'There's hope': What we can learn from species that have made a comeback in B.C.

B.C. mammals and birds of the West Coast have made a comeback in the Pacific Northwest , also known as Cascadia .

Many lessons can be learned when animal populations successfully return, which scientists say has become possible because humans have developed greater appreciation of the world’s inter-connectedness.

In 1969 Canadian and U.S. biologists captured 89 sea otters in Alaska and flew them to Checleset Bay .

Their population in B.C. is now estimated at about 7,000 .

In 2022 the Canadian Pacific Humpback Collaboration , a collection of groups that collate sightings from researchers and citizen scientists, found 400 humpbacks in the Salish Sea .

Red-tailed hawks were once labelled chicken hawks’ because they would harass people’s chickens, ducks and geese in their backyards.

Conservation organizations updated a report in 2022 on the changing populations of 24 animals they found all were making comebacks.

Despite progress in some regions, there remain many mammals and birds on the West Coast of Canada that are nowhere near as abundant as in the past.

B.C. signed a $1 billion agreement with the federal government and Indigenous leaders that aims to foster biodiversity, fight against climate change and protect species at risk.