The Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration (RICC) is a group of energy and forestry companies who support caribou recovery efforts in the Cold Lake, East Side of the Athabasca River (ESAR), and Saskatchewan Boreal Plains caribou ranges. The group recognizes that the success of caribou recovery requires coordination and cooperation between each member, because caribou are wide-ranging animals whose annual home ranges cross many industry leases and land-use types. RICC is a leader when it comes to supporting research to understand caribou declines and testing ways to recover populations.
Current members include Alberta-Pacific Forestry Industries, Athabasca Oil Corporation, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus, CNOOC, Imperial, MEG Energy, and Suncor Energy. The WSC are secretariats to RICC, and help to coordinate the group’s activities.
Program Goal:
Coordinate research, integrated land management, and active, science-based management to contribute to caribou conservation and habitat recovery in the geographic scope of interest while maintaining an economically viable resource industry.
Objectives:
To coordinate restoration of disturbance in the geographic scope of interest
To support and lead trials and research on restoration needs, methods, and effectiveness
One example of a RICC collaboration is a bear and wolf telemetry monitoring program that RICC began managing in 2015. Individual members of RICC had initiated multiple collaring programs, but the group recognized the potential of coordinating these activities to work towards a larger goal. The monitoring program tracked wildlife use of linear features and their response to restoration treatments, testing a series of predictions to better understand the responses of predators and prey to linear features and management actions such as habitat restoration.
Resources to learn more include:
1. The 2021 annual report here
2. Past annual reports here
3. Fact Sheet: An introduction to the Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration
4. Fact Sheet: Restoring caribou habitat: When should seismic lines be taken off the books?
5. Fact Sheet: Moose, caribou and fire: Have we got it right yet?
6. Fact Sheet: A burning question: How woodland caribou use post-fire
landscapes in northeastern Alberta