The Alberta government has released recovery plans for two herds of threatened caribou in the province’s north.
The plans for the Cold Lake and Bistcho Lake herds are intended to bring the amount of usable caribou habitat in the area up to 65 per cent in accordance with federal guidelines.
That process is expected to take at least 50 years.
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Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association welcomed the emphasis on co-ordinating road building as well as managing and reducing the effects of forestry and oil and gas activity.
But she says the plans delay most of the hard work for at least a decade and lack specifics on how habitat will be maintained and restored.
Campbell says that means the province will continue to rely for the foreseeable future on shooting and poisoning wolves in the area to keep caribou on the landscape.