A Passion for Wildlife: The History of the Canadian Wildlife Service

Dr. Patrick W. Colgan is the director of Research and Natural Lands at
the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Burnett, a naturalist and freelance writer, provides a very full
institutional history of the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), which was
founded in 1947. The material is organized both thematically and
chronologically in five-year steps (even though such steps do not
resonate with events). He begins by indicating how much wildlife
contributes to Canadian history, and by discussing early attempts at
conservation such as the Commission of 1909. This was the era of such
leaders as James Harkin, Gordon Hewitt, Dewey Soper, and Percy Taverner.
It also marked the beginnings of fieldwork, first bird sanctuaries,
diplomacy with the United States on migratory birds, and bringing bison
from the brink of extinction. Enforcing the migratory bird legislation
required no small effort: the RCMP had a special poacher group, and the
Act was actually amended to allow for the hunting of murres by
Newfoundlanders. Enforcements also involved Native harvesting and
confiscation at borders of material contravening the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species. Other avian issues were
damage to crops and hazards to airplanes. Waterfowl always received much
attention, but other groups studied included shorebirds and landbirds
(via the Breeding Bird Survey), often involving university researchers.

After birds came mammals (especially large ones in federal parks), for
both their taxonomy and pathology. Burnett addresses bison, fur-bearers,
polar bear (which has its own international agreement), muskoxen,
caribou, and wolves. Sustaining angling quickly led to limnological
studies and innovations for sampling and stocking. Habitat programs, to
protect the space for wildlife, were addressed through the Canada Land
Inventory and leasing or purchasing sanctuaries. These efforts brought
CWS into contact with many stakeholders and issues, such groups as Ducks
Unlimited, and diplomatically in the development of the North American
Wildfowl Management Plan of 1986. In 1973, the Federal Department of the
Environment was formed, and regionalization, the fashion of the day,
meant many more managers. Burnett tells how fostering awareness of
wildlife has led to programs in all media.

Wildlife toxicology became a new responsibility, especially spraying
for spruce budworm, pollution in the Great Lakes, hard impacted species
such as the peregrine falcon, and the development of a Specimen Bank.
Burnett describes the tales of some endangered species, such as
trumpeter swans and whooping cranes, while others are considered under
the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (set up in
1977), the Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife (1988), and the
Species at Risk Act (at last in 2002). As an arm of government, CWS was
not immune to major reorganizations, as in 1953, or cuts, the harshest
inflicted by Suzanne Blais-Grenier in 1984.

In his last chapter, Burnett deals with the political and diplomatic
context within which CWS functions: a network of treaties and
agreements, the BNA Act, and, more recently, NAFTA and the Earth Summit.
He appropriately highlights firsts, whether it is the recruitment of
women or the anthrax vaccination of a natural population. The material
is well split between the dedicated staff and the issues with which they
dealt. Photographs are used effectively, and humorous anecdotes spice
the text. A good read for anyone interested in wildlife or governmental
treatment of it.