The ABMI defines human footprint as the visible alteration or conversion of native ecosystems to temporary or permanent residential, recreational, agricultural, or industrial landscapes. The definition includes all areas under human use that have lost their natural cover for extended periods of time, such as cities, roads, agricultural fields, and surface mines. It also includes land that is periodically reset to earlier successional conditions by industrial activities such as forestry cutblocks and seismic lines. Some human land uses, such as grazing, hunting, and trapping, are not yet accounted for in our human footprint analyses.

Project Description:
Due to sharply decreasing populations, boreal woodland caribou are an animal of concern for Canadian and Indigenous peoples. In north-central Saskatchewan, Indigenous and non-Indigenous governments, researchers, policy makers, land users, communities, and industry have faced multiple challenges working together to support caribou populations. Some of these challenges are due to cultural differences in ways of knowing and understanding the natural world in general, and wildlife in particular. The language of ethics and values may provide a working platform for intercultural conversations about wildlife conservation. Using multispecies ethnography, participatory community-based research, and visual methodologies, this dissertation study documents the ethical teachings and values that structure how Woodland Cree, Métis, and Euro-Canadian more-than-human communities in and around La Ronge, Saskatchewan engage with woodland caribou and conservation strategies. Four key themes have emerged from these community teachings and values as important to woodland caribou protection:

1. respectful relationships with other-than-human beings and land;
2. responsibilities to protect and care for these;
3. intercultural, land-based education;
4. intercultural working together.

These themes are employed in an ethical framework, which will be used to recommend a practical means of partnering with both Indigenous and Euro-Canadian ways of knowing in Saskatchewan.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:
Results of this dissertation study are anticipated to build on previous research that has begun to document Indigenous ethics and values about woodland caribou in Saskatchewan and across Canada, and add to ongoing cross-cultural management efforts in Saskatchewan to address the ethical challenges of woodland caribou conservation together.

Immediate outcomes include:

1. a practical model for ethical intercultural management of woodland caribou;
2. recommendations for implementation into policy;
3. a thoroughly documented process for addressing cross-cultural ethical challenges with respect to wildlife, across sectors.

Long-term outcomes will include:

1. more ethical and sustainable relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and woodland caribou.

The ABMI's Advanced Landcover Prediction & Habitat Assessment (ALPHA) program uses Earth observation data and spatial data science to map and monitor Alberta's natural landscape. All of the ABMI’s geospatial products are freely available for download and use on their website. Geospatial products in the ALPHA program include:
●    Southern wetland inventory: a polygon-based dataset for the Grassland and Parkland Natural Regions of Alberta
●    Predicted Landcover 3.0 & ABMI Wetland Inventory: a dataset classifying roughly three-quarters of Alberta into seven wetland classes. This dataset is generated using machine learning to predict patches of wetland habitat. 
●    Boreal surface water inventory: a dataset providing the location, extent, and attributes of over 420,000 wetlands in the Boreal Forest Natural Region
●    Boreal wetland probability data: a raster-based dataset that provides the probability of wetland habitat at a 10 m resolution across the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
●    Hydro Temporal Variability: a summary of variability in surface water extent during the ice-free months (April to October) from 2014 to 2017 across Alberta. 
 

The ABMI's Advanced Landcover Prediction & Habitat Assessment (ALPHA) program uses Earth observation data and spatial data science to map and monitor Alberta's natural landscape. All of the ABMI’s geospatial products are freely available for download and use on their website. Geospatial products in the ALPHA program include:
●    Southern wetland inventory: a polygon-based dataset for the Grassland and Parkland Natural Regions of Alberta
●    Predicted Landcover 3.0 & ABMI Wetland Inventory: a dataset classifying roughly three-quarters of Alberta into seven wetland classes. This dataset is generated using machine learning to predict patches of wetland habitat. 
●    Boreal surface water inventory: a dataset providing the location, extent, and attributes of over 420,000 wetlands in the Boreal Forest Natural Region
●    Boreal wetland probability data: a raster-based dataset that provides the probability of wetland habitat at a 10 m resolution across the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
●    Hydro Temporal Variability: a summary of variability in surface water extent during the ice-free months (April to October) from 2014 to 2017 across Alberta. 
 

