08 Sep Sable Horse Removal Society – part 2

Posted at 10:21h in That's life by

Ian Jones, the MUN professor urging removal of horses from Sable Island, offers a rebuttal to the skepticism I voiced in a post this morning:

You need to correct some parts of your blog post… I am a biology professor and seabird scientist specializing in research on the biology, conservation and restoration of remote islands. I am not a member of any environmental advocacy group.

The section in your post [quoting Dalhousie ecologist Bill Freedman] about consensus is very misleading. Sure, the horse people at Sable Island all want the horses to stay. This says nothing about the global consensus that exotic fauna (such as horses) are universally harmful and need to be controlled and/or removed. There is no ‘statute of limitations’ on exotic fauna—many of the worst cases of damage are from animals introduced during the 17th-18th-19th centuries.

I never suggested that Sable Island be made into a National Park – I am only suggesting that Parks Canada follow its own rules and guidelines—to not do so at one park threatens the integrity of management of all Canadian National Parks.

This might be of interest to you. [The link is to the very interesting website of Island Conservation, an organization devoted to “prevent(ing) extinctions by removing invasive species from islands,” which, come to think of it, does sound a lot like an “environmental advocacy group.”]

I agree with Zoe Lucas, who told Information Morning (Halifax) this morning it’s “a really interesting and worthwhile question… and worth looking into.“ It goes to the heart of what we intend “conservation” to accomplish. But as Freedman implied, for the foreseeable future, it’s an academic discussion. Nothing remotely like what Jones is proposing will occur for decades at the earliest.

Parks Canada eventually plans to undertake public consultation on a management plan for the island.

One final note: My initial post referred to Dr. Jones, facetiously, as an ‘eco-provocateur.’ In response, Jones points out that, “CBC called me up out of the blue and asked for my scientific opinion on management of Sable Island. I answered their questions to the best of my knowledge. This is part of my job as a professor. I hope this doesn’t make me an ‘eco-provocateur,’ whatever that is.