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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

Genevieve Thompson
The Moose is a large, wetland-associated species found in all natural regions of Alberta, including Tolko's Southern Operating Area.

Moose are particularly well adapted to life in the boreal forest, where the species:

  • is a generalist browser of woody deciduous shrubs;
  • forages in wide variety of open habitats, such as burns, harvested areas, and shrub lands;
  • uses mature forests for bedding, which provides snow interception, and thermal and security cover.

While Moose use a variety of habitats, they generally avoid some types of human footprint—such as roads, industrial facilities, and cutlines—due to increased mortality risk from both predators and hunting. 

Moose are considered a high-value species in the region because of their importance to local communities in and around the Southern Operating Area[1]. Therefore, Tolko has implemented various management strategies for Moose, such as reclaiming temporary roads as soon as possible, to maintain Moose habitat and populations[1].

In this section, we summarize moose density, habitat suitability, habitat associations, and the impacts of human footprint.

Wildlife cameras are used to monitor Moose...

B11

...collecting data across the landscape in all seasons

Moose Habitat Suitability

Status of Moose in the Southern Operating Area, as measured by the Biodiversity Intactness Index was:

99%
on average

  • These means that moose habitat suitability under current conditions with human footprint is essentially the same as predicted habitat suitability without human footprint.
  • Most of the landscape in the Southern Operating Area is predicted to provide moderately suitable habitat for Moose. 
  • Because Moose can use a variety of native habitats and respond positively to young harvested areas, any negative effects due to the other development activities are balanced by the availability of other habitats across the landscape to meet their requirements for foraging, security, and thermal cover.
 
Arnold Janz

Moose density of 0.29 moose/km2 in the Southern Operating Area is similar to the predicted density of 0.24 moose/km2 across the boreal forest and 0.30 moose/km2 in the foothills.

Use Ctrl + Scroll to zoom the map
Legend
Moose Relative Abundance. Current predicted relative abundance of Moose in Tolko’s Southern Operating Area. Predictions were made for each 1-km2 pixel. Blue indicates areas where Moose relative abundance is predicted to be low or absent, and red areas are predicted to have high abundance (i.e., suitable habitat). Zoom in on the map for a detailed view of relative abundance in each area.

Habitat Associations

Moose use a variety of forest types and vegetation types, as well as young harvested areas, to meet their requirements for foraging, thermal cover, and security cover across seasons. More information on Moose and their habitats in Alberta can be found here.

Graph of relative abundance of moose as a function of vegetation and human footprint type.
Moose Habitat Associations. Predicted relative abundance (bars) as a function of vegetation and human footprint type in the forested region. Dots are added to forest types where harvesting occurs and show the predicted species abundance in harvested stands of various ages. Vertical lines represent 90% confidence intervals.

  • Moose can be found in all forest types and vegetation types. 
  • Relative abundance is highest in the treed swamp and grass vegetation types. 
  • Moose relative abundance is higher in young harvested stands compared to naturally disturbed stands of similar age in all forest types.
  • Aside from forestry footprint, Moose relative abundance is low in all other footprint types.
Jeremy Yoder
Wetlands provide critical habitat for Moose, as key foraging habitat, and in the summer months, regulating body temperature and offering refuge from biting insects.

Impacts to Moose Habitat

Effects of Forestry Footprint

The ABMI combines our species habitat models with land base information to infer the effects of forestry footprint on Moose at two scales:

  1. Local scale effects indicate how much habitat suitability for Moose changes in the exact areas where forestry footprint occurs.
  2. Regional population effects show how much habitat suitability for Moose is predicted to have changed due to forestry footprint in the region, compared to a reference landscape with no forestry footprint. Details for calculating sector effects can be found in Methods.
 

Local Scale Effects

10.1%
increase

Habitat suitability is predicted to increase by 10.1% for Moose where forestry footprint occurs in the Southern Operating Area

Regional Effects

1.7%
increase

At the regional scale, habitat suitability was improved by 1.7% across the Southern Operating Area due to forestry footprint.

 

Effects of Land Base Change

Effects of Land Base Change (2010–2021) on Habitat Suitability

In this section we report on how moose habitat changed in the Southern Operating Area due to the following land base changes between 2010 and 2021: forestry (new and old), non-forestry footprint (new and old), fire, and aging of undisturbed stands.

  • The arrow diagram shows the generalist nature of Moose: changes to habitat suitability from 2010 to 2021 are low (note the scale on the x-axis) for all land base change types.
  • The largest response to land base change is a predicted increase of 1.6% due to new forestry footprint. Responses to other land base changes were all predicted to be very small.
  • The net result is a small (0.8%) improvement in suitable habitat for Moose between 2010 and 2021.

Moose Response to Land Base Changes. Summary of the effects of land base changes on Moose density in Tolko’s Southern Operating Area between 2010 and 2021.

References

1.

Tolko Industries Ltd., Vanderwell Contractors (1971) Ltd., and West Fraser Mills Ltd. 2021. Lesser Slave Lake regional forest management plan. Prepared by FORCORP Solutions Inc.

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

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