Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

Canadian woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) numbers are declining throughout their distribution due to multiple factors, including increased predation and loss of habitat from fire and other anthropogenic factors (i.e., industrial development). Lichens are an essential component of caribou winter forage. Terrestrial lichen re-establishment post-disturbance is a prolonged process, taking at least 20 years to occur post-fire and 100 years to establish a continuous cover. Recent interest has focused on developing alternative methods to restore disturbed lichen communities using lichen transplantation. However, the feasibility of these strategies under diverse site conditions remains poorly understood, as do cost-effective procedures for collecting, processing, storing, and deploying the lichens. This study aims to examine the feasibility of lichen transplantation and seeding techniques for restoring harvested forest areas to usable woodland caribou habitats. To achieve this goal, we specifically plan to (1) identify historical lichen transplantation sites and examine under which conditions transplantation approaches have had long-term efficacy, and (2) test the growth and establishment response patterns of lichen fragments on various substrates, and site preparation methods in a controlled environment and field settings, and (3) explore the use of hydroseeding technology, and potentially other techniques, to deploy lichen material for operational scale feasibility. The result of the proposed study will be made available to the industry partners and other land users to support efforts to return disturbed areas to usable woodland caribou habitats.