Mine reclamation enhances habitats for wild ungulates in west-central Alberta

Surface mining is the most prevalent form of coal extraction in North America. Reclamation aims to transform former surface mines into self-sustaining ecosystems that support uses similar to predevelopment conditions. Success of reclamation often is determined by assessing the re-establishment of landscape structure and vegetation communities. However, there is increasing interest in evaluating reclamation success in the context of higher trophic levels. We evaluated response to mining and reclamation by sympatric bighorn sheep (Ovis canadanesis), elk (Cervus elaphus), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) on reclaimed coal mines in west-central Alberta. We used direct ground counts on a fixed survey route to obtain data on abundance and distribution of ungulates during 2004 to 2017. We created a grid of 200 x 200 m grid cells and assigned each group of ungulates to a grid cell. We assigned landscape and topographic features to these grid cells to represent changes due to mining and reclamation. We estimated resource selection functions for bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer showing how their use of reclaimed features and landscapes increased access to quality forage and decreased predation risk. Ungulates also responded to mining and reclamation in ways that we did not anticipate, e.g. sheep and elk often selected areas near haul roads. Understanding spatial relationships between reclamation prescriptions and higher trophic levels is important when designing bottom up reclamation to restore ecological functions including recruitment of wildlife.