Wed, 15 Mar 2023

Preliminary Approved Project List 2023-24

A preliminary list of HCTF approved projects for 2023-24 is now available.

Preliminary Approved Project List 2023-24

Projects included on this preliminary list have been approved in principle but may have reduced budgets or funding conditions. All applicants will receive official notification emails including HCTF Board and technical committee comments. For approved projects, these emails will include the grant amount and funding conditions (if applicable). Please note that HCTF staff cannot provide further information to you before the Notifications are issued.

Proponents of approved projects will receive a Conditional Grant Agreement. Please be aware that until both you and HCTF have reviewed, accepted and signed the Conditional Grant Agreement, there is no confirmation of funding and no legal commitment in place.

Congratulations to all successful proponents! To those applicants who were not funded this time, thank you for your interest. The next opportunity to apply for an HCTF Enhancement and Restoration, Stewardship or Caribou Habitat Restoration Grant will be Fall of 2023 (Deadline: Friday November 3, 2023).

How are Grant Applications Reviewed?

Each proposal undergoes a multi-level, objective technical review prior to final Board decisions. For more information on what reviewers look for when evaluating a proposal, see our Grant Apply page.

Tue, 14 Mar 2023
Tags: Caribou

Climate Change & Caribou Workshop

 

On February 15 and 16, 2023 Sophia Cuthbert, Wildlife Program Manager and Jack Olson, Indigenous Inclusion Coordinator, attended the Climate Change and Caribou Workshop in Prince George, BC.

The workshop was well attended by nearly 80 participants where we discussed how climate change impacts could be incorporated into caribou recovery planning in BC. We heard from experts in climate science and research as well as from Nations, biologists, and consultants undertaking caribou recovery efforts currently. Break-out sessions proved to uncover engaging conversation and debate around caribou recovery efforts in the face of climate change with much concern emerging around continued timber harvest in caribou habitat and the inevitable changes to bio geoclimatic zones in southern mountain and boreal caribou habitat. One thing became clear as the workshop progressed: climate change is a complex and ever-changing phenomenon with a large degree of uncertainty around how it will impact the landscape of BC, or rather, how we as part of those ecosystems will respond to it.

Within weeks of starting Jack’s new position as Indigenous Inclusion Coordinator he was off to attend this workshop and found an engaging and productive two days. Jack found the workshop provided a valuable learning experience along with the opportunity to meet several colleagues working in the environmental field.

HCTF staff have exchanged thoughts and ideas following the workshop including how to integrate climate change into the management of intact caribou habitat as well as resistance and resiliency of the caribou habitat restoration projects we support. We look forward to continued conversations around climate change and look to the work and innovation of our proponents and the restoration community of practice. Please share your thoughts or ideas with us at chrf@hctf.ca.

 

Tue, 28 Jun 2022

HCTF Visits the Tweedsmuir Caribou Ranges

Pic 3_Selfie from Chelaslie Rd
Members of the Project Team and HCTF Staff member.

In June 2022, HCTF’s Wildlife Program Coordinator Sophia Cuthbert travelled to the habitat of the Tweedsmuir caribou herd ranges in northern BC, approximately 60 km south of Burns Lake, 230 km west of Prince George. The Tweedsmuir caribou herds are within the traditional territory of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, where their peoples lived for centuries along the shores of Cheslatta and Murray Lakes. Sophia met up with a project team comprised of Cheslatta Carrier Nation members and biologists from the Province of BC to see first-hand the cumulative impacts of logging, disease, and fire on the forest ecosystem, as well as several efforts undertaken to restore some of these areas.

Fire Guard Undergoing Functional Restoration Treatment

Through the Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund (CHRF), HCTF funds the restoration of linear disturbances, such as logging roads, access roads and fire guards, to minimize access routes that can be used by humans, and predators of caribou like wolves, into caribou habitat. This is achieved by functional restoration of the linear corridors; in this case, trees are felled, and coarse woody debris is distributed over the area, and large berms and ditches are constructed to limit vehicle and snowmobile access, as well as limit the line-of-sight for predators. During functional restoration projects, the road surfaces are also ripped, or loosened, and mounding and contouring is done to assist in vegetation reestablishment. Next, the linear disturbances are replanted with local plant species to help initiate natural vegetation growth which will eventually slow predator access and blend the feature into the surrounding landscape.

