Caribou Habitat Tracking
Categories: Geospatial and Remote Sensing
Status: In Progress
About the Project
Both Alberta’s provincial Woodland Caribou policy and the Section 11 Conservation Agreement between the Government of Alberta and Government of Canada identify habitat management as a key measure to support the conservation and recovery of Woodland Caribou.
A key piece of information to support the recovery of Woodland Caribou is tracking habitat loss, gain, and change over time. In 2022, we received funding from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (EPA) to track and report on annual changes in several key components of Woodland Caribou habitat.
Project Collaborators
- Alberta Environment and Protected Areas
Our Approach
We will quantify and track gross, net, and annual changes in several aspects that define or contribute to an understanding of Woodland Caribou critical habitat:
- forest cover,
- biophysical habitat,
- undisturbed habitat, and
- disturbed habitat.
Within disturbed caribou habitat, the current status of vegetation and vegetation recovery over time will also be tracked and reported on. We are collecting high-resolution vegetation monitoring data using LiDAR data across all caribou ranges in Alberta, through data sharing agreements for existing datasets and targeted flights to fill in data gaps.
Project Impact
This project will provide critical information to support the Government of Alberta’s reporting on habitat and landscape changes over time in Woodland Caribou ranges.
This project focuses on the development of satellite remote sensing algorithms for mapping and monitoring cyanobacterial algal blooms in popular recreational lakes in Alberta.
BERA focuses on understanding the effects of industrial disturbance on natural ecosystem dynamics in the boreal forest, and developing strategies for restoring disturbed landscapes in a system that is under pressure from climate change.
In collaboration with the Caribou Habitat Recovery Program (CHRP) through the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA), the ABMI is developing a detailed vegetation inventory along linear features for the Richardson caribou range in northeastern Alberta.
