Saskatchewan has received a “medium” grade from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society for its efforts to conserve woodland caribou.
In a release, the society says the province — along with Manitoba and the NWT — has made welcome progress in the fight to preserve the animal.
However, the report says the overall situation is very worrying.
In particular, the report says many provinces are continuing to approve industrial developments in the remaining intact parts of the boreal forest that the caribou need to survive.
Yeen Ten Hwang is the acting manager for Saskatchewan Environment’s science assessment unit.
She says they are trying to get a better handle on how many of the animals are out there. However, it is difficult work — so they are teaming up with some scientists from other jurisdictions to try and track the animals genetic footprints:
“Trying to delineate population using fecal DNA so that we don’t have to put radio collars on every caribou in the boreal plain.”
She adds community meetings will take place with the affected regions before the radio collaring is carried out.
The report goes on to say that one of the big problems is that the caribou’s habitat is increasingly becoming fragmented, and predators are gaining increased access.
It found a lack of legislative tools and failure to consider how development proposals, namely roads and power lines, are also affecting the animals and creating a threat to their well-being.
Hwang adds the mining industry, forest industry and SaskPower are all collaborating with Saskatchewan Environment on the work.