Silviculture approaches to restoring a predator-prey system: examples from the LiDea project in Boreal Alberta
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Animal Behavior, Biodiversity, Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Environmental Sciences
- Keywords
- caribou, restoration, forest, habitat, silviculture
- Copyright
- © 2016 Cody et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Silviculture approaches to restoring a predator-prey system: examples from the LiDea project in Boreal Alberta. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2082v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2082v1
Abstract
The issue of Woodland caribou decline has been identified corporately as a top environmental priority for Cenovus energy Inc. Pursuant to this priority, a habitat centric environmental strategy and performance commitments have been developed. Beginning in 2008, Cenovus began applied investigation into the use of silviculture techniques for accelerated restoration, emphasizing the bog and fen forest site types that are characteristic of Boreal caribou habitat. In a larger scale project called LiDea, restoration treatments were ultimately applied to linear features throughout an area of 370 km 2 within the Cold Lake herd range. As indicated by metrics at the site level, as well as GPS collar re-locations, plant and animal response to restoration treatment are positive from a caribou perspective. Results from the LiDea series of projects have been strong enough to warrant the extension of these forest habitat restoration methods to the landscape scale.
Author Comment
This is an abstract which has been accepted for the "Predator-Prey Dynamics" conference. Caribou habitat restoration is a priority for Cenovus Energy Inc. In the boreal forest of northeast Alberta, linear disturbances from historic exploration activities are being actively restored using silvicultural techniques. Early indications of plant and animal response are positive for caribou.