Toward the Restoration of Caribou Habitat: Understanding Factors Associated with Human Motorized Use of Legacy Seismic Lines

• Published in: Environmental Management
• Main Authors: Pigeon, K.E. (Karine E.), Anderson, M. (Meghan), MacNearney, D. (Doug), Cranston, J. (Jerome), Stenhouse, G. (Gordon), Finnegan, L. (Laura)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Habitat restoration; High-impact conventional seismic lines; Linear features; Off-highway vehicles; Rangifer tarandus; Canada; Caribou Range
• Online Access: https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/27273; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0763-6

Populations of boreal and southern mountain caribou in Alberta, Canada, are declining, and the ultimate cause of their decline is believed to be anthropogenic disturbance. Linear features are pervasive across the landscape, and of particular importance, seismic lines established in the 1900s (legacy seismic lines) are slow to regenerate. Off-highway vehicles are widely used on these seismic lines and can hamper vegetative re-growth because of ongoing physical damage, compaction, and active clearing. Restoration of seismic lines within caribou range is therefore a priority for the recovery of threatened populations in Alberta, but a triage-type approach is necessary to prioritize restoration and ensure conservation resources are wisely spent. To target restoration efforts, our objective was to determine factors that best explained levels of off-highway vehicles use on seismic lines intersecting roads. We investigated the relative importance of local topography, vegetation attributes of seismic lines, and broad-scale human factors such as the density of infra