Impacts of New Forestry Approaches on Grizzly Bear Habitat Use and Movement

This project will investigate whether new approaches to forestry can minimize impacts on resident grizzly bears. Forest harvest design and temporary road access might help minimize impacts on grizzly bear habitat use and movements before, during, and three years after forest harvesting has occurred. We will also determine if grizzly bear mortality rates were evident in distributional changes over a ten year period.

This project is related to the 2014 BMA 3 population inventory.

Background

This project will determine how new approaches to forest harvesting, access construction, and management may impact grizzly bears in high quality grizzly bear habitat. Existing data is available that shows a favorable response by grizzly bears to a matrix of different forest seral stages with high use of forest edge habitat. However the creation of new access features results in increased human-caused mortality and adds to an ever increasing open road density that grizzly bear recovery efforts are trying to avoid. 

This project will investigate whether new approaches to forest harvest design (larger blocks with irregular shapes) and temporary road access (two-year life span and frozen winter access) can minimize impacts on resident grizzly bears both in terms of their habitat use (measured by bear use/selection and measured density) and movements before, during and three years after forest harvesting has occurred. We will also determine if observed grizzly bear mortality rates, and annual mortality risk calculations over time, were evident in grizzly bear distributional changes over a ten year period.

This work will build on existing data sets gathered over a 15 year period to provide important information to assist the forestry and oil and gas sectors in Alberta to understand how their management activities can be better integrated with the ecological needs of grizzly bears and if new approaches can assist in provincial grizzly bear recovery efforts.

This project began its first phase in the summer of 2013 following discussions between Weyerhaeuser Ltd. (Drayton Valley) and the fRI Research Grizzly Bear Program. As this work proceeded, West Fraser joined the effort in 2014.

Objectives

  1. Determine the minimum number of grizzly bears currently using the identified study area where forest harvesting activities are planned and were implemented.
  2. Evaluate the current movement paths of a sample of radio collared grizzly bears within the study area.
  3. Identify how new forest management practices may affect grizzly bear habitat use.
  4. Creation of new landscape condition map products to assist with the evaluation of grizzly bear response to forest management activities and anthropogenic landscape change.

Study Area

This project was originially focused on the Pembina valley/ Drayton Valley FMA of Weyerhaeuser, but in year two it expanded to include all of BMA 3 as new partners joined.

Summer 2013
Project Begins

Data collection underway in the Drayton Valley FMA for Weyerhaeuser.

Spring 2014
New Partners

West Fraser and Alberta Environment and Parks come aboard.

Summer 2014
Second Field Season Begins

Data collection continues, expanded to include the entire BMA 3.

Jun-15
Progress Report Completed

Results from the first two years of data collection are presented to partners.

May-18
Field Crew Trained

A week of safety, equipment, and of course, hair sampling training.

22-May-18
Field Work Begins

Crews begin setting up hair snag sites.

Photo Galleries | Audio-Visual
Pictures from the Grizzly Bear Program field crew training on May 11.
Public Notice: 2018 Inventory in BMA 3
Summaries and Communications | Posters
Poster with general information for the public about the project.
Grizzly Bear Movement in a Managed Forest
Interactive StoryMaps | GIS Products
ESRI StoryMap made for the AFPA by the Grizzly Bear Program
grizzly bear
Scientific Publications | Peer Reviewed Papers
Peer-reviewed publication from the fRI Research Grizzly Bear Program. Citation and abstract only.
A Movement-driven Approach to Quantifying Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) Near-road Movement Patterns in West-central Alberta, Canada
Scientific Publications | Peer Reviewed Papers
Article from the journal Biological Conservation based on research from the fRI Research Grizzly Bear Program. Citation and abstract only.
person in den opening
Scientific Publications | Peer Reviewed Papers
Peer reviewed publication from the fRI Research Grizzly Bear program, in Canadian Journal of Zoology
Press Release: 2018 Grizzly Bear Research Project
Announcement
Media pitch concerning our BMA inventory work in the summer of 2018.
Animation: Grizzly Bears on a Managed Landscape
Blog
The GIS and Grizzly Bear Programs created an animation of grizzly bear movement around a landscape of forest and cut blocks, using real GPS collar data.
fRI Research at 24th International Conference on Bear Research and Management
Blog
The Grizzly Bear and Caribou Programs were in Alaska to present our research at IBA 2016.
Isobel Phoebus
Isobel Phoebus
Scientist-adventurer
Sarah Milligan
Sarah Milligan
Anja Sorensen
Anja Sorensen
Wildlife Research Biologist
Terry Larsen
Terry Larsen
Biologist
Gord Stenhouse
Gord Stenhouse
Advisor
ben
Ben Williamson
Program Lead