You have an opportunity to provide comments and feedback regarding protection of 

Basking Shark, Misty Lake Sticklebacks, and West Slope Cutthroat Trout under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA).  The public comment period ends January 4, 2010.  The order and contact information for submitting your feedback can be accessed at:

http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2009/2009-12-05/html/reg2-eng.html
The draft Policies for Species at Risk have been posted at: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/consultations-eng.htm

The SARA policy suite includes a total of five related policies, one for each of the five components of species at risk conservation, namely: Assessment, Protection, Recovery Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation.

You are encouraged to take this opportunity to provide feedback on the draft SARA policies via the comment form on the website. Please direct any comments on the draft SARA policies to http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/document/default_e.cfm?documentID=1916.  The consultation period ends February 5, 2010.  

Marine Conservation Caucus member groups Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-BC Chapter, David Suzuki Foundation, Living Oceans Society, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Watershed Watch Salmon Society submitted a letter on the North Pacific RFMO Treaty to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to support participation in negotiations and clearly stating that the conservation community expects full consultation throughout the negotiation process.

Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Ecojustice and the Polis Project on Ecological Governance held a meeting on Dec. 2nd on reform of BC's Water Act. At that meeting we discussed priorities for better protection of water in BC, and reviewed a draft Statement of Expectations from BC NGOs on Reform of the BC Water Act. After the meeting, we received comments, and amended the document to reflect these comments and also what we heard at the meeting. It is now shorter and more forceful. 

See the final version of Statement of Expectations and consider signing on to this Statement, and endorsing these recommendations to reform BC's Water Act. 

We plan to send this document to the Minister of the Environment and other key people at the Ministry of the Environment at the end of next week, Dec. 18th. We hope this document will influence the government's agenda for BC Water Act reform, which is planned to proceed this winter and spring. 

Contact Linda Nowlan by December 17, 2009 if your group wants to be added as a signatory. We believe that the more groups that sign on, the better. There is strength in having the environmental community deliver a common message on this initiative.

The website <a href="http://www.sacredheadwaters.com/">Sacred Headwaters</a> provides information on a grassroots campaign to prevent Royal Dutch Shell from turning the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers into a coalbed methane gas field and lets people know how they can get involved to help protect the Sacred Headwaters. 

Plans are underway for a celebration for the renaming of waters off Washington and British Columbia the Salish Sea.  If your group is interested in supporting such a celebration or would like more information, please contact Paul Berlinguette at North Shore Wetland Partners.