Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most commonly cited threats to species extinction and loss of biodiversity. In the Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Oil Sands development, in combination with other land use activities, may contribute to habitat fragmentation. The ability of wildlife species to effectively use habitat patches may depend on adequate connectivity between these patches. In addition, many wildlife species have daily, home range, seasonal or long-distance dispersal movement requirements. Planning development to retain adequate habitat connectivity through the landscape may minimize development impacts on wildlife species in this region.
The Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group of the Cumulative Environmental Management Association would like to incorporate connectivity criteria/guidelines into the assessment of wildlife habitat quality. The following report details specific habitat, migration and dispersal requirements, which relate to connectivity, of the key indicator species which are the focus of this task.
This document provides a review and synthesis of the available information on wildlife movement and connectivity requirements in the Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo for several indicator species.
Indicator species included in this document are:
• Moose
• Black Bear
• Wolf
• Canada Lynx
• Fisher
• Woodland Caribou
• Old Growth Forest Birds/Bats
For each of the indicator species identified above, studies done to date were summarized to provide species-specific connectivity and movement requirements, including scale(s) of movement (e.g., short movements to meet daily foraging requirements versus longer movements between seasonal ranges). In addition, the zones of influence and disturbance coefficients used in past Oil Sands environmental assessments were also summarized.