The long road to protecting critical habitat for species at risk: The case of southern mountain woodland caribou

Palm, Eric C.; Fluker, Shaun; Nesbitt, Holly K.; Jacob, Aerin L.; Hebblewhite, Mark

doi:10.1111/csp2.219

Cited by 23 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The ability to enact meaningful habitat management measures in Canada typically depends upon policy instruments not primarily focused on species at risk because most wildlife is distributed over areas outside federal legislative powers (Fluker & Stacey, 2012; Palm et al, 2020). Our results support previous suggestions that despite adoption of species at risk listing representing a decision to regulate and manage, “legislative commitment to recovery planning does not necessarily mean a commitment to plan implementation” (Farrier, Whelan, & Mooney, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, SARA legally protects critical habitat identified in recovery strategies of listed species (Canada, 2002) and the federal recovery strategies for Boreal and Southern Mountain caribou (released in 2012 and 2014, respectively) outline recovery objectives to minimize and mitigate alteration of critical habitat (Environment Canada, 2014), while the federal management plan for Northern Mountain caribou (released in 2012) set out management goals and objectives for this ecotype (Environment Canada, 2012b). Neither AB nor BC has provincial species‐at‐risk legislation so caribou protection relies on federal statutory rules and existing provincial laws and policies (Palm, Fluker, Nesbitt, Jacob, & Hebblewhite, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Habitat loss accelerates for the endangered woodland caribou in western Canada

Nagy‐Reis

Dickie

Calvert

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Habitat loss is often the ultimate cause of species endangerment and is also a leading factor inhibiting species recovery. For this reason, species‐at‐risk legislation, policies and plans typically focus on habitat conservation and restoration as mechanisms for recovery. To assess the effectiveness of these instruments in decelerating habitat loss, we evaluated spatiotemporal habitat changes for an iconic endangered species, woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). We quantified changes in forest cover, a key proxy of caribou habitat, for all caribou subpopulations in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Despite efforts under federal and provincial recovery plans, and requirements listed under Canada's Species at Risk Act, caribou subpopulations lost twice as much habitat as they gained during a 12‐year period (2000–2012). Drivers of habitat loss varied by ecotype, with Boreal and Northern Mountain caribou affected most by forest fire and Southern Mountain caribou affected more by forest harvest. Our case study emphasizes critical gaps between recovery planning and habitat management actions, which are a core expectation under most species‐at‐risk legislation. Loss of caribou habitat from 2000 to 2018 has accelerated. Linear features within caribou ranges have also increased over time, particularly seismic lines within Boreal caribou ranges, and we estimated that only 5% of seismic lines have functionally regenerated. Our findings support the idea that short‐term recovery actions such as predator reductions and translocations will likely just delay caribou extinction in the absence of well‐considered habitat management. Given the magnitude of ongoing habitat change, it is clear that unless the cumulative impacts of land‐uses are effectively addressed through planning and management actions that consider anthropogenic and natural disturbances, we will fail to achieve self‐sustaining woodland caribou populations across much of North America.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat loss accelerates for the endangered woodland caribou in western Canada

Nagy‐Reis

Dickie

Calvert

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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“…While provincial and national parks have considerably protected high elevation summer range in our study area, winter range continues to be subjected to forestry and oil and gas development, with associated impacts to this seasonally critical habitat. Similarly across British Columbia, there is disproportionate protection of low-timber value, high elevation habitats, with the same patterns of ongoing land use of high economic value, low elevation caribou winter ranges (Palm et al, 2020). Accordingly, most caribou populations throughout the Southern Mountain distribution have very low population viability (Wittmer, Ahrens, & McLellan, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…C. J. Johnson et al, 2015;Palm, Jacob, Fluker, Nesbitt, & Hebblewhite, 2020;Wittmer et al, 2007), and the majority of woodland caribou populations are declining (Festa-Bianchet et al, 2011) with many notable recent extirpations. The causes of these declines are anthropogenic, resulting from direct and indirect habitat loss, increased efficiency of predators, and altered food-webs, which negatively affect caribou through apparent competition (Holt, 1977;Serrouya et al, 2019;Wittmer et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat loss on seasonal migratory range imperils an endangered ungulate