Example of Berms and Mounding for Functional Restoration of Linear Disturbance

The June site visit follows a 1-day workshop hosted by HCTF for the caribou habitat restoration community supported by the Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund (CHRF), in which restoration biologists and practitioners came together to share learnings and techniques on the relatively new practice of linear disturbance restoration. It became clear from the workshop that strategies that work well for one area of BC may not work in another location. The variation of habitat type presents its own unique challenges, and techniques and best practices are constantly evolving. Speaking on site with project manager and biologist Anne-Marie Roberts, Ministry of Land, Water, and Resource Stewardship, she explained that project managers need to be able to pivot and adapt to a changing landscape. They face challenges accessing certain areas, dealing with the elements, and logistics of site selection and long-term monitoring. Anne-Marie recognized the importance of working alongside Cheslatta Carrier Nation as a pivotal in advancing this work. Working together has also been extremely important for the ongoing success of the project, and for Cheslatta Carrier Nation in managing their lands and improving habitat for the species that live there.

The CHRF program continues to fund caribou habitat restoration projects across the province, with the next intake of proposals opening in September, 2022. The deadline for 2023-24 funding proposals is November 4th, 2022. Please refer to our CHRF webpage for more details.

Funding for this work is made possible by contributions from the Province of BC and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Sun, 21 Feb 2021

Video: Chase Caribou Habitat Restoration Project

Caribou were once plentiful in BC, but now the majority of herds are at risk of extinction. Roads and corridors built for industrial development allow predators such as wolves easy access to the areas where caribou live. To help reduce caribou mortality, the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and the Province of BC are funding projects that make it more difficult for predators to use human-made corridors by piling woody debris and creating soil mounds at key junctions leading to caribou habitat. Trees are also planted to help return these areas to a more natural state. Many of these caribou habitat restoration projects are led by First Nations, including the Caribou Flats restoration project.

Caribou Flats roadway lies within the population boundary of the Chase caribou herd, part of the Southern Mountain population of Woodland caribou. This herd is listed as threatened on Schedule 1 of the Species At Risk Act (SARA). In 2018, Chu Cho Environmental identified several forest roads within chase caribou herd range boundary which had potential for habitat restoration. These roads were identified with input from forest licensees, caribou biologists familiar with this herd, and Tsay Keh Dene Nation. In 2019, Chu Cho Environmental and Tsay Keh Dene Nation undertook habitat restoration activities to restore the roadway at Caribou Flats. A combination of functional and ecological restoration techniques were used. Functional restoration involved access control, slash rollback, and tree felling and hinging across the roadway, to make the road less-suitable for predator travel and human use. The intent of the functional restoration was to reduce predator-prey interactions on the roadway. Ecological restoration involved soil ripping and decompaction of the road surface, and tree planting. The goal of tree planting was to accelerate the return of the area to a mature forest environment.

The project was completed in summer 2020 and the team at Chu Cho Environmental put together the following video to tell the story of the restoration process and how this work is contributing to conserving caribou in BC.


You can access the report for this project here.

Tue, 11 Aug 2020

Habitat restoration across the Klinse-Za caribou herd range

HCTF’s Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund (CHRF) provides funding for restoration of critical habitat for BC’s caribou herds. This includes multiple projects designed to benefit the Klinse-za herd led by the Nîkanêse Wah tzee Stewardship Society, a joint initiative of the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations. The Society is working in partnership with a team from Wildlife Infometrics to restore disturbed habitat. Wildlife Infometrics recently shared the following update focused on the monitoring component of this work.

Why restore?

