Although Alberta's greatest natural assets include bighorn sheep, grizzly bears and bull trout, the province's public wildlife bank often goes unguarded. With three times fewer fish and wildlife officers on a per capita basis than neighboring Montana, Alberta is slowly abandoning wildlife protection.
In 2008, 3,624 tips to the province's Report a Poacher program helped fish and wildlife officers prosecute 1,242 wildlife thieves. But due to hiring freezes, budget cuts and poor management decisions, officers often couldn't take their trucks home or respond to emergency calls in a timely fashion. With fewer boots on the ground, most fish and wildlife officers now live two to three hours away from reported offences.
Given that an increasing number of poaching incidents now go uninvestigated; the number of poaching prosecutions dropped by 80 per cent in the past two years to fewer than 245 charges. Meanwhile, the province has allowed the Report a Poacher line to be overwhelmed by calls about problem wildlife. By failing to safeguard its public resources, the province is slowly eroding its heritage.
Decline in service is recent but dramatic
Prior to the 1990s, Alberta was a leader in fish and wildlife management and research in North America. The service had distinctive white and green vehicles, dedicated biologists, a scientific research section, a habitat protection branch and its own assistant deputy minister.
But a combination of sustained cutbacks as well as endless restructuring and privatization schemes has dramatically fragmented the service in the past two decades. With fewer boots on the ground many essential services have been severely compromised.
In 2008, the province's popular Report a Poacher program reported that Alberta's fish and wildlife officers responded to 3,624 complaints resulting in 1,242 prosecutions. But by 2009 the number of prosecutions dropped by 80 per cent to 235. Since then neither SRD nor the Alberta Conservation Authority, the program's promoter, have reported enforcement statistics. Both transparency and accountability for the program have disappeared as quickly as poached wildlife.
Mel Knight, the minister for sustainable resources, recently admitted in the legislature that "less money means that some impact on services is going to be unavoidable" and that "fewer staff and greater distances between field offices" will obviously result in "response time delay."
Officers now describe the service as a ragtag army that often can't often afford gas for its trucks and that is largely administered by individuals with little interest in wildlife. In addition, the service can claim only one remaining fisheries research biologist. The department's research and habitat protection section has been dissolved.
Most of the service's 60 station offices have lost staff or are operating at 50 per cent of capacity. Some offices have become one-person outfits. Fourteen offices have become one-person or two person stations. Despite the population nearly doubling, Alberta has no more fish and wildlife officers than it did in 1980.
In recent years staff training and meetings often take place during critical times, limiting enforcement capability. Firearms and self-defense training for officers, for example, typically takes place in the fall during hunting season with as many 50 officers engaged in training in Hinton. That means fewer officers in the field when they are needed most.
Piecemeal approach worsens the situation
The service has been hobbled by piecemeal fragmentation and privatization. In 1999 the government amalgamated fish and wildlife officers with park wardens and created "conservation officers." Several years later the government ended the unsuccessful marriage.
The service once inspected aquaculture facilities to make sure no fish escaped into lakes or streams, now that's done by Alberta Agriculture; it once controlled Report a Poacher, now it does only the enforcement; it once had the right to inspect game farms, now Agriculture does that; it once patrolled all wilderness and parks, now only conservation officers are allowed to do enforcement work in these areas; it once employed many biologists in fishery and wildlife enhancement programs, now their work has been downloaded to the Alberta Conservation Association, a hunter's group.
With one officer responsible for a 5,000 square- kilometres area, many officers don't even have time to answer the phone. As a consequence of irregular funding and reactive restructuring as well as unrestrained provincial growth, several critical wildlife species are now endangered including woodland caribou, sage grouse and bull trout.
Retired fish and wildlife officers report widespread demoralization. Historically, forest staff have unlimited overtime while fish and wildlife have stringent overtime restrictions. In 2007, budget related "tune-ups" prevented staff from taking their vehicles home so they could answer emergency calls.
In sum Alberta's fish and wildlife service has been poorly managed and inconsistently funded. Although the province's population nearly doubled in the last decade, Alberta has the same number of officers in the field as it did in 1980. Essential services such as Report a Poacher have been compromised.
Addendum
Tips reported in the 2006-7 season: 3,432
Charges laid that season: 1,391
Tips reported in the 2007-08 season:3,624
Charges laid that season: 1,242
Tips reported in the 2008-09 season:6,927
Charges laid that season: 235
Tips reported in the 2009-10 season: 7,509
Charges laid that season: 241
Source: Annual Report of the Alberta Conservation Association (Note: data in the online version of this report has been inexplicably altered since publication of this article.)
Population of Montana: 974,989
Number of fish and wildlife officers in Montana: 110
Population of Alberta: 3,687,662
Number of fish and wildlife officers in Alberta: 137
Sources: Dave Ealey, Communications Branch ASRD; Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks; US Census Bureau; Government of Alberta "Population Projections"
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