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2.6 Native Habitat: Status and Trend
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Getting Started

Navigating this Report

 

This report consists of two companion reports—one for the Northern Operating Area and one for the Southern Operating Area. All the features necessary to navigate within each report as well as switch between reports are included in the bookmark on the left of the screen. These features include:

Main Menu

The main menu is accessed through the hamburger menu in the "bookmark" on the left-hand side of the page. This report is divided into five chapters. From this menu, you can access each of the main chapters and their sections from anywhere in the report.

Tip: The down arrowhead expands when you are viewing a chapter within the hamburger menu. You can quickly navigate to any section within a chapter by making a selection from the expanded menu.

North and South Reports

Click these icons to navigate between the reports for the Northern Operating Area and Southern Operating Area. 

 

Information Guide

Click on the "information" icon in the left menu to access the report navigation guide. You can access this at any time without leaving the page you’re on.

The "page turner" arrows at the bottom left of your screen will sequentially take you through the report, page by page. For example, press the right arrow to move from Section 2.1 to Section 2.2.

Tip: If you’re interested in the full report, we encourage you to start with the Introduction found in Chapter 1, and use the page turner function (arrows on the bottom left of the page) to sequentially navigate through the report.

Introduction

There is a large network of linear footprint dissecting Tolko’s Northern Operating Area.

While linear footprint occupies a small direct area of the land base, it can have disproportionate impacts on both environmental conditions and wildlife habitat relative to its size[1].

Linear footprint creates a large amount of forest edge, which changes the environment (e.g., sunlight, temperature, wind) close to these boundaries compared to forest interior conditions, reducing the area of interior native habitat (see Section 2.6). 

Impacts to different components of biodiversity vary among species, with some "winners" and some "losers”[2]. Seismic lines, which are by far the most common linear feature type in the boreal forest, can have the following impacts:

  • affect movement across the landscape—for example, faster movement by large predators such as Gray Wolves[3], dispersal by vascular plants including non-native species[4], and range expansion of some species like White-tailed Deer[5]; 
  • improve habitat suitability for some species and decrease suitability for others[6];
  • alter predator-prey dynamics, most notably between Woodland Caribou, alternate prey (e.g., Moose, deer), and Gray Wolves; and 
  • alter community composition (e.g., soil mites)[6].

Understanding the distribution of linear features, including line type, is important in supporting cumulative effects management in Tolko’s Northern Operating Area.

 
Jim Herbers

Seismic lines alter wildlife behaviour, and affect environmental conditions in the surrounding habitat.

Dispersal of non-native vascular plants, such as Alsike Clover, increases along linear features.

Nancy S

Woodland Caribou populations are declining, in part because of the high density of linear features.

Results

Status of Linear Footprint

Linear footprint density (km/km2) in the Northern Operating Area was:

3.3 km/km2
as of 2021

Highlights

  • Conventional seismic lines were the predominant line type in the Northern Operating Area, representing 88% of linear features in the region, with a density of 2.9 km/km2. 
  • Pipelines (0.2 km/km2) and roads (0.2 km/km2) were next, each representing 6% of linear features.
  • Transmission lines and railway lines had very low densities in the Northern Operating Area.
  • Some linear features, such as low-impact seismic lines, are not currently included in the linear feature analysis.
Use Ctrl + Scroll to zoom the map
Legend
Density of Linear Features. Density of linear features, by line type, in the Northern Operating Area as of 2021. Click on line types in the legend to turn types on and off. Zoom in on the map for a detailed view of the distribution of linear features.

View as Graph

View as Table

Density of Linear Features. Density (km/km2) of linear features (as of 2021), overall and broken down by linear feature type in the Northern Operating Area. Hover over the bar or legend (in graph view) to view the density of specific feature types.

References

1.

Brook, B.W., N.S. Sodhi, and C.J.A. Bradshaw. 2008. Synergies among extinction drivers under global change. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23(8):453-460.

2.

Fisher, J.T. and A.C. Burton. 2018. Wildlife winners and losers in an oil sands landscape. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16(6):323-328. doi.org/10.1002/fee.1807

3.

Dickie, M.R., R. Serrouya, R.S. McNay, and S. Boutin. 2017. Faster and farther: wolf movement on linear features and implications for hunting behaviour. Journal of Applied Ecology 54(1):253-263.

4.

Bayne, E., H. Lankau, and J. Tigner. 2011. Ecologically-based criteria to assess the impact and recovery of seismic lines: The importance of width, regeneration, and seismic density. Report No. 192. Edmonton, AB. 98 pp.

5.

Dawe, K.L., E.M. Bayne, and S. Boutin. 2014. Influence of climate and human land use on the distribution of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the western boreal forest. Canadian Journal of Zoology 92(4):353-363.

6.

Meehan, M.L., Z. Son, L.M. Lumley, T.P. Cobb, and H. Proctor. 2019. Soil mites as bioindicators of disturbance in the boreal forest in northern Alberta, Canada: Testing taxonomic sufficiency at multiple taxonomic levels. Ecological Indicators 102(2019):349-365. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.02.043

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