Gunn A., J. Antoine, J. Boulanger, J. Bartlett, B. Croft, and A. D'Hont. 2004. Boreal Caribou Habitat and Land Use Planning in the Deh Cho region, Northwest Territories. 48 pp

ABSTRACT

Boreal caribou Rangifer tarandus are nationally listed as Threatened.  Land use jurisdictions, including communities and land claim organizations, will have to identify, steward and monitor boreal caribou habitat both for land use planning in the Deh Cho Region (southern Northwest Territories (NWT)) and for recovery planning in the NWT.  Mapping current distribution (occupation) and potential habitat use (occurrence) for boreal caribou is a first step for both land use planning and recovery planning.  We modeled occurrence at the landscape scale using generalized additive model analysis and Akaike Information Criterion with habitat information from spectral classification and habitat attributes such as cutlines, fire -history and elevation.  The Deh Cho First Nations database of lifetime harvest kill sites and sightings from an aerial survey in March 2002 revealed that boreal caribou occupation has not changed at the regional level.  Observations of boreal caribou fit relatively well with occurrence predicted from the modeling.  Boreal caribou were strongly associated with black spruce and lichen on uplands and in lowlands.