“The A La Peche herd is a transboundary herd,” explains John Wilmshurst, acting resource conservation manager for JNP, “and conservation actions on both sides of the park boundary are needed to achieve recovery, so even these small temporary steps are hopeful, maybe it will lead to something longer term.”
Boreal woodland caribou are a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act. To address their threatened status, the federal government prepared a recovery strategy, which was released in 2012. The decision to temporarily suspend the sale of oil and gas leases—the first suspension of its kind in the province—is under direction of that strategy.
“It’s a new thing for the Alberta Government, for sure, to take this step,” said Wilmshurst, “but it doesn’t reflect any new thinking. The recovery strategy for boreal caribou has been a decade in the making and it was released last year. This effort by the Alberta Government is a response to that, and it’s a really positive step.”
The Little Smoky and A La Peche ranges were chosen for the suspension because of the high level of habitat disturbance already within them, said Stephanie Molina, public affairs officer for Alberta Energy.
“Currently the federal woodland caribou recovery strategy indicates that 95 per cent of the habitat within the Little Smoky caribou range is disturbed, so to allow for range planning to begin in those areas this hold has been placed.”
The disturbances caused by oil and gas have a large affect on caribou populations. Industry leaves minimal habitat and changes the habitat that remains.
“When you cut down quite a bit of forest, and oil and gas development does that, you change the habitat from an old growth to ... a young forest, and that is better habitat for deer and elk and moose and, with those habitats increasing, you’ll get more predators and those predators will then also prey on caribou and that has a depressing affect on caribou populations,” said Wilmshurst.
The lease suspensions will address that threat, as well as the threat of human disturbance and habitat loss.
The range plans that will be developed between now and next year will describe how each jurisdiction will achieve the goals set out in the federal government’s recovery strategy.
Wilmshurst said JNP won’t be responsible for a range plan for the boreal woodland caribou, “but when the recovery strategy for mountain caribou comes out, we would be writing the equivalent of a range plan, an action plan, for southern mountain caribou in mountain national parks.”
That strategy was due in 2007, but still hasn’t been completed. “It is an ongoing process and we’ve been working with Environment Canada in their aboriginal consultation process to get that southern mountain caribou recovery plan going,” said Wilmshurst.
In the meantime, JNP has its own initiatives to help the recovery of the four caribou herds that live in the park. There are 70 km/h speed zones on Highway 93 in the areas where the Brazeau herd can be found at this time of year—between Sunwapta Falls and Beauty Flats.
And there is a proposal for winter backcountry closures, for which a decision is expected this month.
The proposal is to close the Tonquin Valley, Brazeau and North Boundary areas for backcountry use from Nov. 1 to March 1. The rationale behind the controversial closures is that backcountry ski trails allow predators easier access to the park’s dwindling caribou herds.
JNP is home to four caribou herds: the northern A La Peche herd and the three southern herds, the Maligne, Tonquin and Brazeau.
