Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) and the Exposed Wildlife Conservancy are calling for the Minister to rescind his decisions that jeopardize grizzly bears, cougars, wolverines and a host of other cherished Alberta wildlife species.
The minister has made several major wildlife management decisions that overwhelmingly favour hunters and trappers and are contrary to the advice of many of his own wildlife biologists, wildlife experts around the province, and the province’s own sustainable wildlife management plans. He maintains conflicting ties with hunters, trappers and guide outfitters, and has repeatedly shown favouritism to these groups. Further, he has ignored thousands of letters from Albertans and has placed his personal interests above those of the public.
AWA and Exposed address these concerns in an open letter addressing the lack of scientific justification and conflicts of interest. Each decision is examined in detail in the appendices, where we have asked biologists to verify all the accompanying scientific information and provide their own science-based statements.
“Albertans trust in this minister’s ability to properly administer his portfolio in regard to wildlife management has quickly eroded and many Albertans simply don’t think the Minister is being an effective steward of our wildlife right now. He has repeatedly acted in favour of his own self interests and ignored the province’s wildlife management plans by raising quotas, removing trapping limits, opening up new hunting areas, and increasing the ways in which wildlife can be hunted, all without any scientific evidence to support these changes.”
– John E. Marriott, co-founder, Exposed Wildlife Conservancy.
“The recent changes to hunting and trapping regulations are unscientific, biased and violate good wildlife management. These decisions threaten the sustainability of our province’s wildlife and ecosystems. Given the evidence, these decisions need to be rescinded before they cause irreversible harm.”
– Ruiping Luo, Conservation Specialist, Alberta Wilderness Association.
The full letter, additional reading materials, and appendices can be found at these links:
In June 2023, Todd Loewen was appointed Minister of Forestry and Parks. He formerly owned Red Willow Outfitters, an outfitting company. The company is currently owned by his wife and son. He also ran a trapline, which is now also reportedly owned by his son.
Since taking the position, he has made several major changes to relax hunting and trapping restrictions. These include:
These decisions contradict the advice of experts and sustainable management plans. No scientific evidence has been provided to justify these changes, nor were many of the decisions publicly announced and/or widely consulted on.
The changes repeatedly and appallingly favour outfitters, hunters and trappers, often the only groups contacted regarding the new regulations. Minister Loewen has publicly maintained close ties to these groups, including the Alberta Professional Outfitters Society and the Alberta Trappers Association.
These conflicts of interest include:
Ruiping Luo, Alberta Wilderness Association (rluo@abwild.ca, 403-283-2025)
John Marriott, Exposed Wildlife Conservancy (johnemarriott@gmail.com, 403-688-3851)