The Klinse-Za herd area, located between Mackenzie, Chetwynd and the Peace Arm of Williston reservoir, used to support a herd of almost 200 caribou as recently as 1995 and was said to be so numerous in historic times as be “like bugs on the land”. However, the herd has declined to under 40 individuals by 2013. Across BC, many caribou herds have experienced the same steep declines, and most of the struggling herds are inhabiting areas with generally more human disturbance and activity on the landscape. Specifically, industrial development has contributed to caribou declines as their habitat has been altered, displacing the caribou and making them more susceptible to predation. Since 2013, costly and intensive management efforts including maternity penning and predator removal have helped halt or reduce the rate of decline in some herds. However, these activities are not going to keep caribou on the land base over the long term. To improve caribou habitat, support the ecosystem and balance the predator-prey dynamics, we are implementing a large-scale habitat restoration project in the Klinse-za caribou herd area.

A road from low to high elevation provides an easy travel corridor for predators to access alpine refugia for caribou.

Restoration of habitat can involve a variety of activities. In the Klinse-za habitat restoration program, we focus our efforts on reforesting and restructuring linear features (e.g., old roads, seismic lines). This will limit the ability of predators to easily access caribou habitat and minimize caribou- predator interactions. Over time, reforesting the features will return the ecosystem to a more natural state.

Why monitor?

Crew member installing trail camera over an old road.

Our restoration project has two components, both equally important to the long-term success and usefulness of this endeavor. The ‘implementation’ piece is where features on the landscape actually change the way they look, appear to wildlife, or function within the ecosystem. These are the actions that include road structure modifications, tree planting, access alterations and other physical changes. To evaluate how much of a difference these changes made and how caribou and other wildlife are responding to them, we have a detailed monitoring program of data collection and analysis. It’s the monitoring that allows us to understand whether we’re meeting our objectives and make improvements to our plans if necessary.

Currently, our monitoring program has two main components: measuring changes in vegetation in response to restoration of linear features, and tracking wildlife and human road users through a network of trail cameras.

Trail camera discoveries

Motion activated trail cameras allow us to ‘have eyes’ across very large spatial extents, at all hours of the day and night. Since we currently have 200 cameras deployed across 7 different sites, we are monitoring a total of about 50 km of linear features. This large scale has allowed us to capture some interesting, valuable and sometimes surprising footage of the four-legged residents of our project area. One of the most vivid observations to date has been the large number of grizzly bears across the area – we have observed many sows with 2 to 3 cubs in tow, large males and several bears having a good scratch on trees, though our favourite picture remains a beautiful sunset image of a sow walking down the road with her three cubs!

Above: a grizzly sow walking down the road with her three cubs. Below: a tense face-off between wolf and moose – we don’t know what the outcome was.

We have also observed a wide suite of other predators, including black bears, wolves, cougars, lynx, coyotes, wolverines, and more. While we are hoping to reduce predator access into alpine areas, it is nonetheless interesting to see such a diversity of predators in one area. We also see ungulates making extensive use of the linear feature, with moose being most abundant. Caribou and elk are both seen periodically.

Vegetation sampling: getting into the weeds

Tracking vegetation is important for two reasons. First, plants are essential as they form the basis of the food chain: vegetation provides energy to herbivores (large and small), who in turn support a variety of predators. Second, plants are highly responsive to environmental conditions such as moisture, shade, and soil type, and can thus be effectively used as indicators of habitat change. Since our goal with restoration is to alter existing linear disturbances so that they more closely resemble the surrounding habitat, we use a ‘before-and-after’ vegetation sampling approach. Specifically, we are collecting data about the plants on and near the linear features now (the ‘before’), and will collect the same data at intervals from one to ten years after we carry out the restoration activities, so that we can evaluate whether the restoration has been effective.

Crew members Warren Desjarlais and Mariah Mueller identifying
plant species.

While spending long field days identifying and counting plants can be a little hard on the back and somewhat repetitive, there are many delights in this work for the ‘plant nerds’ on the project. Identifying rare species or unusual color variants keeps us on our toes and sometimes requires impromptu group debates right on the mountain. Because the sampling sites are spaced hundreds of meters apart, we get to hike through a variety of elevations and ecotypes and see beautiful country. Finally, this kind of intensive field sampling provides valuable real- world training opportunities in plant identification, and so we include First Nations community members and/or summer students on our crews to help them develop their expertise and confidence.

