Project Description:

Southern mountain caribou in British Columbia have experienced rapid population decline due to human-mediated changes to forest communities and a resulting increase in predation. The majority of past research has focused on broad-scale relationships between habitat composition and the distribution of caribou. We sought to identify the mechanistic drivers of predation risk as they relate to a range of forest-management strategies. We investigated the effect of three forest-harvest prescriptions on the co-occurrence of caribou, sympatric ungulates, and predators: unharvested old-growth, clearcut harvesting, and group-selection harvesting. Group-selection is the legally mandated harvesting system for specific southern mountain caribou habitat because it restricts stand removal to 33% by area. That partial cutting strategy maintains old-forest structure and arboreal lichen. However, this system may create an environment that is more attractive to sympatric ungulates during snow-free periods. We deployed and lured 57 wildlife cameras to investigate how human-mediated plant community dynamics influenced the distribution of caribou, moose, mule deer, and predators.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Our preliminary results identify distinct differences in habitat use among the target species. Caribou avoided all areas where forest harvesting had occurred. Moose used the group-selection treatment most frequently. Mule deer favored clearcuts in spring while moose used that treatment in summer. Grizzly and black bears used stands harvested by group-selection more often than clearcut. Our findings suggest that forest management implemented to provide forage for mountain caribou may increase predation risk, potentially leading to further population decline.

Reclamation and reforestation of industrial disturbances in Alberta’s boreal forest is vital to the forest’s long-term health. Reforestation also ensures that future generations will be in a position to utilize this resource for a variety of purposes (timber, recreation or simply for its ecological value) in the decades to come. Our mission is to provide cost-effective methods, technologies, and best practices to support reforestation activities throughout the province of Alberta.

The NAIT Centre for Boreal Research forest reclamation research program is jointly funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), NAIT, industry, government, and small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) partners, and led by Dr. Amanda Schoonmaker, NSERC Industrial Research Chair.