Laws and Landscape Planning: Canadian Examples for Woodland Caribou Management

Wild Lands Advocate article, October 2014, by Carolyn Campbell Woodland caribou ranges are highly fragmented in Alberta as a result of agricultural and industrial activities. The species is considered at risk in several provinces containing woodland caribou under provincial ‘species at risk’ laws. Recovery strategies in Manitoba, Ontario, and British Columbia are in place, though Manitoba and Ontario’s methods are in need of improvement. Alberta has no such laws, leaving the federal Species at Risk Act as caribou’s strongest legal support in Alberta. A biodiversity management framework proposed in summer 2014 has potential to benefit caribou.