Caribou across the country are declining due to a number of reasons, not the least of which is industrial activity in their habitat.
This is especially so in for woodland caribou in central Alberta where oil sands projects are booming and exploration expanding ever further into forested areas. An additional problem is that the exploration roads and pipeline clearances allow predators access to the herds.
Stan Boutin is proposing a fence to in a protected area to house a small group of animals. He is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, and also holds an Alberta Biodiversity Conservation Chair.
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The forested area around Cold Lake is now criss-crossed by a variety of pipelines, oil and gas exploration and drilling sites, and the various access roads.
These cleared areas have allowed easier access for predators to move into areas where they were traditionally less frequently seen.
The local herd around Cold Lake has declined to about 150 animals, and none of the calves born in the last two years has survived
Biologist Stan Boutin is proposing a radical step; setting up a giant fence around some 200-400 square kilometres. Some 30-40 females caribou would be kept inside with their newborn calves.
They would remain there for a year until the calves would be strong enough to have a chance to escape from predators.
There have been efforts to cull about 100 wolves a year in northern Alberta to reduce pressure on two particular herds.
This has met with some success, but Boutin points out killing wolves is not a palatable solution, and certainly killing more is even less so. In fact to protect the herds in central Alberta it would require killing a much higher number of wolves and also bears.
To test his fence theory, he worked with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute and set up a small experimental enclosure with a carcass inside. It attracted a number of wolves and bears, but was successful in keeping them out.
Other similar tests enclosures- maternal pens set up by Alberta Environment, have met with mitigated results. Spokesman Duncan MacDonnell does not dismiss Boutin’s large scale plan saying all ideas deserve a hearing.
In the meantime, the provincial environment department is currently working on special “range plans” for each of the 16 caribou herds calling for habitat restoration.
Caribou are habitually very shy animals and need dense, intact forest with few cutlines, roads, or pipelines that allow predators easy access to the herds. The first range plan will be ready next year with the rest in late 2016.
Boutin points out that it may take many years before the forest adequately reclaims old roads and cutlines in order to provide some protection to the herds, too long for the existing herds which are dwindling rapidly.
With the fast pace of development, the pipelines and well heads of in situ projects will spreading rapidly through the forests in the next 10 to 15 years and full reclamation is 40 to 50 years away.
Professor Boutin figures the first project would cost between $20-30 million and he wants to set up a non-profit agency to carry out the work of installing and monitoring the fence.
“This is not the only tool you use for caribou recovery, but it buys you some time,” he says.
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