Search

Protecting wildlife within areas of resource extraction often involves reducing habitat fragmentation. In Canada, protecting threatened woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)) populations requires preserving large areas of intact forest habitat, with some restrictions on industrial forestry activities. We present a linear programming model that assesses the trade-off between achieving an objective of habitat protection for caribou populations while maintaining desired levels of harvest in forest landscapes. The habitat-protection objective maximizes the amount of connected habitat that is accessible by caribou, and the forestry objective maximizes net revenues from timber harvest subject to even harvest flow, a harvest target, and environmental sustainability constraints. We applied the model to explore the habitat protection and harvesting scenarios in the Cold Lake caribou range, a 6726 [km.sup.2] area of prime caribou habitat in Alberta, Canada. We evaluated harvest scenarios ranging from 0.1 [Mm.sup,3] * [year.sup.-1] to maximum sustainable harvest levels over 0.7 [Mm.sup,3] * [year.sup.-1] and assessed the impact of habitat protection measures on timber supply costs. Protecting caribou habitat by deferring or reallocating harvest increases the timber unit cost by Can$1.1-2.0 [m.sup.-3]. However, this impact can be partially mediated by extending the harvest to areas of oil and gas extraction to offset forgone harvest in areas of prime caribou habitat. Key words: caribou recovery, network flow model, mixed-integer programming, Steiner network, landscape connectivity, harvest scheduling model I, wildlife habitat protection, Canada. La protection de la faune dans les zones ou on procede a l'extraction des ressources implique souvent la reduction de la fragmentation de l'habitat. Au Canada, la protection des populations de caribou des bois (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)) exige la preservation de vastes zones d'habitat forestier intact et l'imposition de certaines restrictions sur les activites forestieres industrielles. Nous presentons un modele de programmation lineaire qui permet d'evaluer le compromis entre la realisation des objectifs de protection de l'habitat pour les populations de caribou tout en maintenant les niveaux souhaites de recolte dans les paysages forestiers. L'objectif de protection de l'habitat maximise la quantite d'habitat non fragmente accessible au caribou et l'objectif de la foresterie maximise les revenus nets provenant de la recolte de bois, sujets a un volume regulier de recolte, une cible de recolte et a des contraintes de durabilite environnementale. Nous avons applique le modele pour explorer des scenarios de protection de l'habitat et de recolte dans le territoire du caribou du lac Cold, un excellent habitat pour le caribou d'une superficie de 6726 [km.sup.2] situe en Alberta au Canada. Nous avons evalue des scenarios de recolte variant de 0,1 [Mm.sup.3] * [an.sup.-1] a des niveaux maximum de recolte durable de plus de 0,7 [Mm.sup.3] * [an.sup.-1] et nous avons evalue l'impact des mesures de protection de l'habitat sur les couts d'approvisionnement en bois. La protection de l'habitat du caribou par le report ou la reaffectation de la recolte augmente le cout unitaire du bois de 1,1 a 2,0 Can$ [m.sup.-3]. Cependant, on peut en partie attenuer l'impact en etendant la recolte aux zones d'extraction d'huile et de gaz pour compenser la recolte perdue dans les zones qui offrent un habitat ideal pour le caribou. Mots-cles : retablissement du caribou, modele de flux de reseau, programmation partiellement en nombres entiers, reseau de Steiner, connectivite des paysages, modele de calendrier de recolte I, protection de l'habitat faunique, Canada., Introduction Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)) is designated a threatened species under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA) and Alberta's provincial Wildlife Act (Committee on the Status of [...]