Thanks again to Wildlife Infometrics on behalf of the Nîkanêse Wah tzee Stewardship Society for providing this update on their work!

Fall Site Visits: Stewardship, Sheep and Salmonids

Staff visit to Salmon River Estuary Conservation Area; Jade Neilson, Karen Wipond, Tom Reid, Christina Waddle, Shawn Lukas (from left to right)

HCTF staff enjoyed some time out in the field this fall with visits to project sites around the province. Each year, HCTF undertakes project evaluations on a sample of projects to conduct a financial review, and to ensure conservation objectives are being met.

The first evaluation took place in September with the Nature Kids program, a Stewardship project which aims to engage children and their families with nature through hands-on learning, stewardship activities and citizen science projects. HCTF staff visited the program’s office in North Vancouver and one of the weekend events in Greater Victoria called “Hawkwatch”.

The Raptors live demonstration at Hawkwatch.

In October, staff travelled to the Kootenays and visited 2 project sites with Irene Teske, Wildlife Biologist with the Ministry of Forest, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNR). Staff got a first-hand look at areas being treated to control invasive plants such as Yellow Hawkweed and St. John’s Wort at Bull River and Wigwam Flats, both conservation areas in the East Kootenay region. For this project, HCTF Special Permits (Wild Sheep) funding is being used to restore native grasslands to improve winter forage for Bighorn Sheep.

2008 photo of the Bull River bighorn herd. Beginning in 2009, wildlife managers noticed a rapid spread of yellow hawkweed and other invasive plant species in this herd’s winter range.

The next visit was to a very different landscape on the east coast of Vancouver Island. HCTF visited three sites funded under the Conservation Lands Operations and Management (O&M) Funding Program: S’amanu Wildlife Management Area (WMA), Nanaimo River Estuary Conservation Area, and the Salmon River Estuary Conservation Area. This program provides $550,000 annually to FLNR for O&M costs on ministry-administered conservation lands across the province including lands leased from the Nature Trust of BC. Funding for this program is provided primarily through endowment funds provided to HCTF from the Province of BC.

HCTF staff and the FLNR Conservation Lands Specialist Karen Wipond received a tour hosted by the West Coast Conservation Land Management Program (WCCLMP) staff Tom Reid and Shawn Lukas, demonstrating how HCTF O&M funding is being used to maintain conservation values at the selected properties.

At the S’amanu WMA, we viewed and discussed the restoration work and new interpretive signage at Ye’yumnuts, a sacred ancestral place of the Cowichan people. We also discussed invasive species management supporting species at risk on the site, and agricultural activities to enhance forage for wintering waterfowl.

After leaving S’amanu, we travelled north to the Nanaimo Estuary, the largest estuary on Vancouver Island, with riparian, marsh, and intertidal ecosystems including eelgrass beds, supporting thousands of over-wintering birds and juvenile salmonids. We viewed some restoration work in action while program staff and partners tested nets in the estuary to monitor juvenile salmonids in the coming spring. HCTF funding is also being used to develop improved elevation and vegetation mapping in the estuary which will help support management decisions and plan future restoration and enhancement projects.

Nanaimo Estuary including split rail fencing used to control access and direct visitors.

The third site we visited with WCCLMP staff was the Salmon River Estuary Conservation Area near the Village of Sayward. An HCTF Enhancement and Restoration Grant was used for habitat enhancement work for Roosevelt Elk and other species on the property purchased in 2015, the acquisition of which was also supported by HCTF. This restoration project included thinning the alder forest and planting to improve forage for Roosevelt elk, removing Scotch Broom and replanting with native species, and creating shallow wetland habitat with wood structures to improve habitat for amphibians.

Enhanced wetland habitat at the Salmon River Estuary Conservation Area.

HCTF staff appreciated the opportunity to see the great work funded across the province. The HCTF evaluation process provides an additional check and balance in addition to our rigorous proposal review process to ensure conservation objectives are realized and we see a positive difference for fish and wildlife and their habitats, as intended by our various contributors.