one
flower to another and chomp off their heads. They're like little vacuum
cleaners.

What does a shepherd do and what is meadow life like?

The idea of the shepherd is to have a human presence to deter predators. We
have four tents set on the edge of the meadows and we watch the marmots from
dawn to dusk. In the summer, that's about 17 hours. We sit far away; we use
binoculars and spotting scopes.

We're up there for five or six days, then someone comes to relieve us. What
we do is watch for predators. The most visible are golden eagles. We use
"bear bangers" - they're the size of a pen and like little firecrackers or
noisemakers, with orange-coloured flares, and we shoot them into the sky to
make the eagles fly in a different direction.

For cougars, we also have dog-barking tapes. We don't play the tapes
continuously because studies show the cougars will get used to it.

We also have radios playing in the tents around the meadow. It's set to
sports radio; we want voices that might scare predators away. We don't want
nice music playing. It's on all the time, and part of our job is to change
the batteries.

Isn't it disruptive to hear talk radio in a subalpine meadow?

It is a bit funny in this beautiful setting. If the wind changes, you hear
the radios playing, but we have them playing toward the forest, not the
marmots, so it's only when the wind dies down you hear the voices. It sounds
strange, but I think it helps.

Do you also use low-voltage electric fencing?

We used electric fencing on another mountain, around the burrows, so if a
predator - a wolf or cougar - would get a slight shock and then, hopefully,
wouldn't want to go near the burrows. There's another type called "fladry" -
it's fencing with flags hanging down and is thought to deter wolves.

Don't you worry about marmots being shocked?

The bottom rung isn't electrified, so a marmot runs underneath it.

You've tagged some cougars?

We've got collars on some of them and can use telemetry to hear if one of
them is near. We're not supposed to go near the cougars by ourselves, for
safety reasons, so we're always up there in pairs, and we take our partner,
bear bangers and dog-barking tape and we walk toward the signal of the
cougar.

The problem with the collars is we don't know how close the cougar is to us.
There are collars out there that could tell us, but they cost $4,000 ... it
would be really helpful to get them.

Have you ever run into danger or been scared?

Two of our tents got wrecked - one by a bull elk in rut. Another tent was
slashed by another animal. I don't know what kind, but no one was in the
tent. But it's all worth it. It's just an amazing experience being up there
and seeing different animals.

We have sat phones and we check in every night with our boss to say the
marmots are safe and we're safe. We have radios to talk to our partners on
the mountain as well.

Does marmot shepherding ever get a bit tedious?

For the most part, they're lounging around on rocks, but something new
happens every day. Some days, you'll be sitting there and the second you
start to get bored, a northern harrier (hawk) flies by - it's not a danger
to the marmot. Every day, there's something exciting.

Do you think you're interfering too much in marmot lives?

I think it's what we have to do to bring them back from brink of extinction.
Part of the reason they're endangered is because of humans and now we can
help them by interacting with them.

They are totally wild and it's amazing how wild they stay, even after coming
from zoos and breeding centres. In an hour, they're feeding themselves,
exploring, eating the flowers. It's a wonderful feeling.

They keep that wildness in them and know what to do.


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