Thirty-three animals remain on Wet'suwet'en territory, in a range once measured at roughly 22,000 km².
Recovery-area boundary, mine footprint, and habitat layers on the same basemap. The proposed Tenas Project footprint sits inside the 2,300 km² wildlife habitat area established by the province in 2016. Open full-screen →
The widzïh — caribou — are a subpopulation of southern mountain caribou historically integral to Wet'suwet'en life for food, clothing, tools, and trade. Colonial resource extraction and infrastructure — highways, dams, rail lines, clearcuts, and farmland — progressively fragmented the range and pushed the herd into isolated alpine terrain. By the 1990s the count had dropped to single digits before provincial augmentation stabilised it.
A 2020 survey put the herd at 33 animals. British Columbia's recovery target for genetic viability is more than 100 within a decade; ecologists estimate the intact habitat could support around 300.
Since 2016 the province has managed a 2,300 km² wildlife habitat protection area and imposed access restrictions to reduce disturbance. Provincial biologists monitor the herd with satellite-collared females and camera traps, and restore terrain by remediating soil and placing debris to interrupt predator corridors along industrial roads. Recovery is Wet'suwet'en-led in partnership with B.C. Ministry of Environment biologists based in Smithers.
Recovery on the ground is not only a provincial exercise. The Bulkley Valley Naturalists have coordinated a citizen-led Telkwa Mountains Caribou Recovery Project since the late 2000s — a voluntary recreational-access management plan built by community consensus with local snowmobilers, backcountry skiers, and hikers.
The 2013 winter survey the project cites recorded a minimum-known-alive count of just 12 animals. Community protocols observed in the recovery areas since then:
Source: Bulkley Valley Naturalists — Telkwa Mountains Caribou Recovery Project Update. Coordinated with the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations (Smithers).
The Tenas Project proposed by Telkwa Coal Limited would occupy roughly 1,000 hectares inside the 2,300 km² recovery area. Modelling of blasting and industrial noise indicates acoustic displacement affecting 19,000 hectares of available caribou habitat beyond the mine footprint itself. The project site would remove forests that are currently regenerating with the arboreal lichens caribou depend on in winter.
GIS analysis cited in the reporting shows caribou have not directly occupied the proposed mine site for years — they are concentrated some 10 kilometres away. Ecologists caution that absence-under-pressure is not the same as unused habitat: the site is winter low-elevation range historically used by the herd, in an area still recovering from earlier logging.
You won't find caribou going into where there's industrial activity — period, end of story. — Len Vanderstar, retired B.C. habitat protection biologist, to The Narwhal
In December 2022, B.C. rejected the Sukunka coal project on the grounds it threatened the already-precarious Quintette caribou herd — the first B.C. environmental-assessment denial explicitly grounded in caribou protection.
Telkwa Mining Limited's own public-facing caribou information sheet frames the picture very differently. The company emphasises spatial separation and predation, not habitat loss:
A collar-location density map on the same sheet (1994–2023, all seasons) shows highest density on the Telkwa and Howson ranges to the west of the town of Telkwa, with negligible density at the proposed Tenas project site to the south. Compare this against the Narwhal reporting above, which notes caribou may avoid substandard habitat under industrial pressure and cites a 19,000 ha acoustic-displacement modelling result.
Source: Telkwa Mining Limited — Caribou public information sheet (Tenas Project). Bracketed passages are direct quotations from that document.
| Herd size, 2013 minimum-known-alive | 12 animals |
|---|---|
| Herd size, 2020 survey | 33 animals |
| Recovery target for genetic viability | 100+ within a decade |
| Habitat carrying capacity (estimate) | ~300 animals |
| Historical range | ~22,000 km² |
| Provincial protected habitat area (2016) | 2,300 km² |
| Proposed Tenas mine footprint | 1,000 hectares |
| Acoustic displacement zone (mine + haul road) | 19,000 hectares |
| Proposed annual coal production | 825,000 tonnes |
| Coastal GasLink pipeline length in territory | ~190 km |
On my territory, I used to come out here and get my moose every year, sometimes two in one day because there was a lot of them in those days. Now there's nothing. — Chief Gisday'wa (Fred Tom), hereditary chief, Wet'suwet'en Nation
Environmental assessment is not planning for recovery. — Rosemary-Claire Collard, geographer, Simon Fraser University
They use degraded environments regularly as justification for more development. — Jessica Dempsey, geographer, University of British Columbia