See full report - WCS Canada

More documents

Recommendations

Info

developments in the north. The simulated forestry activity in the south had consequences for the Pagwachuan Caribou Range where the risk to herd survival approached the high category and range disturbance exceeded a threshold of 35% – a guideline in the national caribou recovery strategy. Simulated impacts to wolverine were also greatest in the south, where expansion of the road network caused habitat suitability to decline. Land use impacts to wildlife such as caribou and wolverine may be exacerbated by climate change. As an example, the moose population was simulated to increase twofold when climate change was incorporated, which would likely cause the region’s wolf population to grow with negative implications for caribou herd viability. Simulated mining and hydroelectric developments were sufficiently isolated at a regional scale to avoid large impacts to caribou and wolverine. A greater concern, however, may be the consequences of these developments to the integrity of aquatic ecosystems. The watershed impact score increased for a number of northern watersheds, demonstrating that risk to aquatic ecosystems is likely to increase in watersheds that contain important natural resource regions such as the Ring of Fire due to the presence of multiple mining and hydroelectric developments. The outcomes of this pilot project offers important considerations when addressing cumulative effects in northern Ontario, including: the benefit to wildlife of limiting land use to isolated regions within an otherwise intact landscape; the need to improve understanding of the cumulative effects to aquatic ecosystems of multiple large-scale developments (e.g., mines, dams) within northern watersheds; and the potential for climate change to increase the sensitivity of wildlife to industrial land use. We hope these findings will inform land-use planning at both the community and regional scale and motivate additional analyses that are needed to comprehensively assess cumulative effects in Ontario’s Far North. vi Canadian Boreal Initiative | Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................... 1.1 Ontario’s Far North: A Region of Vital Ecological and Cultural Importance ......................................................... 1.2 The Far North’s Future ..................................................... 2 Study Area ..................................................................... 3 Methods ........................................................................ 3.1 Landscape Composition ................................................... 3.1.1 Land Cover ..................................................................... 3.1.2 Human Footprint ............................................................ 3.2 Ecological Processes ........................................................ 3.2.1 Succession ..................................................................... 3.2.2 Fire ................................................................................. 3.3 Land Use ......................................................................... 3.3.1 Hydropower Sector ....................................................... 3.3.2 Mining Sector ................................................................. 3.3.3 Forestry Sector ............................................................... 3.4 Ecological Indicators ......................................................... 26 3.4.1 Caribou .......................................................................... 3.4.2 Wolverine ....................................................................... 3.4.3 Moose ............................................................................ 3.4.4 Watershed Intactness ..................................................... 26 27 30 31 4 Results .......................................................................... 33 5 Discussion ...................................................................... 5.1 Impacts of land use to wildlife in Ontario’s Far North ......... 5.2 Priorities for future scenario analyses ............................... 43 43 48 6 Conclusion ..................................................................... 50 Acknowledgements ............................................................. References .......................................................................... Appendix 1. Overview of ALCES ........................................... 51 52 58 Appendix 2. The Conservation Matrix Model (with Dr. Hilary Cooke, WCS Canada) ........................................ Appendix 3. OMNR’s Cervid Management Zones ................... 60 61 1 1 2 4 6 6 6 7 10 10 10 11 11 16 21 A Fork in the Road: Future Development in Ontario’s Far North vii
Page 1: a fork in the Road Future developme
Page 4 and 5: About the Canadian Boreal Initiativ
Page 8 and 9: viii Canadian Boreal Initiative | W
Page 10 and 11: These ecosystems also confer erosio
Page 12 and 13: 2. Study Area The pilot study area
Page 14 and 15: 3. Methods The project applied A La
Page 16 and 17: Table 1. Cover types used when para
Page 18 and 19: 3.2 Ecological Processes 3.2.1 Succ
Page 20 and 21: 3.3 Land Use 3.3.1 Hydroelectric Se
Page 22 and 23: ! Figure 3. Current, planned, and p
Page 24 and 25: 2,000 MW of hydropower potential in
Page 26 and 27: Figure 6. Kimberlite deposits used
Page 28 and 29: Figure 7. Chromite deposits used in
Page 30 and 31: Figure 8. Massive sulphide deposits
Page 32 and 33: Table 7. Simulated harvest levels w
Page 34 and 35: 39 http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/ Bus
Page 36 and 37: CD Long / The Wolverine Foundation
Page 38 and 39: 3.4.3 Moose The response of moose h
Page 40 and 41: Table 11. Scoring system when apply
Page 42 and 43: Figure 10. Response of anthropogeni
Page 44 and 45: Risk to herd viability approached t
Page 46 and 47: Figure 13. Simulated response of wo
Page 48 and 49: Figure 14. Response of moose densit
Page 50 and 51: Figure 16. Distribution of watershe
Page 52 and 53: expansion of forestry activity (Vor
Page 54 and 55: North and recommended that “trans
Page 56 and 57:
Outcomes of the analysis demonstrat
Page 58 and 59:
6. Conclusion Many of these outcome
Page 60 and 61:
References Abraham, K. F., L. M. Mc
Page 62 and 63:
Golder Associates Ltd. 2011. Recove
Page 64 and 65:
Rempel, R.S., P.C. Elkie, A.R. Rodg
Page 66 and 67:
Appendix 1. Overview of ALCES® The
Page 68 and 69:
Appendix 2. The Conservation Matrix
Page 70:
Appendix 3. OMNR’s Cervid Managem
show all

See full report - WCS Canada

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?