Tracy McKay and Gordon Stenhouse, Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Program
April 2012
Executive Summary
The Kakwa region in west-central Alberta has ongoing recreational use, timber harvesting activities, and extensive oil and gas activities, and it is expected that resource extraction in this area will increase in the near future. The Kakwa also contains important habitat for grizzly bears, a species designated as threatened in Alberta. In 2010 and 2011, the Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Program (FRIGBP) received funding from the Alberta Upstream Petroleum Research Fund (AUPRF) and other program partners to investigate how grizzly bears are responding to oil and gas activities within the Kakwa study area. To our knowledge, there are currently no published data regarding grizzly bear response to ongoing oil and gas operations in western Canada. The overall goal of this two year research project is to assist the oil and gas industry and resource managers in assessing, managing and mitigating the potential impacts of development on grizzly bears and their habitat.
Our investigation of bear response to oil and gas activities was focused to address the main potential impacts of oil and gas development: 1) grizzly bear use of habitat containing oil and gas development and activities, 2) grizzly bear use or avoidance of oil and gas wellsites, 3) grizzly bear movement in relation to oil and gas activities, and 4) grizzly bear mortality risk in relation to oil and gas development.
We investigated whether bears were closer, no different, or further from oil and gas features than expected based on a conditional randomization analysis. Our results show that grizzly bears use habitat with oil and gas activities differently than what was expected at random. Bears in our study generally did not avoid habitat containing oil and gas features during spring. During summer, males used habitat with oil and gas development less than expected, and fall was the season with the most changes in large scale habitat use in response to oil and gas features. At a smaller spatial scale, we analyzed selection ratios to determine if bears were selecting for the wellpad area, and we completed vegetation assessments at wellsites. Our results show that the majority of bears selected for wellpads, and most bears did not avoid the 500m zone surrounding wellsites. Use of the wellpad is likely related to the growth of bear foods on the wellpad and along the edges of the wellsites.
To investigate grizzly bear movement rates in response to oil and gas features, we used movement velocities and a novel spatial analysis method to look at areas of slow movement (latent areas). There were no obvious increases in grizzly bear movement rates in direct response to the presence of wellsites in our analysis; however, our results indicate faster movement when roads or pipelines were present.
To evaluate mortality rates and predicted mortality risk, we analyzed current mortality datasets and applied mortality risk models to create annual mortality risk surfaces specific to the Kakwa study area. Human-caused mortalities were similar to those observed in other areas of Alberta. Our estimated annual mortality rate was 1.7%. Mortality risk steadily increased throughout 2004 to 2010. The mean mortality risk ranged widely between home ranges. Comparison of reported mortality locations with predicted mortality risk values indicates that the current mortality risk model is a good predictor of mortality risk for the Kakwa study area.
This research addresses the current knowledge gap regarding how grizzly bears respond to oil and gas operations. Results and management recommendations presented in this project may be applied in the Kakwa region and across other areas of oil and gas development in North America to enhance and improve land management in grizzly bear range.
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