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Despite spending the better part of his career surrounded by endless stretches of boreal forest, John Unger has almost no first-hand knowledge of the boreal woodland caribou, a species whose survival instincts keep it deep in the woods and away from potential predators.

“I’ve never seen a caribou in my life,” said the chief executive of La Crete Sawmills Ltd., a northern Alberta facility that employs around 100 people and is named after the hamlet it’s located in.

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Photo by Courtesy of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

But the naturally reclusive caribou could soon leave a major imprint on northern communities such as La Crete, Unger said, as Ottawa pushes ahead with contentious species protection plans to save threatened herds.

The policy could have a “devastating” impact on Unger’s sawmill by designating large swaths of land off-limits to timber harvesting, in turn shrinking the mill’s productivity and profit margins. “Even a small reduction translates into several days without work,” he said.