The ABMI's Advanced Landcover Prediction & Habitat Assessment (ALPHA) program uses Earth observation data and spatial data science to map and monitor Alberta's natural landscape. All of the ABMI’s geospatial products are freely available for download and use on their website. Geospatial products in the ALPHA program include:
●    Southern wetland inventory: a polygon-based dataset for the Grassland and Parkland Natural Regions of Alberta
●    Predicted Landcover 3.0 & ABMI Wetland Inventory: a dataset classifying roughly three-quarters of Alberta into seven wetland classes. This dataset is generated using machine learning to predict patches of wetland habitat. 
●    Boreal surface water inventory: a dataset providing the location, extent, and attributes of over 420,000 wetlands in the Boreal Forest Natural Region
●    Boreal wetland probability data: a raster-based dataset that provides the probability of wetland habitat at a 10 m resolution across the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
●    Hydro Temporal Variability: a summary of variability in surface water extent during the ice-free months (April to October) from 2014 to 2017 across Alberta. 
 

Project Description:

The primary scope of this project will be an assessment of historical, current, and predicted caribou ranges and space use in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. This will include time-series analysis of habitat characteristics and connectivity in order to determine if there have been changes in use of land cover type and patterns of movement by caribou over the past 40 years and, if those changes can be linked to changes in cover type or land use. The project will also complete an assessment of habitat availability and connectivity under different climate change scenarios.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

There are several general objectives of this project

1. Delineate and quantify areas of the landscape utilized by caribou in Newfoundland and Labrador.
2. Delineate and quantify landcover types found in areas utilized by caribou.
3. Delineate and quantify changes in landcover in areas utilized by caribou over time.
4. Where possible identify caribou range shift over time.
5. Determine the relationships between any observed caribou range shifts and any changes found in land cover types over time.
6. Compare/augment results with traditional knowledge data.
7. Determine potential impacts of climate change scenarios on caribou habitat availability and connectivity.
8. Generate information to support mitigation of road mortality through (i) analysis of movement patterns and space use relative to roads, (ii) selection of roads as a habitat feature, and (iii) generate a predictive map of relative risk along roads by comparing movement data and georeferenced data on road mortality compiled by the province and Parks Canada with factors such as road class (e.g. speed limit or road type) and surrounding habitat.
9. Mobilize project results and outputs so that they are available to, and usable by, a range of end-users.

Project DescriptionMapping of fire from 1988-2013 using the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio analysis of Landsat Thematic mapper and Operational Land Imager.

Project Outcomes or Intended OutcomesFor some Boreal Shield ranges, including SK1, where fire comprises the majority of total disturbance and residual patches of unburned forest re abundant, total disturbance calculations, critical habitat designation and range planning decisions should take into account residuals, including water bodies.

Project Description:

The Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk (SAR) Conservation in Canada is a national framework to focus our collaborative and collective work to protect SAR. This approach prioritizes using a multi-species and ecosystem-based approaches to maximize biodiversity conservation of shared priorities species, places, and sectors. To support this initiative, the Canadian Wildlife Service and Natural Resources Canada are proposing a project that will combine a suite of models for priority species (e.g. boreal caribou and other SAR) and other important ecological indicators (e.g. migratory birds and carbon sequestration), traditional ecological knowledge, and simulations of future landscape conditions in responses to natural (i.e. wildfire and insect outbreaks) and anthropogenic (i.e. forestry, energy, urban development) disturbances, and climate change across the western boreal forest from 2010 to 2100.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

A key component of this project would be the inclusion of traditional ecological knowledge about biodiversity distribution and species ecology. There are examples where researchers have worked with indigenous communities, and examples of community-led initiatives, to produce "knowledge-based datasets and maps" for important boreal caribou areas. These types of products provide the opportunity to co-produce Indigenous knowledge and western science in a comprehensive modelling approach that can result in a more holistic representation of important ecological processes to inform conservation planning.

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.