habitat restoration

Content related to: habitat restoration

Restoration of Seismic Cutlines in Caribou Range in West-central and North-western Alberta: Maximizing Success and Targeting Areas Used by Alternative Prey

 

This single year Habitat Stewardship Program Species at Risk Stream project will improve threatened boreal caribou and endangered southern mountain caribou habitat by increasing undisturbed habitat within caribou ranges in west-central and north-western Alberta. It is supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada, AUPRF/PTAC and FLMF.

Caribou are declining across the boreal forest and the primary threat to population persistence is habitat disturbance. Restoration of disturbed habitat within caribou ranges is both a federal and provincial priority. 

The study area encompasses the entirety of the ranges of the Redrock Prairie Creek, A La Peche, Narraway, Little Smoky, and Chinchaga caribou herds in Alberta, excluding areas that fall within parks and protected areas (parts of the summer ranges of A La Peche, Narraway and Redrock Prairie Creek herds). 

This proposed project will use high-resolution remote sensing data on seismic line regeneration, GIS based data of ecosite and site characteristics, and existing field data (ungulate food and species composition) collected along seismic lines in west-central and north-western Alberta. This will be used to determine how regeneration and other attributes of seismic lines affects use of these features by alternate prey (moose, deer, and elk) that attract caribou predators, and to identify seismic lines that are on a trajectory towards natural recovery versus those that will need active restoration.

We will use these new data to further refine priority seismic lines for reclamation identified through our previous HSP-funded work (empirical analysis of caribou, caribou predator, and human response to regenerating seismic lines). Ultimately, we will provide land managers with GIS-based maps of seismic lines in west-central and north-western Alberta prioritized for reclamation that maximise benefits for caribou, and that maximise the efficacy of restoration efforts. 

This project has been developed in collaboration with resource users within caribou ranges, and continual outreach activities (workshops, website updates, documents) throughout the project will make available the tools produced by this project for management and reclamation plans across the range of these five caribou herds. This will ensure that reclamation of caribou habitat is based upon science, and also that restoration effort is directed to areas are the most beneficial for caribou. 

Website:
https://friresearch.ca/project/restoration-seismic-cutlines-caribou-range-west-…
Organization:
fRI Research
Alberta Upstream Petroleum Research Fund
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)

Response of Wildlife to Restored Wellsites

Many wellsites have been certified as reclaimed, but their condition varies. This project will assess wildlife use of wellsites to understand how restoration treatments contribute to important species like moose, bears, and deer.

We will install camera traps to monitor wildlife use of treated wellsites and untreated wellsites, using undisturbed forest as a control. This will provide information on the impacts of targeted prescriptions on wildlife use of restored disturbances, and will help to address the question of when disturbances are no longer considered disturbances in the context of caribou recovery.

Background

There has been significant historical and ongoing oil and gas related development within the Redrock Prairie Creek and Narraway caribou ranges in west-central Alberta. Many abandoned and inactive oil and gas wellsites have been certified as reclaimed, while others have been additionally planted with trees by Weyerhaeuser Company Limited, but regeneration rates and restoration status of wellsites are variable.

To inform future wellsite restoration targets within caribou population ranges, we will use camera traps to compare wildlife use (moose, deer, elk, predators, and caribou) of restored wellsites to wildlife use of unrestored (but inactive) wellsites and undisturbed forest within the same region. We will collect data for one year followed by one year of analysis to provide the first detailed assessment of wildlife response to wellsite restoration in Alberta.

Information from this portion of the project may be used to determine when and what treatments might be required to “turn disturbances off” from a federal caribou disturbance threshold perspective, and will provide essential information on the interactions between restoration treatments, wellsites, and other culturally and economically important wildlife species (i.e., moose, bears, deer).

Objectives

We will install camera traps to monitor wildlife use of treated wellsites vs. untreated wellsites, using undisturbed forest as a control. Analysis of camera data will provide information on the impacts of targeted prescriptions on wildlife use of restored disturbances, and will help to address the question of when disturbances are no longer considered disturbances in the context of caribou recovery.

Methods

In the fall of 2022, we will install camera traps at:

  • 60 certified reclaimed wellsites
  • 30 sites in undisturbed forest (within the same natural subregion and ecosite type as the wellsite cameras)
  • 15 inactive but untreated well sites in the same ecosites and same area (control well sites)

Cameras will remain on site for one year but will be checked ~6 months after deployment. Each camera will be programmed to take 3 photographs when triggered, as well as hourly photos for snowdepth measurements and detection of wildlife at distances outside the motion sensor range.

We will use generalized linear models (i.e., resource selection functions) to investigate primary prey (deer, moose, and elk), predator (wolves, bears, and cougars), and caribou use of well sites, comparing between restoration treatments and undisturbed forest. Our models will include wellsite status (regenerated, not regenerated, not treated), understory vegetation, forage, and tree regeneration status (field survey data), snow depth, ecosite and AVI forestry data, and landscape-level characteristics (e.g., density of different disturbances surrounding the well site, percent conifer, terrain).

Outcomes and Deliverables

We will produce a technical report including a summary of wildlife use of wellsites relative to treatment type, and detailed statistical analysis linking wildlife use of wellsites to characteristics of wellsites (e.g., vegetation data collected during ground validation, treatment type, ecosite) and characteristics of the landscape surrounding wellsites (e.g., forest type, density of other disturbances), with the goal of submitting our results in a peer-reviewed publication.

Website:
https://friresearch.ca/project/response-of-wildlife-to-restored-wellsites
Organization:
fRI Research