Jasper National Park of Canada

Archive 2005/03

Phase I of the Caribou Recovery Plan

Fall monitoring counts show that Jasper’s southern caribou population has decreased by almost 50% between 1988 and 2004. If this trend continues the south Jasper caribou herd could be wiped-out within 40 years.

In 2003, Jasper National Park pulled together a broadly-based local caribou recovery team to evaluate what is known about caribou and to develop and debate a wide range of recovery options. The team includes biologists, long-time Jasper residents, skiers, hikers, and business operators that each provides a diversity of knowledge and experience. Recommendations made by the recovery team were approved in principle by the Superintendent, and will now be used to create Phase I of the Action Implementation Plan. The Action Implementation Plan will require specific budget implications and timelines, and will be completed by mid-May.

‘Being caribou’ public presentation 2004
© Parks Canada

Parks Canada will work with members of the Jasper community and other concerned stakeholders to:

• Continue studying caribou behaviour and learn more about how caribou, predators and people affect one another.
• Try out innovative management techniques like “fladry” – barriers made of rags – to discourage wolves from following ski trails into sensitive caribou winter ranges.
• Make winter roads less attractive to caribou by striving to eliminate the use of salt in gravel, to reduce both road kills and the time caribou spend in valley-bottoms where they are most vulnerable to wolves.
• Eliminate the operational use of helicopters by Parks Canada over caribou ranges and identify acceptable flight paths to private aircraft users.
• Offer skiers new track-set ski trails into areas where there are no caribou, and eliminate track-setting into important caribou wintering areas in the Maligne valley.
• Restrict dogs to trails where there are no caribou to reduce the stress caribou experience when they see wolf-like animals.
• Educate hikers and skiers and improve official trails so that people can choose to avoid off-trail areas that are important to caribou during the critical calf-raising and wintering periods.

Measures such as wolf control, wolf sterilization, use of road-killed animals to bait predators away from caribou areas, closure of the Icefields Parkway in winter, and short-term trail or road closures when radio-collared caribou are in a given area were considered and rejected. The caribou recovery team will continue to meet and review monitoring information to revise and update the plan for future phases. If monitoring over the next 2 years indicates that caribou numbers are not improving or if new information shows that further measures are needed, the caribou recovery team will be asked to provide recommendations for a phase II recovery plan in 2007. For more information, to join the recovery team, or for a complete copy of the Recovery Plan, please contact Mark Bradley at (780) 852-6105.

Management Planning Forum to be held

Parks Canada’s annual Management Planning Forum will be held on the evening of April 14th and all day on April 15th at the Sawridge Hotel in Jasper. A park management plan is the “owner’s manual” to guide how a national park is managed and used. It sets out essential direction for the protection of ecological integrity (EI) and cultural resources of the park, and for ensuring quality visitor experiences and learning opportunities for current and future generations. The purpose is to review progress since the last Forum (February, 2004), and to seek advice from residents and stakeholders on immediate and longer-term priorities. If you are interested in attending the Forum, please contact Shawn Cardiff at (780) 852-6108 to RSVP.

PDF