Mapping winter food security for the Klinse-Za caribou herd
department or school: Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Biology, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Richter, Carmen Jessie
issued: 2024-04-04T16:24:33Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: In Canada, many wildlife species are in decline, and some of these species, like caribou, are central to the food sovereignty and cultural practices of many Indigenous communities. Alongside actions by the federal and provincial governments, First Nations in northeastern British Columbia are leading recovery efforts for the Klinse-Za caribou herd. Providing natural forage during recovery actions is important for caribou during maternal pens, supplemental feeding, and habitat protection. Since 2013, the Saulteau First Nations and the West Moberly First Nations have captured 12-22 pregnant caribou and held them in a pen for several months per year. The pen prevents predation on mothers and young. At the same time the Nations provide caribou with high quality food resources that include a mixture of commercial pellets and Cladonia lichens (C. rangiferina, C. abbuscula, C. stellaris, C. stygia, C. uncilalis) collected by the Nations. Community members are recruited to pick lichen, which is then dried, stored, and provided to the temporarily penned caribou. Understanding where lichen is available on the landscape and the rates of recovery following lichen harvest are important for the future sustainability of the caribou penning project. Our research project aimed to quantify lichen availability for the next 5 years by: (1) ground-truthing lichen sites to validate and re-parametrize a lichen distribution model; (2) marking new lichen patch extents with a handheld GPS in areas where lichen occurrence, but not extent, was known to the community; (3) monitoring lichen growth and recovery rates, following the harvest of lichen in large patches (> 3 ha) (4) measuring lichen to quantify lichen growth at a fine scale (1m2 plots) following harvest. Our research project led to the discovery of new lichen patches and the extension of existing patches. This will help supply caribou with supplemental food for the next 5-years of caribou recovery in this area. The 5-Year Harvest Plan…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/87678
note: MAPPING WINTER FOOD SECURITY FOR THE KLINSE-ZA CARIBOU HERD by Carmen Jessie Richter B.Sc., University of British Columbia- Okanagan, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Biology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) March 2024 © Carmen Richter, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Mapping winter food security for the Klinse-Za caribou herd. Submitted by Carmen Richter in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science. Dr. Adam Ford, Faculty of Science, Biology Supervisor Dr. Miranda Hart, Faculty of Science, Biology Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jean Polfus, Faculty of Science, Biology Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Gabrielle Legault, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Indigenous Studies University Examiner iii Abstract In Canada, many wildlife species are in decline, and some of these species, like caribou, are central to the food sovereignty and cultural practices of many Indigenous communities. Alongside actions by the federal and provincial governments, First Nations in northeastern British Columbia are leading recovery efforts for the Klinse-Za caribou herd. Providing natural forage during recovery actions is important for caribou during maternal pens, supplemental feeding, and habitat protection. Since 2013, the Saulteau First Nations and the West Moberly First Nations have captured 12-22 pregnant caribou and held them in a pen for several months per year. The pen prevents predation on mothers and young. At the same time the Nations provide caribou with high quality food resources that include a mixture of commercial pellets and Cladonia lichens (C. abbuscula, C. rangiferina,, C. stellaris, C. stygia, C. uncilalis) collected by the Nations. Community members are recruited to pick lichen, which is then dried, s…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0440980
language: eng
degree discipline: Biology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Ford, Adam
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87678