Williams

Steenweg

Hegel

et al. 2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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1. Endangered species policies and their associated recovery documents and management actions do not always sufficiently address the importance of migratory behaviour and seasonal ranges for imperilled populations. 2. Using a telemetry location dataset spanning 1981-2018, we tested for changes in prevalence of migratory tactics (resident, migrant) over time, switching between tactics, shifts in seasonal space use including migration corridors, and survival consequences of migrant and resident tactics for 237 adult female endangered woodland mountain caribou in one population in western Canada. 3. Over more than three decades, the proportion of individuals displaying annual migration to the low elevation forested winter range declined from nearly 100%-38%. Correspondingly, there was a strong switch away from being migrant to being year-round residents at high elevation. 4. These behavioural changes corresponded to abandonment of low elevation winter ranges in association with increasing levels of anthropogenic land uses, including forestry and oil and gas developments. Furthermore, there were no identifiable migration corridors to target for migratory route protection. 5. These shifts translated to lower survival rates, particularly for caribou demonstrating resident tactics, consistent with recent declines of the caribou population. That migrants switched to residency in their largely undisturbed summer range, despite lower survival, indicates maladaptive habitat selection consistent with recent patterns of mountain caribou extirpations. 6. Globally, endangered species policies and their associated recovery plans and management actions often do not explicitly consider the challenge of protecting migratory species. Effective conservation of migratory species requires protecting critical This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…In addition to reporting seemingly irreproducible results, this study emphasized predator control to the exclusion of any meaningful consideration of the 'bottom-up' habitat requirements of caribou (Wasser et al 2012;Proulx et al 2017). It also comes at a time when regulatory safeguards to protect caribou habitat are already failing to translate to effective protection on the ground (Collard et al 2020;Palm et al 2020). If efforts to prevent the extinction of the Mountain caribou are to succeed, conservation biologists must make use of the whole spectrum of available data, and encourage government to design and implement ecotype-specific, evidence-based management plans.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No statistical support for wolf control and maternal penning as conservation measures for endangered mountain caribou

Harding¹,

Bourbonnais

Cook

et al. 2020

Biodivers Conserv

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Mountain caribou, a behaviourally and genetically distinct set of ecotypes of the Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) restricted to the mountains of western Canada, have undergone severe population declines in recent decades. Although a broad consensus exists that the ultimate driver of these declines has been the reduction of habitat upon which mountain caribou depend, research and policy attention has increasingly focused on predation. Recently, Serrouya et al. (Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 116:6181-6186, 2019) analysed population dynamics data from 18 subpopulations in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, subject to different treatments and 'controls', and concluded that lethal wolf control and maternal caribou penning provide the most effective ways to stabilize population declines. Here we show that this inference was based on an unbalanced analytical approach that omitted a null scenario, excluded potentially confounding variables and employed irreproducible habitat alteration metrics. Our reanalysis of available data shows that ecotype identity is a better predictor of population trends than any adaptive management treatments considered by Serrouya et al. Disparate behavioural characteristics and responses to industrial disturbance among ecotypes suggest it may be incorrect to assume that adaptive management strategies that might benefit one ecotype are transferable to another.Keywords Adaptive management Á Bottom-up processes Á British Columbia Á Canada Á Conservation Á Ecotype Á Habitat Á Mountain caribou Á Rebuttal Á Statistics Á Wolf Communicated by David Hawksworth.

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The long road to protecting critical habitat for species at risk: The case of southern mountain woodland caribou

Cited by 23 publications

References 37 publications

Habitat loss accelerates for the endangered woodland caribou in western Canada

Habitat loss accelerates for the endangered woodland caribou in western Canada

Habitat loss on seasonal migratory range imperils an endangered ungulate

No statistical support for wolf control and maternal penning as conservation measures for endangered mountain caribou

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