On October 10th and 11th, 2019, stakeholders from across the province came together to discuss their concerns about Alberta’s woodland caribou. Attendees were invited by the newly formed Alberta Regional Caribou Knowledge Partnership (ARCKP), to help identify priority research areas for the initiative to fund. ARCKP is supported by over $5 million in funding from the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA), which will be allocated to projects related to woodland caribou conservation and forestry practices over a five-year period (2020-2025).
Workshop participants included professionals from the forestry and energy sectors, provincial and federal governments, consulting agencies, academia and Indigenous groups and during the course of the two days, worked together to identify gaps in research, applications and policy related to forestry practices within woodland caribou ranges. Their goal was to collectively generate project ideas to support the four key themes that guide the partnership:
- Silviculture and harvest systems
- Restoration
- Harvest planning
- Integrated land management
In total, the group generated approximately 100 potential projects for ARCKP to consider and made significant progress in developing multi-sector relationships and establishing a community of practice related to forestry practices and woodland caribou conservation in Alberta. The ideas and priority topics generated at the workshop have been integral to the development of ARCKP projects, with the first three scheduled to start in late 2020.
ARCKP hopes this workshop is the first of many and continues to seek opportunities to facilitate important discussions between Alberta’s forest sector, the Government of Alberta, and other stakeholders, in relation to balancing the needs of forestry operations with the needs of woodland caribou.
