Alberta wolf cull stabilizes caribou numbers, but just buys time: study

New research shows that killing hundreds of wolves hasbarely managed to stabilize the numbers of a threatened Alberta caribou herd in a region increasingly impacted by industry.

The study, conducted by some of the province's top caribouscientists and published online late last week, suggests thatAlbertans face a stark choice as their government prepares legally required plans to restore the herds.

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"One hopes that it's not just some window dressing that's goingon," said Stan Boutin, a University of Alberta biologist and one ofthe co-authors.

"If ... the plan is one that tries to satisfy all the players inthe game, it becomes a thing where each of the players at the tableare in there primarily to ensure they don't lose too much, as opposed to the overall objective. Which is, what do we have tobloody well do to keep caribou around?"

The study examines the effect of a seven-year wolf cull in thenorthwestern Alberta range of the Little Smoky caribou herd --roughly 70 animals scratching out a living on land 95 per centdisturbed by forestry and energy development. Seismic lines andcutblocks from that development allow wolves deep into theundisturbed portions of the forest, adding further pressure.

In an attempt to keep caribou from disappearing, Alberta began anannual cull of about 45 per cent of the wolves on that range in2005. By 2012, 841 wolves had been poisoned or shot fromhelicopters.

The study compares caribou numbers before and after the cull. Italso compares them with a nearby range subject to similardevelopment pressures on which no cull took place.

Habitat restoration would take decades

"Removing" wolves has stopped the Little Smoky herd's decline, it concludes. Cow and calf numbers are up, just enough.

"It is fair to say the Little Smoky is stable," said DaveHervieux, co-author and provincial caribou biologist.

Without the cull, the Little Smoky herd would be long gone, saidHervieux.

And it will likely be needed for years to come. The study saysthe range is so torn up that habitat restoration will take 30 years.

But Boutin said the study also shows that industry mitigationmeasures are of little immediate help.

"It's great that they're doing those things and it's absolutelyimportant that they do it in the long run," he said. "But in theshort term, we certainly have good evidence to indicate that thoseactivities have not reversed any of the population declines."

And it raises questions about caribou management that reliesheavily on killing wolves, while allowing industry's footprint to increase.

"It is buying us time, but it's buying us time in a worselandscape," said Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta WildernessAssociation.

'Previous history is not that encouraging'

While the Little Smoky range currently enjoys a moratorium on newenergy leases and forestry cutblocks, that breather is onlytemporary. Boutin said the herd's shaky stability would likely collapse under further disturbance.

Energy leases are still being sold and forestry continues onother caribou ranges.

Ramping up wolf culls would be difficult and expensive, saidBoutin, especially if they were extended to any of the other 18woodland caribou ranges in Alberta, all of which are significantlydisturbed by industry.

"The larger the area that you treat, the more wolves that you'regoing to have to deal with and the higher the cost. It's not scalable, in the sense that I don't think anyone has the stomach fordoing it across the province."

The provincial government is required under the Species At RiskAct to file a range plan for Little Smoky that will keep caribou on the landscape. That plan is now almost a year behind schedule andisn't expected until early 2015.

The content of that plan will be crucial for the Little Smokyherd -- and all the others, said Campbell.

"The range plans need to reduce the energy footprint and theyneed to end logging in highly disturbed ranges," she said. "It's important for the government to take those solutions and not continually bow to very short-term pressures.

"Previous history is not that encouraging. On the other hand, we have a premier who says that to have social licence to extract our energy, we have to be an environmental leader.

"We're not being an environmental leader by just killingwolves."