6-13 SS Selkirk Caribou
Southern Selkirk Mountains Woodland Caribou Critical Habitat Proposal
I have received at least 20 e-mails and press releases from US Fish and Wildlife services regarding the Selkirk Mountains Woodland Caribou. It seems to be a very hot topic so I called spokesperson Bryon Holt and asked some pretty basic questions. “What we are doing at hand is simply proposing to designate critical habitat for the species that exists in the area. What it boils down to is, it’s the area that contains the biological features that are important to the conservation of the species. What do they need to survive. So we are identifying the area that contains those features. And that is strictly in the Selkirk Mountains? Yes. Northern Idaho North of the Pend Oreille River, it is the Panhandle of northern Idaho and so the Selkirks occur in extreme Northeastern Washington and Northern Idaho. This is north and northeast of the Pend Oreille River. Are these caribou one of the most threatened animals in North America? Yes. They are listed under the endangered species act and they are highly imperiled, yes. What is the difference between the Selkirk Mountain caribou and the caribou herds that are up near the Arctic? The ones that you see where there are several hundred thousands, those are barren ground caribou. They are a different subspecies of caribou. Ida Selkirk Mountain caribou vulnerable to the whole wolf thing? Yes.