News Release

Peregrine Falcon Habitat in Peel Watershed at Risk from Oil and Gas Development

June 4, 2004 – Whitehorse – The Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS-Yukon) is calling on Yukon Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang to withdraw the area nominated for oil and gas development in the Peel watershed, in the 2004 Oil and Gas Call for Nominations.

The area nominated in the pristine northeastern part of the Yukon targets critical Peregrine Falcon habitat. It is also in one of the Yukon’s most important wetlands and the winter range of the Porcupine Caribou herd.

“Throughout the world efforts are being made to safeguard the habitat of threatened species like the Peregrine Falcon, but not in the Yukon,” says Mac Hislop, Campaign Coordinator of CPAWS-Yukon. “Premier Fentie’s government ducked its responsibilities when it shelved protected areas planning in 2003. Putting sensitive Yukon wildlife populations at risk to curry favour with multinational oil companies is another highly regressive move.”

The Yukon Government has been asked repeatedly by First Nations governments, mandated boards and councils and conservation organizations to hold off on oil and gas dispositions in the Peel watershed until land use planning is well advanced. The Peel Watershed Land Use Planning Commission is supposed start its work this coming fall.

For years Yukoners have been calling on the Yukon Government to conserve the remarkable and unspoiled landscapes of the Peel watershed. Fed by the Ogilvie, Hart, Wind, Bonnet Plume and Snake Rivers in the Yukon, the Peel watershed is an area of high mountains, wild rivers, intact forests and healthy fish and wildlife populations.

“The Yukon Government is putting key Yukon fish and wildlife populations and their habitats at risk, and threatens to degrade ecological, economic and recreational values significant to Yukoners and their families,” added Hislop. “We believe that it is unfair and wrong that multinational oil companies will decide the future of the Peel watershed before local people have had a chance to have their say.”

The Peel watershed helps support local people reliant on traditional hunting, fishing and trapping as well as locally run wilderness tourism and outfitting businesses that contribute significantly to the local and territorial economy. The Wind, Snake and Bonnet Plume wilderness rivers are also a popular destination for Yukoners, Canadians and people from around the world. The Yukon Government is putting the Peel watershed and these values at risk by opening this area to potential development prior to proper planning.

For more information, please contact:

Mac Hislop
CPAWS-Yukon Campaign Coordinator
Telephone: 867-393-8080 ext. 3.