This document establishes a baseline for woodland caribou population status, distribution, and critical habitat in Saskatchewan through a review of the scientific literature, summary and analysis of existing population data, and delineation of caribou meta-populations on an area specific basis. The purpose of this document was to assist the Woodland Caribou Advisory Team and Woodland Caribou Working Group in development of a recovery action plan for woodland caribou in Saskatchewan. A management-by-objective (MBO) approach was used to create a biological and ecological framework (Woodland Caribou Management Units (WCMU)) to organize and summarize available data, to provide a structure from which recovery planning and long-term management of woodland caribou can be developed on an area-specific (management unit) basis, and to provide a foundation from which management prescriptions can be evaluated and adjusted as new information is gained (adaptive management). Woodland caribou are the only ungulate in Saskatchewan that naturally occurs at low densities, has a low reproduction rate, and whose status is threatened both provincially and nationally. They are vulnerable to habitat change because of their dependence on large areas of undisturbed climax habitat and lichens, and fragility with respect to even minor changes in population limiting factors. The provincial population is estimated to be 4,250 animals. The management strategies developed for individual WCMUs in a recovery action plan will be a function of the cumulative effects of habitat alteration and fragmentation in relation to their effect on population limiting factors in each WCMU, and subsequent changes to risk of local population extinction. Management approaches in recovery action planning should occur at several levels. A coarse scale (ecosystem-based management) approach is a landscape planning approach to natural resource management intended to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. At the landscape level, this approach relates to the mix of ecosystems in the planning landscape relative to historic conditions. At the ecosystem (stand) level, this approach relates to the spatial and temporal scales over which habitat is altered by industry in relation to the scales and periods that these stands are used by caribou. At the species level, this approach relates to the viability and population parameters in the planning landscape relative to the same measures in historic range. But, woodland caribou populations are limited not only by habitat, but also by a variety of other factors including hunting, and direct and indirect human effects on the landscape that increase mortality rates. Therefore, a fine scale (population management) approach is also needed to assess changes in population dynamics in relation to the anthropomorphic influences on population status (eg. change in management prescription, industrial impacts, direct and indirect effects on the planning landscape). Management of boreal caribou in Saskatchewan requires weighing the risks and threats of various population limiting factors, with caribou conservation needs. These metrics vary by WCMU and ecozone, which results in differential risk assessment and management prescription by WCMU and ecozone. WCMU populations at highest risk are those with the highest human activity occurring on them. If woodland caribou are to be maintained in perpetuity, it is necessary to determine whether recovery strategies for a particular WCMU are intended for “survival” or “recovery”. This will also depend on what portions of the planning landscape have first priority for caribou conservation.