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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.

General Terms

Limitations

Data collected through the ABMI’s programs can be used to identify the status, trends, and correlative relationships among common species, habitats, and human footprint. While the status and trends of some rare species and species at risk can be evaluated using the ABMI monitoring program, the monitoring program cannot directly evaluate all species.

ABMI indices are based on the establishment of current, intact reference conditions that are statistical predictions designed to account for human footprint. These reference conditions and subsequent ABMI analyses and reporting do not account for historical changes in the overall abundance of a species (i.e., the ABMI cannot account for any change in a species that occurred before 2003). ABMI reference conditions have statistical uncertainty for individual species. In addition, some human land uses, such as grazing, hunting, and trapping, and the effects of pollution are not yet accounted for in our human footprint analyses.

The ABMI Human Footprint is derived from manual digitization using SPOT satellite imagery and reference data sources provided by our partners including the Government of Alberta. This product is not error free, and some features, for instance those with low detectability on SPOT imagery, will be incomplete. The ABMI is continuously working to improve human footprint products, using the reference data and expertise of authorities within the Government of Alberta. To better understand uncertainties and limitations of these data, see HFI 2021 metadata here, including section 1.10.

The province-wide wetland dataset (i.e., the ABMI’s Alberta Wetland Inventory) comprises three regionally mapped inventories that cover: the boreal and foothills region, the prairie region, and the Rocky Mountain region. Each relied on machine learning approaches and open-source satellite data, but varied in their inputs and specific methods. The overall accuracy of the full dataset, therefore, varies by region (i.e., 85.2% for boreal/foothills, 92.8% for prairie, and 84.5% for the Rocky Mountain region), as do individual wetland class accuracies. Misclassifications and confusion between classes are an inherent part of remote sensing-based land cover maps. To better understand uncertainties and limitations of these data, see our technical documentation here.

Disclosure

Data used in the preparation of the Status of Land Cover and Biodiversity reports produced for Tolko’s northern and southern operating areas, along with the scientific methods used in analyses are available on the ABMI’s website and include species, habitat, and remotely sensed data collected between 1999 and 2021. Wetland inventory data collection methods are available in the ABMI's publication archive.

Looking Forward

The ABMI has made considerable strides in supporting biodiversity and land cover management in Alberta and continues to build momentum. We are committed to:

  • Ensuring the effective delivery of ongoing relevant, timely, and scientifically rigorous biodiversity and land cover information;
  • Improving biodiversity management by contributing knowledge to decision-making systems;
  • Supporting governments, industries, and other partners and stakeholders in meeting their reporting obligations;
  • Working collaboratively to reduce duplications in provincial biodiversity and land cover monitoring;
  • Continuing to monitor human footprint in Alberta;
  • Working collaboratively to continue to improve wetland inventories; and
  • Facilitating the transfer of information to government, industry, the research community, and the public.
 
Stubblefield Photography

Scientific Integrity

The ABMI is committed to the responsible analysis and interpretation of data. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, including operational transparency, honesty, conscientiousness, and integrity. The ABMI strongly encourages the responsible and ethical evaluation and interpretation of the knowledge contained in these reports. For a complete discussion of the ethical behaviour endorsed by the ABMI, please see Honor in Science, published by Sigma Xi. A broader discussion about the use of ABMI data and information can be found in the report “Scope and Application of the ABMI’s Data and Information” available here.

Kirstan Tereschyn

Terms & Conditions of Report

Preparation

In 2022, Tolko Industries Ltd. (“Tolko”) requested that the ABMI produce a report on the status of biodiversity and land cover in their northern and southern operating areas.

This report relies on data from the ABMI’s long-term biodiversity monitoring programs, which have been funded by the Government of Alberta. The following terms were applied as conditions of the ABMI preparing this report:

  • The ABMI reports on a standardized list of biodiversity and land cover indicators that are relevant to regional planning, policy, and management. Developed by the ABMI, these indicators will be applied consistently.
  • The ABMI maintains full control over all language and messaging in the reports.
  • These biodiversity and land cover status reports encompass the northern and southern Tolko operating areas; results cannot be localized to smaller areas within the area of interest unless already specified in this report.
  • This report was released publicly in December of 2024 using biodiversity data collected between 2003 and 2021 (birds 2003–2020; mammals 2015–2021; vascular plants 2003–2021), land use data collated for 1950, 1985, 2000, 2001, and 2004 to 2021, as well open-source satellite data collated and produced between 2017 and 2021. The wetland dataset is derived from freely available satellite data: Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, Sentinel-2 optical data, and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) topographical models. Updates to the results and overall report will be noted.

Preferred Citation

Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. 2024. The status of land cover and biodiversity in Tolko’s operating areas. Online report available at: abmi.ca/publication/653

We are grateful for the support of the ABMI's delivery partners.

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