Nature and wildlife: where B.C.’s political parties stand on key issues

Nature and wildlife: where B.C.’s political parties stand on key issuesA primitive rodent, with small eyes and ears and large front claws, makes its home in the Cascade mountains of southwestern B.C. Mountain beavers, which aren’t really beavers, spend most of their time underground — and their survival is at risk. Heavy forestry machinery compacts the deep soils where they burrow, presenting a key threat, along with urban development in the Fraser Valley. Just this year, the mountain beaver was added to the provincial “blue list.” B.C.’s blue list includes species particularly vulnerable to human impacts. If known threats are not addressed, blue-listed species could one day become red-listed, meaning they are endangered, threatened or no longer found in the province. B.C.’s red list includes spotted owls, southern mountain caribou and southern resident killer whales. Altogether, 1,952 species and ecosystems are officially at some risk of extinction in the province, according to the B.C. government’s conservation data centre.