1. Boreal biodiversity & cumulative effects in Alberta’s oilsands Dr. Erin Bayne University of Alberta

4. Mining Deep Oil Sands (in Situ)

6. Disturbed Oilsands = 530 km 2 CITY OF EDMONTON = 683 km 2 Density MALE PASSERINES = Assumed = ~36 per 10ha Poss. birds lost = Assumed = ~189,000 Mineable area planned = 3,400 km 2 Pot. MALE PASSERINE LOSS= Assumed = ~1.21 million Possible # Passerines in ALPAC FMA Assumed = 25.2 million Mining & habitat loss

7. What are cumulative effects? ForestrySector CutblocksAccessPoints Road Network EnergySector SeismicLinesWellSites Oil and Gas Pipelines HumanActivities It’s all about lots of little things that add up to something significant

8. Forestry = Fire?

9. Changing the age of the forest Forest age Managed Natural Percentage of forest

10. Forest age–Bird density

11. Salvage Logging

12. The Alberta Advantage

13. What do Linear Features Change?

14. IN ALPAC FMA (~6 million ha): 90,000 km of seismic lines/ 10,000 km of pipelines / 33,000 km of roads Area disturbed: 133,000 ha

15. 90% MCP near 8 m lines

16. Changing practices

17. Bird response to Low-impact Seismic

18. Birds & Industrial Noise

19. Noisy vs. noiseless edges WTSP 1.9 – QUIET 0.8 - NOISY RBGR 55% - QUIET 3% - NOISY MOWA 50% - QUIET 31% - NOISY LEFL 52% - QUIET 20% - NOISY HETH 59% - QUIET 30% - NOISY DISTANCE or PRESENCE to correct detection error Number of birds per 10 ha

20. Really honey, I did not hear you! (92%) (77%)

21. Linear features, predators, & food

22. A declining food supply?

23. Run the worms are coming!

24. Earthworm Introduction Exotic earthworms were introduced with European settlers to NA BUT accepted wisdom is they are now everywhere. We think introduction to boreal Alberta has occurred recently & worms are not everywhere

26. Are worms spreading? 10 year old roads ROAD

27. Yep! 40 year old roads ROAD

28. Current extent 9% of suitable habitat invaded

29. Future extent (50 years) 49% of suitable habitat invaded

30. Ok, but who cares? Earthworms can significantly reduce leaf litter layer a) Forest floor without earthworms b) Forest floor with earthworms present

31. Somebody likes worms right? Earthworms sampled at sites where robins were present (n=17) and absent (n=17) Effects on bird community of potentially agressive competitor unknown

33. Forest harvest makes better browse Linear features allow movement Climate change has increased range Other increasers

34. 1990’s Winter Severity index 1960’s

35. But more deer is better right?

37. John Nagy David Latham Critical Habitat Low productivity conifer forest or peatland Large patches

40. Limiting factors Spatial Separation Hypothesis Caribou need spatial separation from alternate prey (moose/deer) & wolves (<6 per 1000 km 2 ) to survive

41. Caribou Range Wolf Packs, 90’s Wolf Packs, 06/07 Captures, 06/07

43. Wolves like linear features Wolves select for lines Travel 3 times faster on lines Caribou mortalities closer to lines than expected

44. Caribou avoid seismic lines 0-100 m 100-250 m 250-500 m % of expected use Winter Calving Summer Rut 100% 0%

45. Trying to fix the problem

46. The Future? Oil sands cover 21% of the Province 140,000 km 2 of boreal forest

47. Courtesy of Simon Dyer

49. Finding a balance The land-base is finite in size but numerous land-uses including oilsands are growing. Biodiversity has challenges already If we want to maintain biodiversity have to stop allowing everything, everywhere, for everyone policy. Society and management agencies must become engaged in answering discussions dealing with “meaningful” space and “meaningful” time. –What is societies’ collective vision of the future landscape? –Can that vision be achieved with our current approach? –What could we do different to ensure we have sustainable wildlife populations and achieve economic and social goals?