Alberta Northwest Species At Risk Committee

A collaborative Northwest Alberta inter-municipal initiative

Who we are:

Alberta’s six northwestern municipalities have come together to form the Northwest Species at Risk (NWSAR) Committee.

The member municipalities are:

- Town of High Level
- Mackenzie County
- County of Northern Lights
- Clear Hills County
- Town of Rainbow Lake
- Town of Manning

Why we started this Committee:

After learning of the Government of Alberta’s proposal to permanently protect 1. 8 million hectares of land for caribou in northwest Alberta, Councillors from the area’s six municipalities leapt into action and formed the Northwest Species at Risk (NWSAR) Committee to ensure local voices were heard.

We created a report for the federal and provincial government’s to consider when implementing plans to protect the Woodland Caribou – which are a threatened species. The Committee wants to see protection plans be effective but also consider the socio-economic impacts to our communities, so that we can be prosperous and keep jobs here. The Committee believes that we can protect the caribou without creating a provincial park and even protect them more effectively without creating a park.

Through the Committee’s hard work over the past year, we have undertaken socio-economic analysis, the collection of scientific data and extensive multi-stakeholder consultations to create this report with ten specific recommendations for responsible caribou recovery.