Since 2017, fRI Research's Caribou Program has been studying the links between forestry and moose habitat use in Alberta using a combination of GPS data, remote cameras, and field assessments of vegetation. The Moose Research Initiative builds on this work in order to answer critical questions for forest management and explores cutting edge methods for studying moose in Alberta. There are five research themes.

Theme 1: Moose population size and trend relative to forest management activities and landscape conditions.

In past work, we found that moose use of harvest blocks differed across seasons, and was impacted by the landscape surrounding the harvest block, site-specific availability of forage, and silviculture practices within the harvest block.

This research theme will expand on our previous moose research by using historical Government of Alberta aerial moose survey data to assess the influence of forest management and landscape condition on moose population sizes and trends. We will take advantage of the expertise, habitat data, and disturbance data that we have already built up in order to address a number of research gaps identified in our literature review, including:

• Understand moose population sizes and trends
• Improve best management practices for moose
• Create landscape-scale criteria for a moose cumulative effects assessment

 
Theme 2: Moose summer and winter ranges in Alberta: Resource Selection Function (RSF) models and connectivity.

In 2023, the Caribou Program, in collaboration with the University of Montana, published research on moose response to specific characteristics of linear features. We used GPS data to build new RSF habitat models for moose based, for the first time in Alberta, on Alberta Vegetation Inventory data.

This research theme will build upon the work completed in 2021 to test and validate new models in different areas in Alberta using available data sets and traditional ecological knowledge. Phase 1 of this theme will address research gaps previously identified, including:

• Climate resilient and connected habitats,
• Forest planning design and best management practices for moose, and
• Landscape scale criteria for moose cumulative effects assessments.

Theme 3: Investigate how forest management and climate factors may impact boreal ungulates.

Climate change may have profound impacts on temperature-limited species like moose, and forestry practices have the potential to either mitigate or exacerbate these effects. In this research theme we will investigate the relationships between microclimate, macroclimate, forage availability, and boreal ungulate habitat use and movements related to forestry practices and forest stand characteristics, with a primary focus on the interactions between climate and forestry practices.

This theme will build on six years of research from the Caribou Program about the effects of forest management on moose habitat use.

We believe that this information could be applied in climate adaptation plans and directly implemented in forestry operations to provide mitigations or climate benefits in managed forests to benefit moose (and other wildlife species). This project will address research gaps previously identified in the literature review, including:

• Climate resilient and connected habitats
• Forest planning design and best management practices for moose, and

Theme 4: Examining the current practicality and potential of Copter and Fixed Wing Remotely Piloted Airborne Systems for wildlife surveys, with comparisons of currently employed survey methods.

This theme is led by Dr Nicholas Coops, UBC Forestry, and Gordon Stenhouse, fRI Research

The collection of wildlife survey data from conventional helicopter-based surveys with wildlife personnel is time consuming and has significant safety concerns. In addition, these surveys can be biased in terms of their flying patterns, snow cover conditions, time in the season that they are flown (due to availability of helicopters) and subject to human error and issues with visibility.

Potential advantages of Remotely Piloted Airborne Systems (RPAS, or drones) include safety, more rapid deployment and response to conditions, and the ability to fly lower to more easily identify wildlife. Drones have the potential to reduce the cost as per unit area compared to operating and maintaining a fleet of helicopters or using traditional fixed wing aircraft with sensor systems.

Against these potential benefits, there are key issues to resolve. Only highly certified operators can fly drones beyond their line of site, which reduces the amount of area that a drone can cover, and may introduce biases. Rotor drone systems can typically remain in the air for just 30 – 45 min, while some fixed wing systems that require a larger crew can spend up to 8 hours airborne. Shorter flights require multiple landings and takeoffs and batteries, increasing the cost and time for data collection. Images acquired from a drone may be more challenging to classify, affecting accuracy.

The goal of this project is to evaluate and demonstrate the operational ability of these technologies. We will initially focus on moose and other ungulates. We will form a project working group with current practitioners who are using these techniques in other jurisdictions, Alberta Government wildlife staff who routinely conduct ungulate winter surveys, and the scientific research team (Coops, Stenhouse and a post doc). This group will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience to ensure that all work undertaken is addressing knowledge gaps. We will also hold a workshop early in the first year of this project to bring together practitioners and managers to review current drone activities and data/knowledge gaps.

Theme 5: Investigating how forest management strategies impact ungulate populations and habitat supply over time.

Wolves, caribou, moose, elk, and deer have complex predator-prey relationships that have been influenced by changing landscape conditions, largely the result of natural disturbance like wildfires and anthropogenic disturbance like natural resource extraction. Linear features (e.g., roads and seismic lines) and forest age structure influence moose, deer, and elk, and the predators they share with caribou – primarily wolves, but also grizzly bears and black bears.

To maintain caribou habitat supply for declining caribou populations, forestry companies and government are working to modify harvesting practices to address caribou conservation and recovery objectives. At the same time, natural resource extraction companies have started restoring seismic lines to restrict wolf movement and the use of seismic lines by other wildlife species.

Changes to forest management to address caribou habitat needs often only look at impacts on caribou, but conservation and recovery efforts fneed to consider the species they interact with and the ecosystem as a whole. To address this, we investigated how forest conditions and forest management strategies, including silviculture, influenced the food and habitat use of caribou, deer, moose, and predators that occur on a common landscape. This research focused in west-central Alberta compliments research at UNBC, work completed in Quebec, other ongoing work, and reports recently completed for the Alberta Regional Caribou Knowledge Partnership.

This research theme will build on these projects by collating and synthesizing available research and population inventory data on how forest management strategies designed to support caribou populations and habitat supply might influence moose habitat supply and predator movements on a common landscape.