So it is refreshing to see the Canadian Press publish an article that clearly outlines the fact that predator and prey that have coexisted together for millenia(e.g. wolves and caribou) would still be thriving if not for the humans animal manipulation and rupture of both habitat and atmosphere....................The Northwestern region of Alberta, Canada has seen an on-going research study seeking to qualify the reasons for the drastic decline of Caribou there.......Only 5% of the habitat that the Little Smokey and Peche Caribou herds use is undisturbed, compared to the 65% goal of undisturbed land which is the stated goal of Canada's Federal Government..................Oil and gas seismic lines are everywhere to be found in this habitat and it is a known fact that seismic lines with vegetation heights less than 1.4 metres facilitate movement by caribou predators...............Wolves normally prefer to prey on deer and moose, but seismic lines allow them to penetrate into the deep woods where caribou hide.............It takes up to 70 years for nature to erase the impacts of seismic landscape cuts ............Without immediate human remedial habitat restoration, the 80 to 120 Caribou in these herds are sure to vanish

Caribou habitat in 

Alberta ravaged

 beyond repair

Disturbance in Alberta's northwestern

 foothills will make restoration selective

The Canadian Press 

Wild caribou need safe habitats to roam freely. This group in

 the tundra in Nunavut is thriving after a decade of decline a 

hope for the caribou population in Alberta

. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

http://www.cbc.ca/1.2745870

Scientists studying the ravaged caribou habitat of Alberta's

 northwestern foothills say they have found so much disturbance

 from decades of industrial use that restoration of the terrain will 

have to be selective.

"There's just so much disturbance, it's important we prioritize,"

 said Laura Finnegan, a biologist with the Foothills Research 

Institute in Hinton, Alta.

• The institute is one year into a three-year study on how
•  animals and humans continue to use this ragged 
• landscape in an effort to understand how to best restore it.

Governments are counting on that work to help them live up 

to promises of sustainable development.

Deforestation worse than in

 Brazil

This stretch of foothills still looks like pristine, trackless boreal

 forest when seen from the highway. But back roads into the

 bush reveal a patchwork of clearcuts, well pads, access 

roads and seismic lines so extensive that gravel and green

 greet the eye almost equally.

There are more than 16,000 kilometres of seismic lines, cut

 by the energy industry through the forest, within the study 

area's 13,000 square kilometres.It's part of an area that 

recent satellite data suggests is being deforested at a rate

 that outpaces what's going on in Brazil's rainforests.

About five per cent of range for the Little Smoky and a la

 Peche caribou herds remains undisturbed — a long way

 from the federal government's 65 per cent target.

• 
  

Finnegan and her colleagues are trying to figure out

 how to bridge that gap. Their first step is to understand 

how both animals and humans are using what's on the 

ground.

That means understanding the impact of seismic lines, 

which are used to study geology underground.

Wolves normally prefer to prey on deer and moose, but

 seismic lines allow them to penetrate into the deep 

woods where caribou hide .Caribou also normally
 avoid coming within 500 metres

 of a seismic line, making every line, in effect, a kilometre

 wide.It takes up to 70 years in this cold climate for nature to

 efface a seismic line. The passage of even a single quad

 can retard that restorative creep by crushing plants and 

compacting soil.

"You can just look at the vegetation on the line and you'll 

see tracks," Finnegan said.

Snowmobiles ravaging the terrain

Researchers have used sophisticated satellite-based radar 

to map average vegetation heights across the entire study

 area to within a few centimetres.

They've erected motion-sensitive cameras on selected seismic

 lines to record what's using them — caribou, wolves and 

snowmobilers alike.

Preliminary results suggest there's a threshold at which

 the lines are no longer an easy way for animals to get around.

"Seismic lines with vegetation heights less than 1.4 metres 

facilitate movement by caribou predators," says the institute's

 report.

Human use is more complex. Snowmobilers and quadders

 prefer little ground cover and dry soils as well as lower

 vegetation.

"Human motorized use of seismic lines is extensive across

 the range of a la Peche and Little Smoky caribou, and the

 probability of high levels of motorized human use increased

 when vegetation height along seismic lines was less than 

two metres in height," says the report.

Mapping where seismic lines attractive to predators and 

humans cross what used to be the best caribou habitat 

could suggest where restoration could do the most good

, the researchers say.

Such maps have been produced for the institute's
 preliminary report. Priority seismic lines for restoration 

will still add up to many hundreds of kilometres — and

 the study area is only one small part of a heavily affected 

natural region that stretches almost all the way down

 Alberta's western edge.

But the institute's work could provide at least a plan to

 get started, Finnegan said.

"That's the primary goal of this research, so that land

 managers on the ground could look at it and know

where to begin."