Project Description:

Southern mountain caribou in British Columbia have experienced rapid population decline due to human-mediated changes to forest communities and a resulting increase in predation. The majority of past research has focused on broad-scale relationships between habitat composition and the distribution of caribou. We sought to identify the mechanistic drivers of predation risk as they relate to a range of forest-management strategies. We investigated the effect of three forest-harvest prescriptions on the co-occurrence of caribou, sympatric ungulates, and predators: unharvested old-growth, clearcut harvesting, and group-selection harvesting. Group-selection is the legally mandated harvesting system for specific southern mountain caribou habitat because it restricts stand removal to 33% by area. That partial cutting strategy maintains old-forest structure and arboreal lichen. However, this system may create an environment that is more attractive to sympatric ungulates during snow-free periods. We deployed and lured 57 wildlife cameras to investigate how human-mediated plant community dynamics influenced the distribution of caribou, moose, mule deer, and predators.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Our preliminary results identify distinct differences in habitat use among the target species. Caribou avoided all areas where forest harvesting had occurred. Moose used the group-selection treatment most frequently. Mule deer favored clearcuts in spring while moose used that treatment in summer. Grizzly and black bears used stands harvested by group-selection more often than clearcut. Our findings suggest that forest management implemented to provide forage for mountain caribou may increase predation risk, potentially leading to further population decline.

Project Description:

The objective of this project was to engage local communities (First Nations and Métis) in central and northern Saskatchewan, in order to document local and traditional knowledge (WCTEK) of boreal woodland caribou to support the provincial range planning process for conservation of woodland caribou. This report is based on a study from November 2014 to March 2017 within the boreal woodland caribou range in Saskatchewan. The success of WCTEK research is ultimately determined by the willingness of communities and individuals to participate and share their knowledge. we conducted 56 individual interviews, two full group meetings (meetings devoted exclusively to data collection) and four other meetings (organised for other reasons such as trappers annual meetings but that allowed us to collect data) and 12 information sharing meetings (to discuss the data collection process, listen to stories about caribou, collect additional data, and receive feedback on our findings). The group meetings and personal interviews totalled 153 people, while the information sharing meetings include 300+ trappers from northern Saskatchewan.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Written summary report and GIS mapping file of the habitat model for boreal caribou across Saskatchewan based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Written Report:
Mamun, A., Brook, R.K. 2017. Characterizing, Mapping and Modelling Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge about Woodland Caribou in Saskatchewan in Support of Range Planning. Technical Report to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment.

Project Description:

Beginning in 2003, moose populations were intentionally reduced by increased hunting pressure as an indirect way of reducing wolf numbers — fewer moose on the landscape means wolves have less to eat resulting in fewer wolves. Moose were reduced to a density that approximated what would have existed in the absence of forest harvesting. 

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

As a result of the moose reduction, numbers of the largest caribou subpopulation within the northern Columbia Mountains stabilized. The population growth rate improved by about 5 units (i.e. from declining by 5%/yr, to stability).

Project Description:

The Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration (RICC) is a group of energy and forestry companies who support caribou recovery efforts in the Cold Lake, East Side of the Athabasca River (ESAR) and Saskatchewan boreal plains caribou ranges. The group recognizes that the success of caribou recovery requires coordination and cooperation between each member, because caribou are wide-ranging animals whose annual home ranges cross many industry leases and land-use types. RICC is a leader when it comes to supporting research to understand caribou declines and testing ways to recover populations.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Program Goal:
To participate in collaborative research and active, science-based adaptive management activities within the defined ESAR and Cold Lake caribou ranges.

Objectives:

• Coordinate industry restoration of disturbance in priority areas;
• Support and lead scientific research on caribou ecology and on caribou-predator-landscape relationships to identify priority issues and/or priority areas; and
• Support and lead investigative trials on restoration methods, effectiveness and wildlife responses, to assess the effectiveness of treatments and make recommendations for broader implementation.

This study evaluates the effects of closing and dismantling forest roads on the behavior of caribou, their predators, and alternate prey. This study uses a large network of camera traps on treated and control forest roads. The number of individuals from each species counted on roadside cameras will be related to treatment, as well as several covariates such as local density of each species, time, recent weather conditions, and local characteristics of each road section.

Forest roads represent a major disturbance in several boreal caribou ranges across Canada. As such, the development of an effective method for restoring forest roads would be a significant gain, balancing the socio-economic impacts of sustainable resource management and land use with national commitments to conserve biodiversity. The proposed work could be used to restore roads created during past harvest operations, thus improving the quality of critical habitat for boreal caribou, or to identify new ways to develop forest road networks that take caribou habitat into account.