Development on woodland caribou habitat needs to be scaled back if the animals are to have any chance of survival, he said. In 2012, the federal government gave the provinces and territories with woodland caribou populations five years to create protection plans. "We have stories that are thousands of years old that relate to our people, the Denesuline, and the caribou," Grandbois said. "Woodland caribou populations are mostly not doing very well," said Dave Hervieux, the provincial government's caribou biologist. A grid of processing plants and oil wells cuts into the forest about 35 kilometres northwest of Cold Lake.

Source: CBC News November 20, 2017 13:11 UTC