Animals like moose, caribou, deer, wolves, black bears, songbirds and owls are characteristic of the boreal forest that overlaps the oil sands region.
Various techniques are used by industry to minimize impacts on wildlife and biodiversity. Operators of large-scale industrial projects must follow government-approved plans for the responsible development of resources. Techniques include:
- Restricting industrial activity during key biological periods, such as calving and nesting.
- Maintaining the integrity of large river corridors to enable wildlife movement.
- Progressively reclaiming land in key wildlife areas.
- Increasing access for wildlife movement.
- Deterring wildlife from entering industrial areas using sound, effigies and other deterrence tools.
- Reducing industrial footprints by encouraging different operators to share site access (e.g., roads) where possible and requiring the use of lower impact technology for seismic exploration.
- Constructing nesting sites that replace natural sites lost to industrial activity.
Author: http://oilsands.alberta.ca.