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Environmental Assessment in NWT

Used Aboriginal traditional knowledge and science to identify several seasonal range attributes that were examined for changes from 1996 through 2013 (decreasing population abundance of the Bathurst caribou herd). Seasonal range attributes were calculated from female collared caribou and climate data were also analyzed for temporal trends that may be correlated with changes in seasonal ranges.

Organization:

Klinse-Za Caribou Recovery

Project Description:

In response to recent and dramatic declines of mountain caribou populations within their traditional territory, West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations (collectively, the "Nations") came together to create a new vision for caribou recovery on the lands they have long stewarded and shared. The Nations focused on the Klinse-Za subpopulation, which had once encompassed so many caribou that West Moberly Elders remarked that they were "like bugs on the landscape." The Klinse-Za caribou declined from ~250 in the 1990s to only 38 in 2013, rendering Indigenous harvest of caribou nonviable and infringing on treaty rights to a subsistence livelihood. In collaboration with many groups and governments, this Indigenous-led conservation initiative paired short-term population recovery actions, predator reduction and maternal penning, with long-term habitat protection in an effort to create a self-sustaining caribou population.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Recovery actions and the promising evidence that the abundance of Klinse-Za caribou has more than doubled from 38 animals in 2013 to 101 in 2021, representing rapid population growth in response to recovery actions. With looming extirpation averted, the Nations focused efforts on securing a landmark conservation agreement in 2020 that protects caribou habitat over a 7986 km2 area. The Agreement provides habitat protection for >85% of the Klinse-Za subpopulation (up from only 1.8% protected pre-conservation agreement) and affords moderate protection for neighboring caribou subpopulations (29%–47% of subpopulation areas, up from 0%–20%). This Indigenous-led conservation initiative has set both the Indigenous and Canadian governments on the path to recover the Klinse-Za subpopulation and reinstate a culturally meaningful caribou hunt. This effort highlights how Indigenous governance and leadership can be the catalyst needed to establish meaningful conservation actions, enhance endangered species recovery, and honor cultural connections to now imperiled wildlife.

Monitoring of the Torngat Mountains Caribou Herd

Project Description:

Inuit of Nunavik and Nunatsiavut have long known that a small caribou population was living year-round in the Torngat Mountains. Recognizing its unique status, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has recently identified Torngat caribou as one of eleven units for caribou conservation across Canada. In 2016, COSEWIC assessed the status of the Torngat caribou as endangered, based largely on the inherent risk associated with its small population size.

An informal Torngat Caribou Technical Committee was established in 2013 to address research needs. The Torngat Committee is a coalition of interested parties and it includes representatives from the Government of Quebec, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Nunatsiavut Government, Makivik Corporation, Kativik Regional Government (Nunavik Parks), Parks Canada, and the Torngat Wildlife, Plants and Fisheries Secretariat (on behalf of the Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board). Following discussion among the Torngat Committee, the first aerial population survey of the Torngat Mountains caribou herd was carried out in March 2014 (Couturier et al. 2015), and estimated the herd size at 930 caribou. To continue the scientific monitoring of the herd, all members of the Torngat Committee dedicated funds and/or in-kind contributions to support a second systematic population survey of the Torngat caribou herd. This was carried out in March and April 2017 following a similar distance sampling technique as was employed in 2014 (Couturier et al. 2018).

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Main project outcomes include caribou abundance, demography, and trends on a three-year cycle.

Kotcho Lake Restoration Area

In 2019 the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) funded Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) to implement the Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund (CHRF) Kotcho Lake Restoration Area project to benefit the Snake-Sahtahneh caribou herd by limiting predator use of legacy seismic lines and using re-vegetation to increase habitat suitability for caribou.
 
Project goals:

  1. Develop a prioritization scheme for identifying boreal caribou restoration areas within FNFN’s territory and apply it to identify large (60,000 – 100,000 ha) areas for restoration over three year periods for the next 20 years; and
  2. Develop a restoration plan for the highest priority area, the Kotcho Lake Restoration Area. The resulting plan will use different approaches to restore the entire 600,000 ha area over the next three years.

 
FNFN has implemented a prioritization scheme for identifying key areas for boreal caribou habitat restoration and created a restoration plan. Restoration progress will be monitored over the course of several years to evaluate the impacts of restoration on caribou habitat.

Organization:

CBFA/FPAC, Pasquia-Bog Caribou Conservation Plan

The Pasquia-Bog area was assessed by reviewing best available caribou Indigenous Knowledge and western science information to characterize the caribou range and draft an interjurisdictional caribou conservation range plan (first in Canada). Using this consolidated information, a three-zone land management system was applied to the planning area, which was systematically tested and assessed though an iterative process to optimize the best configuration of zones to ensure a balance of sustainable habitat supply for long-term caribou persistence and land use, by manipulation of allowable disturbance levels by zone type and configuration. The range plan was compliant with provincial and federal recovery strategy guidance.

