Jasper National Park says it will closely monitor its caribou herds as it continues to repair and rebuild its future breeding center.

The Caribou Conservation Breeding Center, located approximately 30 kilometers south of the town of Jasper, suffered significant damage to surrounding habitat during this summer’s wildfires.

Although the administration, storage and barn buildings were not damaged, the park said almost all wooded areas of the site were burned, including fences and feeding structures.

The work was to be completed by the end of the year and allow the caribou to be welcomed in the spring. The park still does not know how this schedule will be impacted.

“Construction will likely only be delayed by a few weeks,” Parks Canada said in a press release.

“We are consulting with partners and experts on restoring burned habitat, so that enclosures are safe and support future caribou residents.”

The caribou – depicted on the Canadian 25 cent coin – is an ecologically and culturally important species across the country. However, they are vulnerable due to their need for large areas of connected mature forests.

The Northern Alberta Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) reports that some Alberta woodland caribou herds have seen declines of up to 80 percent due to decades of development industrial in boreal forests.

In 2023, Parks Canada estimated that the Jasper Tonquin herd numbered around 50 individuals, while the Brazeu were numbered at three or four, down from around 10 the previous year.

The park said changes to the landscape could put these herds at additional risk because the new habitat is more favorable to species like deer, which then attract predators like cougars and wolves.

Although many wildlife cameras used to monitor resident species have been destroyed, the park hopes to replace them all by spring.

“As a result of the large-scale landscape changes caused by the fire, monitoring the response of deer populations over the next few years will be critical to understanding how predator-prey dynamics may change,” the park said.

Meanwhile, GPS data from collared wolves will provide insight into where monitored packs spend time in relation to the caribou population.

Construction of the Caribou Conservation Breeding Center began in 2023. It is the first of its kind for caribou in Canada and will contribute to breeding efforts aimed at increasing wild populations.