Featured Projects: The Omineca Northern Caribou Project

A collaborative research initiative led by licensees in the forest sector and by the Ministry of Environment was the beginning of a long-term project in north-central BC locally known as the Omineca Northern Caribou Project (ONCP). The goal of this collaboration was to examine the ecological interactions among caribou, moose, and wolves in the Wolverine, Chase, and Scott caribou herds. Specific outcomes were intended to:

• provide the necessary information to ensure management activities led to sustainable populations of northern caribou – especially in light of potential stressors such as forest development, predation, and hunting; and
• promote a philosophy that proactive, preventative management of caribou habitat would be more efficient and effective than corrective conservation.

Some members of this original collaboration eventually partnered in 2002 to form what is now Wildlife Infometrics Inc. (WII). Although WII has broadened their research basis, the ONCP remains of focal interest and importance for WII, the forest licensees in the area, and Ministry of Environment.

The ONCP was structured to address a series of studies that allowed for information to flow directly from modeling and hypothesis generation through inventories, adaptive management, and policy construction.

A summary of recent ONCP studies is provided below while a more general context for the ONCP and a full list of publications and reporting can be found at www.centralbccaribou.ca.

1. Mitigating Risk of Predation for Woodland Caribou in North-central British Columbia

2. Abundance and Distribution of Woodland Caribou in the Wolverine and Chase Recovery Plan Areas

3. Refinement and Verification of a Model to Predict High-elevation Winter Range for Woodland Caribou in North-central British Columbia

4. Potential Implications of Beetle-related Timber Salvage on the Integrity of Caribou Winter Range

5. Reassessing the Supply of Northern Caribou Seasonal Range Types in North-central British Columbia

Recent Projects

Click on one of the links below to learn more about some of our recently completed projects:

2008

1. Indicator Targets and Management Recommendations for Retention of Coarse Woody Debris in the Mackenzie Defined Forest Area, North-central British Columbia

2. Developing Baseline Data of Tree Species Composition in Unmanaged and Managed Forests by BEC Zone/Subzone/Variant in the Mackenzie Defined Forest Area

3. Hydrologic Risk Modeling: Coarse Sediment Supply

4. Mountain Pine Beetle Habitat Supply Modelling Project: Predicting Species Occurrences in Response to Large-scale Disturbances