AWA News Release: Alberta Defers Forestry in One Caribou Herd Range

Alberta has halted logging for one year in a significant part of the Little Smoky caribou range, one of fifteen caribou herds on provincial lands, to allow range plan development that will protect critical habitat and recover the caribou population. The newly approved forest management plan for Alberta Newsprint Company (ANC) requires a one year deferral across the Little Smoky herd range northeast of Jasper National Park. However, intensive logging so far remains within ANC’s newly government-approved 10 year harvest plan in the adjacent A La Peche caribou herd’s critical habitat. Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) welcomes the Little Smoky logging decision by the Redford government as another good step in the survival chances this caribou herd.