WOODLAND CARIBOU: going, going ... gone?

Updated January 18, 2007

“If the federal government does not have the political will to implement aggressive recovery measures to restore caribou populations within its own jurisdiction, it sets a grim precedent for federal involvement in caribou recovery across the rest of Canada.” Sierra Club of Canada

Background
In the past 14 years woodland caribou numbers in south Jasper National Park have declined by one third - from approximately 225 animals in 1992 to an estimated 151 in 2006. The population is split by the Icefields Parkway: the Tonquin herd, numbering about 89, is found to the west of the highway and the Maligne/Brazeau herd, of about 26, to the east. It is too early to confirm but the latter herd may even be splitting further with just eight in the Maligne herd and 16 in the Brazeau.

This south Jasper population is the only one in the Rocky Mountain region to remain on protected lands year-round. Other herds of this threatened species spend part of the year in Alberta and British Columbia where habitat destruction caused by resource extraction is ongoing and the situation for caribou has become critical. Thus, the caribou of Jasper National Park are of paramount importance to the survival of the species in the Rockies. (There is the small and fairly stable A La Peche herd (download report) in the remote northern part of Jasper National Park - but all of them do not always stay in the park.)

For more than 30 years, in spite of warnings from park wardens of the decline in the caribou population, Parks Canada avoided taking meaningful steps to save it. They commissioned three studies (Stelfox 1974; Brown 1994; and Thomas 1996) but then ignored all their recommendations concerning human disturbance of the animals.

Parks Canada’s recovery plan
Forced in 2003 by the Species at Risk Act to come up with a recovery plan for this threatened species, Parks Canada formed a committee of four parks staff and eight local “stakeholders”. Their recommendations became the basis for the 2005 Action Implementation Plan - or Phase I of caribou recovery. The plan included novel ideas like "fladry" barriers with hanging rags to deter wolves from accessing caribou habitat: salt - a strong attractant to caribou - was to be eliminated from roads in their habitat and skiers and hikers were asked to voluntarily avoid summer calving and fall rutting areas.

The plan was described by caribou biologist, Dr. James Schaefer of Trent University, in a report for the Sierra Club of Canada as "timid". Other biologists found it ignored recommendations from previous studies and said user interests were being given a higher priority than caribou recovery.

In spite of previous recommendations from other biologists, Parks Canada refused to close the 47-km Maligne Road in winter even though the Greater Jasper Ecosystem Caribou Research Project (Brown 1994) pointed out that “without packed-snow access to Maligne Lake, wolves probably would not have traveled regularly into caribou wintering areas in the valley. “

In November 2006 Parks Canada reported on the first year of the action plan. Fladry did not work and will not be tried again – the wolves either went through or around it (contemptuously lifting their legs on the supporting posts). Salt was not eliminated from the roads because it was belatedly discovered that having to store the gravel under cover to stop it from freezing would be too expensive. Compliance with other actions by skiers and hikers was encouraging but somewhat sporadic.

Marmot Basin ski area
Parks Canada's commitment to save the caribou will soon be tested under the new relaxed guidelines for Marmot Basin downhill ski area. If past action is anything to go by it does not look good for the animals in this critical habitat. In 2003, Parks allowed Marmot to open the Outer Limits expert ski run straight down into prime mountain goat and woodland caribou habitat in the adjacent Whistlers Creek valley - now Marmot wants a ski lift there.

In March 2006 only a strong letter from the Sierra Legal Defence Fund prevented Parks from allowing Marmot to open an egress trail for another expert run in that same valley. (Woodland caribou were sighted in this area December 2006).

Rising pressure
The JEA has been at the forefront of the battle to try to get protection for Jasper’s woodland caribou since 1992. We have now been joined by eight other conservation organizations – the Sierra Club of Canada, the Bow Valley Naturalists, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Alberta Wilderness Association, Nature Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Defenders of Wildlife and UTSB Research of Banff. This coalition sent a letter to the Minister of Environment in February 2006 asking that the Jasper recovery plan be examined by an independent panel of caribou biologists and steps also be taken to try to save a tiny remnant herd in Banff National Park.

The Minister replied that Parks Canada will be “working with the governments of Alberta and British Columbia, other federal agencies and a diverse group of stakeholders from industry and the public sector to develop a recovery plan that will feed into a national recovery strategy and action plan.”

This does not augur well for park caribou: Alberta and British Columbia are hell-bent on resource extraction at the expense of their wildlife. Alberta’s commitment to saving the fast-disappearing Little Smoky herd near Grande Cache consists of shooting every wolf in the area but doing nothing to limit destruction of the herd’s habitat. If Parks Canada should ever start killing wolves in a national park they risk a major outcry from the public. Canadians will not take kindly to the wolf being used as a scapegoat for Parks Canada's past mismanagement of the woodland caribou population.

The harrassment of radio-collaring
There is concern by many of the public and some researchers about the adverse effects of radio-collaring wildlife, particularly species at risk. Pursuing caribou with helicopters, capturing them with nets and then burdening them with a heavy neck collar is certainly harassment, however much the resulting information may be deemed necessary. (For JEA policy regarding research on park wildlife)

A 1996 habitat study on woodland caribou in Jasper National foresaw the possibility that radio collars might:

• “contribute to mortality by adding weight, changing weight distribution slightly or
  causing the collared caribou to be selected by a wolf”. (Thomas 1996)

Another concern is that rather than contributing to sound management decisions many studies are shelved and ignored.

• “Radiocollaring animals is intrusive, dangerous and sometimes fatal. If management agencies do not have any desire to implement research findings, it is of little consequence to continue research simply to make it appear to the public that adaptive land management is being practiced.” (Smith 2004)

In a recent Parks Canada update there is hopeful news of a new method of gathering information on caribou: DNA from scat .

• “This will see biologists out collecting caribou scat. The DNA  collected from the mucous (must be 24-48 hours old only) can genotype individuals.
  Data that can be gleaned from the DNA includes: pregnancy rates, stress levels through hormones, ages to figure out cow/calf ratios, and  population size.” (Parks Canada, 2006)

While this will not determine causes of mortality it is a step in the right direction. The south Jasper National Park woodland caribou population is much too important for even one of them to be lost due to radio-collaring.

For an interesting and innovative approach to publicising the plight of the woodland caribou in Jasper National Park: http://www.dreamersanddoers.ca/tuktu_prayers.htm