An Assessment of the Adequacy of Baseline Data Relevant to the Documentation and Evaluation of the Impacts of Oil Sands Developments on Large Mammals in the AOSERP Study Area.

Authors
Don Thompson
Dave Ealey
K.H. McCourt
Resource Date:
1978
Page Length
60

Three of the tenets upon which the Canada-Alberta agreement for the Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Research Program (AOSERP) is founded are: 1. Canada and Alberta recognize the necessity of improving the scientific understanding of the effects of the oil sands development on human and natural environment of the Alberta Oil Sands area. 2. The results of an intensive study of the area will be useful in predicting the effects of any proposed development as a basis for considering future proposals. 3. The results of the study program will be utilized by Alberta in the approval process for future developments and in the environmental design of any project which might be implemented. It is clear, therefore, that AOSERP was established with at least two major goals in mind: 1. To conduct research which will be useful in predicting the environmental effects of oil sands developments, and 2. To conduct research which will provide an understanding of the environmental effects of development such that this knowledge may be used in the environmental design of future developments. Development of the Athabasca Oil Sands will affect large mammals (moose, caribou, and wolf) to varying degrees through alteration of habitat, disturbance factors, and increased exploitation. Large mammal research in the AOSERP study area (Figure 1) was initiated in 1975 and continued to the present date under several projects. Research emphasis from 1975-78 has been on establishing baseline states for large mammals. The general objective of this project is to complete an analysis of the applied research necessary to allow evaluation of the effects of oil sands development on large mammals. This objective has been fulfilled in two basic stages: (1) a review of the available baseline data which is relevant to an assessment of the effects of development on large mammals in the AOSERP study area, and (2) an evaluation of the adequacy of available baseline data and an identification of data gaps which remain. The objective of this report is to provide an evaluation of the adequacy of the available baseline data which are relevant to the documentation and evaluation of the impacts on woodland caribou, moose, and wolves (large mammals) which would result from oil sands development in the Athabasca Oil Sands area, and recommendations for the research which should be completed to provide the missing data. A review of the available baseline data which are relevant to the documentation and evaluation of the impacts on large mammals which would result from oil sands development has been submitted as a separate volume (Thompson et al. In prep.); this review forms the basis for the present evaluation. Since the original literature supportive of many statements in this assessment are discussed in the literature review volume, the literature review will be the primary reference of this assessment.