Industrial forestry activities can increase landscape fragmentation, impacting wildlife populations, particularly Canada's woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou. To protect caribou in areas with forestry activities, the province of Ontario, Canada, implemented a Dynamic Caribou Harvest Schedule (DCHS). The DCHS spatially aggregates harvest disturbance into regions and distributes them across the landscape to maintain forest patch size–age distributions consistent with a natural variation range. However, the DCHS may negatively impact the cost of timber supply. We compared the DCHS with an alternative zoning approach that assigned the harvest deferral and operational management zones within a large forest area. We compared these approaches using an optimization model that combined harvest scheduling, access road construction, and caribou protection sub-problems. We formulated the protection of caribou habitat and road construction as network flow problems, while the harvesting problem incorporated the ecological constraints prescribed by the forest management plan. We compared the DCHS and zoning approaches in the Wabadowgang Noopming Forest of Ontario, a boreal area within the caribou distribution zone. For the same volume of sustainable harvest, the zoning approach protected less total area but more habitat and old-growth stands over the long term, and yielded lower timber costs by 1.2–2.2 $·m−3 than the DCHS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 1180 non-native species, mostly of Palaearctic origin, have been recorded from the boreal zone of Canada, with the highest diversity on the island of Newfoundland and in the southern boreal zone of Ontario and Quebec. The non-native biota of the boreal zone (and of Canada in general) is poorly known in terms of species composition and distribution. A large proportion of species are associated with disturbed anthropogenic habitats such as urban areas, agricultural landscapes, transportation and communication corridors, and industrial developments. Natural habitats in the boreal zone have a high degree of resistance to invasion compared with those of other Canadian zones, likely owing to harsh climates, low light levels, poor soil nutrient availability, low soil pH, low productivity, and dense covering of the ground by plants, especially bryophytes. Of the relatively few non-native species that have successfully colonized the boreal zone, many decline greatly in abundance after a few years, suggesting biotic resilience. To date the boreal zone has shown the least resistance and resilience to large vertebrates (moose and white-tailed deer) translocated to islands, diseases of vertebrates, and earthworms. In general, the ecological impacts of non-native species on the boreal zone have been poorly studied, and there are few examples where such impacts are evident. Likewise, there has been little attempt to quantify the economic impacts of non-native species in either the boreal zone or in Canada as a whole. In the few cases where management measures have been implemented for highly destructive non-native species, results have been somewhat successful, especially where classical biological control measures have been implemented against insects on trees. Chemical and mechanical management measures have had only limited success in localized situations. Management resources are most effectively applied to reducing the risk of introduction. The risk to the boreal zone posed by future new non-native species is increasing with the warming climate and the fast and direct transport of goods into the boreal zone from points of origin. Five recommendations are provided to address recognized gaps concerning non-native species. Key words: boreal, non-native species, ecological impacts, risk, biological invasion. On a enregistre plus de 1180 especes non indigenes, surtout d'origine palearctique, dans la zone de la foret boreale du Canada, dont la plus grande diversite se retrouve sur l'ile de Terre-Neuve et dans la zone boreale meridionale de l'Ontario et du Quebec. Le biote non indigene de la zone boreale (et du Canada en general) est mal connu en ce qui concerne sa composition et sa distribution. Une forte proportion des especes est associee a des habitats perturbes par l'homme comme les milieux urbains, les paysages agricoles, les corridors de communication et de transport ainsi que les developpements industriels. Les habitats naturels de la zone boreale montrent un fort degre de resistance a l'invasion, comparativement a ceux d'autres zones du Canada, vraisemblablement a cause des climats rigoureux, des faibles degres d'illumination, de la faible disponibilite des nutriments du sol, du faible pH des sols, de la faible productivite, et de la dense couverture du sol par les plantes, surtout les bryophytes. Parmi les peu nombreuses especes ayant colonise avec succes la zone boreale, plusieurs connaissent un fort declin en abondance apres quelques annees suggerant une resilience biotique. A date, la zone boreale a montre les moindres resistances et resiliences chez les grands vertebres (orignaux et cerf de Virginie) transferes sur ces iles, les maladies des vertebres et les vers de terre. En general, on a peu etudie les impacts ecologiques des especes non indigenes de la zone boreale et il y a peu d'exemples oU ces impacts sont evidents. De meme, il y a eu peu de tentatives pour quantifier les impacts economiques des especes non indigenes, que ce soit en zone boreale ou au Canada en general. Dans les rares cas oU des mesures d'amenagement ont ete mises en place pour les especes non indigenes fortement destructives, les resultats ont eu assez de succes, surtout la oU les mesures de maitrise biologique classique ont ete utilisees contre les insectes et les arbres. Les mesures chimiques et mecaniques n'ont qu'un succes limite dans des situations localisees. Les ressources de l'amenagement sont plus efficaces lorsqu'elles sont appliquees pour reduire le risque d'introduction. Le risque pour la foret boreale pose par de futures especes non indigenes augmente avec le rechauffement climatique et le transport rapide et direct de marchandises dans la zone boreale, a partir de leurs points d'origine. Les auteurs font cinq recommandations pour prendre en compte les lacunes reconnues au sujet des especes non indigenes. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: boreal, especes non indigenes, impacts ecologiques, risque, invasion biologique., 1. Introduction Since the Wisconsinan glacial maximum ~21400 years ago, the rate of change of species composition in Canada has been determined by natural processes such as the rate and [...]

Non‐renewable resource extraction contributes greatly to degradation of wildlife habitats in boreal landscapes. In western Canada, oil and gas exploration and extraction have left a dense network of linear disturbances (seismic lines) and abandoned well pads that have fragmented boreal forest. Among multiple ecological effects, these disturbances have increased predator access to the preferred habitat of some wildlife taxa, most notably boreal woodland caribou, resulting in population declines. Restoration of seismic lines and abandoned well pads is a critical activity to improve the recovery of woodland caribou populations. We present a linear programming model that optimally allocates restoration efforts to maximize the access of caribou to nearby undisturbed habitat in a fragmented landscape. We applied the model to examine restoration scenarios in the Cold Lake First Nations area in northeastern Alberta, Canada, which includes caribou habitat but also areas of active oil and gas extraction. The model depicts the landscape as a network of interconnected habitat patches and combines three network flow sub‐problems. The first sub‐problem enforces the spatial connectivity of the remaining network of unrestored sites. The second sub‐problem maximizes access to suitable habitat from the restored locations and the third sub‐problem ensures the allocation of restoration activities in as few spatially contiguous restoration projects as possible. The approach is generalizable and applicable to assist restoration planning in other resource extraction regions and for other taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]