Denali National Wildlife Refuge
Caribou
Caribou do a hell of a lot for Canadians. They’ve served as mascot on our 25-cent coin since 1937. First Nations hunters rely on their meat. They’re also the canary-in-the-coal-mine for the boreal region: as an “indicator species” the health of caribou helps illustrate the health of the enormous belt of forest.
It’s not looking good.
On December 16 the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) released their second annual state-of-the-caribou report. All signs point to continued losses in habitat a critical issue for the survival of the species yet no jurisdiction in the country has acted on it.
“Habitat loss causes a cascade of effects” says Alison Ronson the executive director of CPAWS Northern Alberta. “First they lose their habitat and food source. Then the open areas encourage other ungulates like moose and deer to come in. That brings the wolves in so you have higher wolf populations. Then the wolves have greater access to the caribou because of these roads and seismic lines and cut blocks. So it’s a circular relationship.”
Of all the provinces Alberta is by far the worst offender. Oil and gas exploration has decimated habitat: Ronson notes that numbers of caribou have declined by 50 per cent in the last eight years. That was after the provincial government released its own plan for protecting the threatened species.
“Since the release of our last report there’s been no movement in Alberta” says Ronson. “We were hoping that last year’s report would encourage the provincial government to work a little bit faster on getting the range plans finished. We had hoped that it would stop them selling off oil and gas leases in caribou ranges.”
Range plans are part of the federal government’s caribou recovery strategy. None of the 51 plans — which require details on how a range will achieve 65 per cent undisturbed habitat — have been completed. The deadline to do so is 2017. Alberta’s government may be releasing a plan for the Little Smoky range — which is 95 per cent disturbed — in the next few months says Ronson.
