Study shows caribou habitat loss greatest in Alberta, B.C.

EDMONTON – An analysis shows that Alberta and British Columbia have lost the highest percentage of caribou habitat in the country, mostly due to industrial development.

The data comes as hearings open in Kitimat, B.C., to consider a pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast that would encourage further oilsands development.

Global Forest Watch found that almost three-quarters of B.C.’s woodland caribou habitat has already been disturbed by industry.

In Alberta, development has disrupted over half the animals’s habitat.

The national average for such disturbance is less than fourteen per cent.

The federal and Alberta governments have drawn up recovery plans for the threatened species, but Ottawa’s plan relies largely on shooting wolves, while Alberta’s is in limbo after objections from the energy industry.