1 <blank page> 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 5 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction to Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 8 APPENDIX A: SK2 West Disturbance Mapping .............................................................................................. 9 Purpose .................................................................................................................................................... 9 Methods ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Saskatchewan Data Sources ............................................................................................................... 9 Data Compilation ................................................................................................................................ 9 Results .................................................................................................................................................... 12 Human Disturbance .......................................................................................................................... 12 Linear Features ............................................................................................................................ 14 Area-based Features ................................................................................................................... 14 Non-overlapping Human Disturbance .............................................................................................. 14 Wildfire Disturbance ......................................................................................................................... 14 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 15 Human-caused Disturbance ............................................................................................................. 15 Natural Disturbance ......................................................................................................................... 15 Total Disturbance ............................................................................................................................. 16 APPENDIX B: Supporting Information and Justification for Development of SK2 West Sub-units ............. 17 Ecodistricts ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Wildfire .................................................................................................................................................. 17 Human Footprint ................................................................................................................................... 18 APPENDIX C: Overview of SK2 West Caribou Habitat Management Areas on Provincial Crown Lands ..... 23 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Overview of the Caribou Habitat Management Areas .......................................................................... 23 APPENDIX D: Biophysical and Disturbance Attributes of Caribou Habitat Management Areas ................ 38 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 38 Current Biophysical and Disturbance Attributes ................................................................................... 39 Biophysical (Habitat) Attributes ....................................................................................................... 39 Forage .......................................................................................................................................... 39 Refuge ......................................................................................................................................... 39 Calving and Post-calving .............................................................................................................. 39 Disturbance Attributes ..................................................................................................................... 43 APPENDIX E: Habitat Balance Sheet for Future Scenarios Presented in Range Plan .................................. 45 APPENDIX F: Other SK2 West Sensitivity Analyses Completed ................................................................... 52 Purpose .................................................................................................................................................. 52 Methods ................................................................................................................................................. 52 Approach .......................................................................................................................................... 52 3 Land Use Assumptions...................................................................................................................... 52 Sensitivity Analyses Conducted ........................................................................................................ 56 Harvest Levels.............................................................................................................................. 56 Natural Gas Development ........................................................................................................... 56 Forestry and non-resource road and seismic line reclamation ................................................... 57 Results .................................................................................................................................................... 57 Harvest Levels ................................................................................................................................... 57 Natural Gas Development ................................................................................................................ 58 Forestry and Non-resource Road and Seismic Line Reclamation ..................................................... 58 Literature Cited ........................................................................................................................................... 60 4 List of Figures Figure 1. Current human disturbance in the SK2 West. ............................................................................. 13 Figure 2. Ecodistricts of the SK2 West illustrating how the Firebag Hills (E1), Garson Lake Plain (E2), and Palmbere Plain (E3) ecodistricts delineate the northern and southern sub-unit boundaries. ................... 19 Figure 3. Wildfire management zones within the SK2 West caribou administration unit. ........................ 20 Figure 4. Homogenous fire regime zones as described by Boulanger et al., 2014. .................................... 21 Figure 5. Homogenous disturbance zones as described by Boucher et al., 2018. ..................................... 22 Figure 6. SK2 West caribou habitat management areas on Provincial Crown lands. ................................. 24 Figure 7. Overlay of Tier 1 and Tier 2 caribou habitat management areas with caribou habitat potential. .................................................................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 8. Overlay of Tier 1 and Tier 2 caribou habitat management areas with total human-caused disturbance. ................................................................................................................................................ 26 Figure 9. Overlay of Tier 1 and Tier 2 caribou habitat management areas with recent wildfire by decade (1977 to 2016). ............................................................................................................................................ 27 Figure 10. Overlay of Tier 1 and Tier 2 caribou habitat management areas with habitat suitability as described from Indigenous traditional knowledge. .................................................................................... 28 Figure 11. SK2 West caribou habitat management areas on Provincial Crown lands. ............................... 38 Figure 12. Percentage of caribou habitat management Tiers or provincial conservation areas that contain high, medium or low caribou habitat potential. ......................................................................................... 42 Figure 13. Percentage of caribou habitat potential categories that lie within caribou habitat management tiers or provincial conservation areas. ................................................................................