Edmonton, AB – A new report from CPAWS Northern Alberta, the Alberta Wilderness Association and the Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society highlights the devastating impacts proposed logging will have on the survival and recovery of the Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway caribou populations – two of the last southern mountain caribou populations in Alberta.
The Government of Alberta released the draft Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan at the end of March. The stated intent of sub-regional planning is to outline land use provisions to enable caribou recovery.
“The plan proposes that Weyerhaeuser, the USA based timber company, be allowed to log nearly all of the remaining old growth forests that the Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway caribou require to survive the winter” says Tara Russell, Program Director for CPAWS Northern Alberta, “What the plan did not include was any analysis of the implications of this timber harvest for caribou survival and recovery. Our report shows a near perfect overlap between the last remaining caribou winter habitat usage and the planned timber harvesting.”
These caribou have already lost so much of their habitat to industrial development and suffered large population declines. This has caused the caribou to stop using their winter range and limited their ability to annually migrate – our report visually compares historic caribou range usage and current usage.
“Our report makes it clear that the caribou populations have very little remaining habitat in their winter ranges, and that the logging proposal will take all that is left. This will make it impossible for the caribou populations to survive, let alone recover,” says Pamela Narváez-Torres, Conservation Specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.
Redrock- Prairie Creek, and Narraway caribou need to be able to migrate between their summer habitat high in the mountains to lower foothills forest habitat in the winter. When their habitat is severely disturbed or removed by human developments, caribou are forced to winter in mountainous areas – wintering in the mountains is dangerous for caribou and harms their survival. For example, avalanches have already killed large numbers of caribou that are unable to migrate to their natural winter range in the foothills.
Southern mountain caribou need both undisturbed and biophysical habitat to survive and recover. Biophysical habitat is comprised of old forests (over 80 years old) that caribou need to move freely across the landscape to find optimal snow conditions, forage, reproduce, raise calves, and avoid excessive predation.
Our report shows that the Weyerhaeuser Company timber harvest plan dramatically reduces biophysical habitat for caribou with no habitat recovery in this century.
“It will be far too late for these caribou populations by the time the forests grow back” says Kirby Smith, Retired Wildlife Biologist and Conservation Affairs Committee Member with the ACTWS “The government of Alberta has proposed the extirpation of a species at risk.”
Key Points from the report include:
- The Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan’s original purpose was to conserve and recover the threatened Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway Southern Mountain Caribou populations.
- Adoption of the draft Sub-regional Plan would, however, further endanger these caribou.
- Timber cutting and other industrial developments would destroy undisturbed critical habitat.
- The plan would allow Weyerhaeuser Company to continue removal of caribou biophysical critical habitat through clearcutting.
- Caribou would no longer be able to occupy their forested foothills winter ranges.
- Relegation of caribou to mountainous areas during winter would increase caribou mortality.
- The draft Sub-regional Plan would eliminate the possibility of recovering the two caribou populations and risk their extirpation.
The draft plan is open for public feedback. The Government of Alberta is hosting a public engagement for the public to learn more and voice concerns.
Read the Full Report
Read the Executive Summary
For more information, contact:
Tara Russell, Program Director, CPAWS Northern Alberta
[email protected]
Pamela Narváez-Torres, Conservation Specialist, Alberta Wilderness Association
[email protected]
Kirby Smith, Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Conservation Affairs Committee Member and Retired Government of Alberta Wildlife Biologist
[email protected]
Figure 1. First three periods of the draft Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan timber harvesting on Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway southern mountain caribou winter ranges, in relation to the last remaining caribou occurrence and movements on their winter ranges. Caribou location points from radiotelemetry monitoring data from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (2025).
Figure 2. Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway Southern Mountain Caribou location points on winter ranges before (before 2014) and after (since 2014) caribou distribution decline associated with industrial developments on the winter ranges. Caribou location points from radiotelemetry monitoring data from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (2025).
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