Caribou conservation / range plan for Pasquia-Bog interprovincial local population

Vegetation Recovery on Legacy Seismic Lines

Despite decades of research assessing wildlife response to seismic lines, little is known about the effects of seismic line clearing on the quality of understory forage for wildlife, or about the resilience of boreal understory communities to seismic line clearing. Using field data collected from 351 seismic lines across west-central and north-western Alberta, Canada, and focusing on forage taxa preferred by moose and bears, we:

  1. investigated whether understory forage taxa composition differed among seismic lines, seismic line edges, and the interior forest, and
  2. assessed how this relationship changed as a function of seismic line attributes (ecosite, orientation, level of motorized human use, regeneration).

    In addition to help inform restoration efforts we:
  3. used these field data and GIS derived and remote sensing (LiDAR) data to model and map vegetation recovery (growth, structure, and composition) on seismic lines and along seismic line edges.

Generally disturbance-tolerant forbs and graminoids were more abundant on seismic lines, Rhododendron spp. and Vaccinium vitis-idaea were more abundant on edges, and Alnus, Salix and Betula spp. were more abundant on edges and seismic lines. Attributes of seismic lines did not explain patterns of understory forage abundance, although we found positive relationships between motorized human use and abundance of Chamerion spp. and non-target graminoids.

Using GIS data we found that wet seismic lines and seismic lines adjacent to open forest stands were more likely to have more early seral stage vegetation that is attractive wildlife forage. We also found that in west-central Alberta, wet seismic lines had less vegetation growth and cover, while in north-western Alberta, wet seismic lines were more likely to have more vegetation cover, but there was no relationship between vegetation growth on seismic lines and seismic line wetness. Our models of vegetation growth did not validate well other techniques (e.g. UAVs) and studies focused at smaller scales are likely to provide accurate data on current vegetation height and cover on seismic lines.

Our results combined with results from previous research provide further evidence that seismic lines, particularly wet seismic lines, need active restoration to re-establish natural vegetation trajectories. Overall, targeting seismic line restoration treatments to change vegetation composition, as well as structure and height, will likely help to restore ecosystem function for caribou and other boreal species.

Paper:
https://www.cclmportal.ca/resource/divergent-patterns-understory-forage-growth-after-seismic-line-exploration-implications

Organization:

Woodland Caribou Restoration Project Phase 2: Pickell Creek/Black Creek Restoration Plan

Project Description:

This project will improve critical habitat for boreal caribou in Chinchaga range by restoring linear corridors, using techniques such as mounding, seeding, planting, and visual barriers. Through previous Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP) funding in 2017-2018, Blueberry River First Nation identified priority locations and developed initial plans for habitat restoration to support boreal caribou recovery. This project will allow Blueberry River First Nation to refine initial site selections, finalize habitat restoration plans, and implement on-the-ground habitat restoration work in these previously-identified areas and monitor vegetation regrowth and wildlife use in restored areas to assess project success. Community members will be trained on monitoring and habitat restoration techniques, building capacity within the community to conduct further habitat restoration work in the future.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

  • Conservation planning (identify restoration sites: target of up to 10 segments of linear corridors, up to 5 km in length each)
  • Land management (habitat restoration)
  • Monitor (restored areas)
  • Training and capacity building (train community members in monitoring and habitat restoration)

 

Gwich’in Traditional Knowledge: Woodland Caribou, Boreal Population

Project Description:

The Gwich’in Renewable Resources Board (GRRB) and the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI) collaborated on a study to gather and report on Gwich’in Traditional Knowledge of Boreal Woodland Caribou.  There is a stable population of woodland caribou in the Gwich’in Settlement Area and surrounding regions.  However, the Canadian population is classified as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act.  Environment Canada supported the project in order to integrate Traditional Knowledge in the recovery planning process for boreal woodland caribou.

The GSCI and the GRRB conducted 20 interviews with holders of Gwich’in traditional knowledge and searched the digital archives of GSCI for relevant primary and secondary data to obtain TK about general observations, special significance, physical description, distribution, habitat, population size and trend, limiting factors and threats, and health of the woodland caribou. Gwich’in hunters have in-depth knowledge about boreal woodland caribou which they generously shared in the interviews. 

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

The purpose of this study was to gather and collate Gwich’in traditional knowledge for use in the Federal Species at Risk Boreal Caribou recovery planning process.  It was also used for the NWT Species at Risk Boreal Caribou status report and assessment, and subsequent Recovery Strategy.