Developing species-at-risk models for assessing forest degradation

Natural Resources Canada has issued solicitation NRCan-5000084165 to develop species-at-risk models designed to assess forest degradation across Canada. The primary objectives include creating interoperable national and regional habitat models for woodland caribou to forecast habitat changes and establishing generic wildlife habitat forecasting models using boreal bird species as a test case. Additionally, the project requires the identification of existing habitat models for caribou predators and competitors, such as wolves, grizzly bears, deer, and moose, to support cross-jurisdictional forecasting. To ensure technical consistency and utility, all developed models must adhere to the PERFICT standard and maintain compatibility with SpaDES. These tools will enable the assessment of current and future degradation states for the targeted species-at-risk. This federal initiative is managed by Natural Resources Canada and focuses on implementing standardized, operationalizable models across various Canadian forested ecosystems.