British Columbia’s wildlife is in trouble, and governments aren’t working hard enough to keep wild animals and plants alive. How do we know?

Fortunately, the provincial government has long kept extensive records of the animals and plant life that call its lands and waters home. The BC Conservation Data Centre (CDC) holds records for over 25,000 species, ranging from mosses to mackerel and mountain goats.

The status of each species is assessed by scientists to determine the risk that a species will go extinct or be extirpated from the province.

The results of these fine-grained status assessments help divide all of B.C.’s wildlife into one of three lists representing their level of endangerment: “Red” for critically imperilled species, “Blue” for species of special concern and “Yellow” for secure species that are currently at low extinction risk.

The problem is that neither species status assessments nor the colour-coded lists have any legal implications. Even if a species is known to be at high risk of extinction, it’s not guaranteed any protection from the B.C. government.

Colleagues and I used this data to find out how........

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