The National Boreal Program of Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) has over 20 years of experience working with governments, Indigenous Peoples, and industry to develop comprehensive, science-based solutions to conservation challenges relating to boreal wetlands. We support protected areas, sustainable land use and wetland policy.

Today, the environmentally rich boreal region is changing. DUC's Boreal Program supports conservation efforts that address the growing impacts of climate change and development. We are committed to ensuring a balanced and sustainable future. The Boreal Program's approach recognizes the need to manage natural resources to achieve long-term environmental, social and economic goals for all who manage and live and work in the boreal.

This study evaluates the effects of closing and dismantling forest roads on the behavior of caribou, their predators, and alternate prey. This study uses a large network of camera traps on treated and control forest roads. The number of individuals from each species counted on roadside cameras will be related to treatment, as well as several covariates such as local density of each species, time, recent weather conditions, and local characteristics of each road section.

Forest roads represent a major disturbance in several boreal caribou ranges across Canada. As such, the development of an effective method for restoring forest roads would be a significant gain, balancing the socio-economic impacts of sustainable resource management and land use with national commitments to conserve biodiversity. The proposed work could be used to restore roads created during past harvest operations, thus improving the quality of critical habitat for boreal caribou, or to identify new ways to develop forest road networks that take caribou habitat into account.

Our goal is to improve conifer seedling survival and growth so that planted seedlings will reach the "free to grow" stage sooner. It is at this stage when the exponential growth trajectory towards mature conifer tree cover begins. We are applying a natural plant biostimulant during forest nursery culture to improve the development of root growth potential, which is expressed after planting on restoration sites. We are first determining the rate of biostimulant to apply (tree species dependent) and assessing its physiological effects on seedlings in a CFS research nursery (greenhouse, outplanting beds, and growth chambers). Next, we will be collaborating with a commercial forest nursery to implement the new practice.  Seedlings from this nursery will be outplanted on linear features with annual measurements over a 5-year period, in collaboration with an oil and gas end user.

This study will provide forest nurseries with a novel tool for production of designer, summer-planting conifer seedlings with enhanced root growth for caribou habitat restoration. These seedlings with enhanced root growth will improve rates of survival and growth compared with current rates.  Our goal is to share this knowledge with nurseries across Canada growing conifer seedlings for boreal caribou habitat restoration and with various end-users.

Research completed by the University of Saskatchewan in collaboration with a consortium of industry and government partners. Research included a multi-faceted program on the population dynamics and critical habitat of woodland (boreal) caribou in the SK1 administrative unit.

The program was designed to address information gaps about caribou habitat and population dynamics closely aligned with information required by Environment and Climate Change Canada as part of the 2012 federal Recovery Strategy.

The Bipole III Transmission Project is a 1,388 km high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission project traversing several ecozones.  The project starts at the Keewatinohk converter station near Gillam in northern Manitoba and ends at the Riel Converter Station in the RM of Springfield. On behalf of Manitoba Hydro, Wood Canada Ltd. developed and implemented a long-term Mammals Monitoring Program compliant with the project license conditions and approved Biophysical Monitoring Plan to monitor project effects during the construction (Jan 2015-June 2018) and early operation (July 2018-ongoing) phases.  Monitored mammal VECs include Woodland Caribou, Moose, Coastal and Barren-ground Caribou, White-tailed Deer, Elk, Gray Wolf, Black Bear, and Furbearer species.  The multi-year study design involves systematic monitoring conducted at multiple spatial and temporal scales and integration of rigorous systematic sampling methods using combinations of non-invasive genetic sampling/ genotyping, aerial surveys, satellite telemetry, trail camera studies, winter ground tracking, and harvest monitoring, depending on mammal VEC.  Caribou monitoring methods undertaken at the range scale include satellite telemetry in 4 woodland caribou local population ranges (n=20 collars/range and mortality investigations), systematic aerial surveys of ungulate-wolf occurrence and caribou herd composition.  Non-invasive genetic sampling (NGS) methods integrated with capture-recapture (CR) estimation and population modelling of state and vital rates for the 4 boreal caribou populations.

This project is a part of the Government of Canada’s initiative for monitoring and assessing regional cumulative effects, a recently added requirement to the new Impact Assessment Act (2019). Among various “valued components” to be assessed, caribou stand out as one of the top priorities because of their importance to the economy, culture, and way of life for indigenous peoples. Previous caribou dietary studies indicate that lichens are the most important food for woodland caribou, especially during the winter and fall. Yet, despite many effects over the years, information on lichen distribution within the various caribou ranges of Canada remains unreliable or unavailable. To fill the information gap, this project aims to map and detect temporal and spatial changes in lichen distribution for selected caribou ranges in Canada. This is a joint effort by scientists from the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, the Canadian Forest Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, provincial/territorial governments, and other partners. Landsat imagery has been widely used by previous researchers to generate lichen distribution maps with low reported accuracies. The main challenge for producing lichen maps from this moderate (30m) resolution sensor is the mixture of lichen with other land cover types (e.g., trees, rocks, shrubs, etc.) within the 30m pixel size. To address this, we are designing and testing a new scaling-up approach. We start with sub-millimeter resolution plot photos and scale them up using centimeter resolution UAV data, half-meter resolution Worldview satellite data, and finally to the 30-m Landsat imagery. In this way, we expect to substantially increase the size of our “ground truth” database, and improve the overall accuracy of lichen distribution and change maps that we generate from this data. In addition, we will develop innovative approaches for mapping lichen cover (abundance) and biomass, and producing related change detection products using cutting-edge technology (e.g., artificial intelligence, big data analytics).

Intended Project Outcomes:

• Baseline maps of lichen distribution and abundance for selected caribou ranges, such as the Red Wine Mountain Range (Labrador); Manicouagan Range (Québec); Missisa Range (Ontario); Bathurst Range (Northwest Territories), Little Smoky (Alberta)
• Temporal and spatial changes of lichen distribution and abundance caused by human and natural disturbances for selected caribou ranges, such as the Red Wine Mountain Range (Labrador); Manicouagan Range (Québec); Missisa Range (Ontario); Bathurst Range (Northwest Territories), Little Smoky (Alberta)
• Methods and protocols for lichen mapping and change detection