Caribou use of firesmart areas.
Overview description: Fire Smart areas are thinned so that tree crowns do not intersect and course and fine woody debris are largely removed. This results in far greater visibility in the stands that have been thinned. The area along the south Klondike highway has been a winter zone for the southern lakes caribou heard. We posed the following question, Does the Fire Smart area effect caribou movement, feeding and bedding processes. To determine this we followed and mapped caribou tracks throughout the region. We identified areas where the cratered, bedded down, ran, and walked. We then downloaded the tracks and behavior information into Ozi Explorer. We then retraced our tracks once the snow was gone to see if caribou were overlooking or selection areas of prime lichen populations. Our results were inconclusive. In two cases we found that we were tracking horse movement based on the scat we observed. We were not confident that we were following caribou. We needed to locate fresh tracks to be able to identify whether they were caribou or not.
Community interest or concern This study was supported by the Wildfire management and fire smart group with YTG Forestry and the Mt Loren Community.
Duration of study and numbers involved We did this study over two winters and two springs. 2012 and 2013
Contact person and more detailed information Alain Dalaire, Bob Sharp
Overview description: Fire Smart areas are thinned so that tree crowns do not intersect and course and fine woody debris are largely removed. This results in far greater visibility in the stands that have been thinned. The area along the south Klondike highway has been a winter zone for the southern lakes caribou heard. We posed the following question, Does the Fire Smart area effect caribou movement, feeding and bedding processes. To determine this we followed and mapped caribou tracks throughout the region. We identified areas where the cratered, bedded down, ran, and walked. We then downloaded the tracks and behavior information into Ozi Explorer. We then retraced our tracks once the snow was gone to see if caribou were overlooking or selection areas of prime lichen populations. Our results were inconclusive. In two cases we found that we were tracking horse movement based on the scat we observed. We were not confident that we were following caribou. We needed to locate fresh tracks to be able to identify whether they were caribou or not.
Community interest or concern This study was supported by the Wildfire management and fire smart group with YTG Forestry and the Mt Loren Community.
Duration of study and numbers involved We did this study over two winters and two springs. 2012 and 2013
Contact person and more detailed information Alain Dalaire, Bob Sharp