Testing the effects of hydropower transmission line right-of-ways on wildlife movements and predator-prey dynamics

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Hydropower is a common and renewable energy resource used throughout Canada. Whereas large generating stations typically exist in Canada's hinterlands, the electricity needs to be transmitted to the communities that consume the majority of power. To do so transmission right-of-ways are constructed through the wilderness and may affect the wildlife and rural and indigenous communities that rely upon the wildlife for sustenance, cultural, and spiritual practices. Understanding how right-of-ways affect behavior in keystone predators, such as wolves, will help us disentangle the effects of these low-density anthropogenic features on the ecology, particularly for predator (wolves) and prey (moose) population dynamics. This project is important to our industrial partner, Manitoba Hydro and likewise for other hydropower generating and transmitting companies across Canada (Nalcor Energy and its subsidiaries). The project also has value to rural and indigenous communities through which transmission right-of-ways are routed. We anticipate that this project will produce results that illustrate how wolf resource selection, movement, kill and predation rates on moose are affected by right-of-ways. This project is anticipated to impact the way Manitoba Hydro constructs transmission right-of-ways and, where necessary, mitigate the impacts of transmission right-of-ways. A broader impact of this research for Canada and Canadians is anticipated given the growth in both hydroelectric development occurring across the country and the desire for more complete impact (e.g. local, ecological, environmental) assessments of these large anthropogenic features on the Canadian landscape. Moreover, Canada and Canadians will benefit from this information because it will help companies that transmit hydrogenerated electricity economize their transmission line routing and monitoring of right-of-way impacts, while balancing the purported local and ecological impacts of these large anthropogenic features on the landscape.********