Deadline: 4-Nov-22
The Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund (CHRF) is managed by the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation for the purpose of restoring high-value habitat for caribou in BC using functional and ecological restoration methods.
The CHRF is made possible by contributions from the Province of British Columbia (BC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Priorities
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High-use and high-value caribou areas: areas used by caribou where development has resulted in increased use of the area by primary prey and their predators (overlap with telemetry/observed caribou locations, including knowledge of habitat use patterns based on TEK or telemetry data).
- Focus on areas that will improve core habitat, are adjacent to intact habitat or where another caribou habitat restoration project is planned. This will help create large contiguous areas of caribou habitat with minimal disturbance.
- Focus on areas already under some form of habitat protection.
- Focus on areas of high predation risk: movement corridors or known overlaps with predators in historical caribou refuge areas (e.g. peatlands or areas adjacent to peatlands).
- Focus on areas with low potential future industrial and recreational disturbance (areas with low tenure activity and low potential for future disturbance). It is the applicant’s responsibility to determine land status and constraints (e.g. overlapping tenures) and engage with affected stakeholders and Indigenous Nations.
- Focus on areas accessible for restoration.
- Focus on areas where a coordinated access management plan has been developed or is underway.
- Focus on sites that are available for treatment (i.e. not under active disposition or provincial designation, such as a designated recreational trail) and that are not permanent disturbance features.
- Focus on sites that are unlikely to regenerate naturally without intervention.
What type of restoration projects within these areas will be prioritized for funding?
- For this funding cycle, priority will be given to functional restoration projects that will reduce the use of linear features by predators and people so as to reduce caribou mortality in the short term. Ecological restoration is important to meet the long-term goals at many sites and can be done in conjunction with functional restoration.
- Focus on the functional restoration of roads or other linear features adjacent or leading to areas of intact, high-value caribou habitat.
- Focus on treating disturbance features where natural vegetation recovery is not occurring, or is limited, with the treatment focused on the site-specific limiting factor.
- Focus on reducing the suitability of matrix habitat for primary prey such as planting or treating areas with high shrub production.
Eligibility Criteria
- Any individual or organization capable of restoring habitat for caribou in British Columbia. In order to maximize the benefits for caribou using the funds available, the Province of BC has identified priority herds and developed guidelines for selecting restoration areas and activities that will benefit these herds.
For more information, visit Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.
For more information, visit https://hctf.ca/grants/caribou-habitat-restoration-grants/#overview
