Nopiming fire leaves herd of endangered caribou at risk
Wildfire in Manitoba's Nopiming Park is threatening an endangered woodland caribou herd by burning their habitat.
The southernmost herd of endangered woodland caribou in Manitoba might not be able to recover from wildfire-caused habitat and population losses, experts say.
Fire burn patterns and maps suggest a fire that has ravaged more than 100,000 hectares in and west of Nopiming Provincial Park in eastern Manitoba has destroyed a substantial part of the habitat of the Owl-Flintstone caribou herd.
Boreal woodland caribou are classified as threatened under the Manitoba Endangered Species Act. There are an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 in the province.
Daniel Dupont, an ecologist and biology professor at St. Boniface University, is worried that last week's inferno will weaken the woodland caribou population in several ways.
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"The caribou have just lost the habitat where their females give birth from mid-May to June. This is a vulnerable period for caribou, as the females are pregnant," Dupont said in French. "The fires will have an impact."
The Nopiming area is home to between 40 and 60 woodland caribou, he said.
Experts are worried that last week's inferno will weaken the woodland caribou population in several ways. (Pascal Breton)
Although it's too early to know the exact death toll, Dupont says he already knows the species will be affected over the long term.
"They are very sensitive to changes in their habitats," he said in French.
Woodland caribou need a mature forest with decades of vegetation growth to live and reproduce, he says.
Human activity contributes to problems
Fires are necessary for forest renewal in the region, but the scale of the blazes in Nopiming Park this year is abnormal, Dupont says.
"In recent decades, humans have been very good at putting out fires. As a result, we have large tracts of mature forest that can create these large, hard-to-control fires," Dupont explained in French.
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Climate change is also a factor, he says.
Dupont estimates that two-thirds of caribou habitat must remain intact after fires to ensure the health of the boreal forest and allow the animals sufficient room to live and reproduce.
Eric Reder, director of the Wilderness Committee Manitoba, a national environmental protection group, says the caribou might never return to the burned lands.
"We're really, really concerned that this southern caribou range that we've been talking about protecting for more than 25 years may well be gone."
Conservationists have been demanding greater habitat protections for decades.
"We worked for a long time to get caribou listed under the Manitoba Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, the big step that caribou need across the country is habitat protection," Reder said.
A crisis 25 years in the making
Reder is frustrated that a series of Manitoba governments has not taken action to protect woodland caribou, which he describes as a vital part of the boreal forest ecosystem.
"We've had a proposal to protect a large section of Nopiming Provincial Park and the area outside of it that the caribou are utilizing. That proposal has been on the books since 2011, and we haven't seen the government act."
He blames those in power.
"We've really isolated this herd and we've caused this problem that we've been saying was going to happen for at least 20 years."
Dupont and Reder both say the lack of funding for caribou research in Manitoba hampers conservation efforts. Without organized tracking and surveillance of herds, scientists are left in the dark, especially in the aftermath of natural disasters.
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"The Manitoba government has severely underfunded caribou research. We do not have public data about how many animals are collared. These animals are supposed to be protected under federal law and under provincial legislation, and it's not happening. It makes it very hard for us to know exactly where the animals are," Reder said.
Fire burn patterns and maps suggest a fire that has ravaged more than 100,000 hectares in and west of Nopiming Provincial Park in eastern Manitoba has destroyed a substantial part of the habitat of the Owl-Flintstone caribou herd. (Submitted by Daniel Dupont)
In its woodland caribou conservation strategy, drawn up 10 years ago, the Manitoba government promised to review and update the provincial recovery strategy for the species in 2025.
The province said in an emailed statement that they have not received any reports of boreal caribou mortalities in the Nopiming or Manigotagan River areas since the fire started, but are "aware of the risk to caribou in this area as the fire has impacted a known calving habitat at a time when the caribou could typically give birth."
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The province also promised to review management actions "once the final extent of the fire and impact to the forest are known."
Any future caribou range management plans "will balance the needs of habitat and population protections for boreal caribou with human development across the landscape," a spokesperson said in the statement.
This article, originally published by CBC News on May 24, 2025, was written by Maggie Wilcox with files from Daniel Dupont.