EDMONTON—A new government plan is in the works to bring back the province’s caribou population over the next “50 or more years,” but conservationists are concerned that the first draft doesn’t go far enough, and needs to get to the point.

Released in August, the governments of Canada and Alberta negotiated a draft agreement, slated to be signed later this year, they say will stabilize and recover woodland caribou populations in the province.

Both the boreal and southern mountain caribou are designated as “threatened” under Alberta’s Wildlife Act and Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

According to the province, the 27-page document aims to achieve self-sustaining populations in the long term though measures that include continued population and growth monitoring of the animals, finding federal funds to boost conservation efforts, and revising energy and forestry project approvals to reduce human impact on critical caribou habitat.

“The overarching goal of the proposed draft agreement with the federal government on woodland caribou is to support the conservation and recovery of these animals in the province over the next five years through landscape planning, habitat conservation, and mortality and population management and monitoring,” Alberta Environment and Parks spokesperson John Muir told Star Edmonton in an emailed statement.

The government of Alberta is accepting feedback on the draft agreement until Oct. 6, and expects to sign the final agreement later in the fall.

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According to the draft agreement, Section 11 of the Species at Risk Act allows the federal minister of environment and climate change to enter conservation agreements for species at risk.

Carolyn Campbell, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, commended both levels of government for negotiating an agreement, and found it encouraging, but questioned the timeline.

With the draft committing to achieve protection for caribou in “50 years or more,” it amounts to little more than “plan to plan,” she said, and one that contains serious flaws and gaps that give governments and industry little incentive to act with a sense of urgency.

“Saying ‘50 years or more’ is like going to a store where everything is $1 or more,” Campbell said. “It’s that phrase that needs to change, because that’s utterly meaningless and open-ended.”

Furthermore, she added, the draft lacks funding commitments and fails to flag interim protection measures to prevent habitat loss and other factors detrimental to the animals’ dwindling numbers in the province.

According to the association, caribou have experienced extensive habitat loss despite the provincial government’s approval of the Woodland Caribou Recovery Plan in 2005, and the 2011 Caribou Policy. And adding insult to injury, it added, there has been little in the way of sub-regional range plans to monitor and restore the caribou habitat, and reduce the effect of human disturbances from energy and forestry industry activity.

“Because we’ve ignored our obligations to this species, and we’ve delayed the necessary habitat decision, we’re at a point where we regrettably need some wildlife manipulation measures, so the populations don’t fall too low,” Campbell added, pointing to wolf culls to help bolster the caribou numbers by killing off predators.

One of the highlights of the draft agreement mentions a continuation of wolf population management in some of the province’s caribou ranges.

“The only way that’s responsible and ethical is when that’s matched with strong actions to maintain the current habitat, and to recover the disturbed habitat,” Campbell said.

As a result, the association will be advocating for temporary measures to limit disturbances to caribou habitat, which could include further limitation on forestry companies from operating around caribou habitat, or requiring energy companies to rely on existing infrastructure instead of constructing new facilities, to curb additional disturbances to the landscape.

“Nobody’s saying that would have to last forever,” Campbell said. “It’s an interim measure that provides a strong incentive for those companies to really get serious about an agreement for limiting infrastructure. And a really serious plan over a set number of decades would reduce infrastructure to the point where caribou habitat would have been regenerated, renewed, and not be disturbed, so that they could survive.”

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Mindful of the province’s history with caribou conservation, she’s hoping the review period will help both governments solicit the kind of feedback needed to close those gaps and firm up action desperately needed to give caribou a fighting chance.

For the province’s part, Muir said, it’s important to note that the agreement is just a draft and still open to public input

“The proposed agreement with the federal government is an additional step while range planning continues,” he added. “In the meantime, we are open to feedback on the draft version.

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