A fresh land-use blueprint proposed by Alberta’s government for the Upper Smoky region has sparked backlash from environmentalists concerned about inadequate environmental protections jeopardizing the endangered southern woodland caribou. Set to take effect on January 1, 2026, the Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan will govern industrial operations across the 13,000-square-kilometre expanse between Grande Prairie and Grande Cache. The plan is designed to fulfill two main objectives: safeguard and revitalize crucial caribou habitats to meet federal standards and facilitate the province’s ambition to double oil and gas production.
Tara Russell, a program director at the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), has been advocating for caribou habitat preservation within the plan since 2019. Expressing concerns, she fears that the Narraway and Redrock-Prairie Creek wildland caribou herds in the sub-region’s critical habitat may lose more than half of their original habitat within the next century, which she deems potentially catastrophic for their survival.
Alberta’s caribou populations have been in a sharp decline due to habitat loss and predation over the years. The sub-regional plan aims to support a 2020 agreement between Alberta and Ottawa to protect caribou habitats and avoid potential legal repercussions under the Species at Risk Act, under which woodland caribou have been listed since 2002. Although the agreement lapsed in October, a 2024 provincial report indicated minimal progress toward meeting federal benchmarks, with various environmental groups contending that the Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan fails to reverse this trend.
The plan categorizes the region into three zones with differing industrial constraints. The “nature first” zone, situated north of Willmore Wilderness Park and Kakwa Wildland Provincial Park, prohibits new industrial projects but honors existing resource extraction contracts within protected areas. This mountainous terrain, crucial for caribou during summers, is a high-elevation sanctuary. The “slow-go” zone covers caribou ranges and sensitive areas in central-western and eastern sections, allowing full industrial activity but imposing access management restrictions such as shared roads and restoration obligations while permitting logging and drilling. Caribou rely on this lower elevation forested zone for shelter and foraging during winters. The “go” zone, encompassing the majority of the eastern foothills, permits business as usual activities in areas not considered caribou habitat, without affecting current coal policies or designated protected regions.
Additionally, the plan introduces changes to forestry practices, transitioning from dispersed harvesting to aggregate harvesting. This new approach involves logging larger areas in each harvest to minimize landscape fragmentation, reduce the number of temporary roads, and cut construction and maintenance costs for logging companies. Logging for wildfire mitigation purposes is excluded from the plan, with the Ministry of Forestry and Parks tasked to develop wildfire mitigation strategies within 60 days of the plan’s implementation.
While Alberta’s Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas spokesperson, Ryan Fournier, emphasized the government’s efforts to protect caribou habitats, Tara Russell contends that the plan may not ensure adequate recovery of undisturbed or old forest critical habitat for over a century. Despite the concerns raised by environmentalists, Ryan Ratzlaff, reeve for the Municipal District of Greenview, believes the plan strikes a balance between economic development and caribou conservation. Pamela Narváez-Torres from the Alberta Wilderness Association is critical of the plan’s approach, questioning the need to restore seismic lines if caribou habitats are continuously removed.
Amid varied opinions on the plan, Keean Nembhard from Canada’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate Change, and Nature reiterated the federal government’s commitment to species protection through collaboration with provinces and territories, emphasizing the province of Alberta’s role in managing land use and caribou populations.