Restoring Caribou Habitat in the Klinse-Za Herd: Year 4
In the fourth year of this multi-year project, work will continue to implement and monitor the functional and ecological restoration of 12 linear corridors in the herd area.
Outcomes expected in 2022–2023 include the site preparation of three road networks totalling ~35 kilometres, adding to the ~45 kilometres of linear corridors treated to date.
Ultimately, this project will result in reduced human access, predator use, and predator movement rates, leading to accelerated forest regeneration.
Update: Restoration work underway on 13 kilometres of forestry road
Thirteen kilometres of a forestry road, covering 13 ha, has been deactivated and prepared for planting in 2023. The goal is to eliminate motorized access to habitat of the Klinse-Za caribou herd. At a second site, more than 7,500 seedlings were planted in 2022 to restore the habitat.
Executive Summary
The overall goal of the habitat restoration program implemented by the Nîkanêse Wah tzee Stewardship Society is to expeditiously return caribou habitat to a level that will help endangered caribou populations to achieve a self-sustaining condition and one that eventually provides for a meaningful harvest of caribou by First Nations. To measure progress towards that goal we assumed expeditious to mean < 10 years and that we need to reduce the area of linear disturbances to 0%, or at least < 35% (as defined by Johnson et al. (2020). — using meso-watersheds as the analysis unit over which progress in measured. We set out objectives to achieve the overall goal in phases of activities focused on planning, implementation of restoration treatments, and monitoring implementation progress and restoration effectiveness. Site-by-site details of cumulative annual restoration treatments, restoration progress, and effectiveness are provided in an appendix of this report while the main body is used to present more general results of the overall program. Although some progress was stalled this year due to a large wildfire, we did complete mechanical site preparation on 13.0 km and planted 7.2 km of road that had been mechanically site prepared in 2021. To date, we are addressing restoration of 245 kms of linear disturbance features and have implemented 110 kms of direct restoration treatments. Progress more generally is reflected in the fact that 56% of the Klinse-Za caribou range exists in a contiguous area of meso-watersheds that are <35% disturbed and we are currently working in priority watersheds to improve that over the coming year. Statistical models demonstrate that we have observed a decrease in the mean number of detections of human use of restored sites but responses by wildlife are more variable. Assessment of effectiveness at levels above the site-level remains difficult to address and so we make a recommendation to raise the profile of this topic.
Click the provincial database link below to read the full final report for this project.