Project Code: CANFOR-01-062
Area:Applied Research
Sponsor:Canadian Forest Products

The primary purpose of this Project was a multi-party collaboration to obtain a better understanding of woodland caribou in west-central Alberta.

Specific Project objectives included:
* determining if the caribou herds are declining, and if so – why;
* ascertaining if predation is a problem, and if yes – what scale of fragmentation will sufficiently protect caribou from predation;
* discovering what rotation ages and harvesting techniques will allow viable caribou populations in the long-term; and
* finding out how the effects of resource development by several industries can be mitgated to ensure the viability of the caribou herd.

This Project was initiated in November of 2004 and terminated in December 2005 as available funds were re-directed to the recently formed Caribou Land Management Association.

Project results are contained in a two hundred page report entitled "Final Report – Caribou Conservation and Resource Development in West-Central Alberta [Phases IV to VI]. Prepared by Brad Engel, and dated May 15, 2006.

The aforementioned report includes five manuscripts/documents – see Appendix 1, and the University of Alberta Report 2005 in Appendix 2.

Keywords
Canfor
West-Central Alberta
Predation
Forest Management Strategies
Populations
Woodland Caribou
Mitigating Resource Development Impacts