The development of the Anahim Connector in British Columbia poses a significant threat to the already declining woodland caribou populations by fragmenting their critical habitat. Provincial conservation initiatives have failed to reverse the decline, highlighting the urgent need for evidence-based landscape connectivity design solutions.

The Anahim Connector is a proposed 20-kilometre road between the Vanderhoof and Anahim Lake communities in British Columbia. This new infrastructure is described as a “secondary fire-exit route” for isolated Indigenous and rural communities and would link two existing logging roads. However, the development of the new road would also sever the already declining Tweedsmuir and Itcha-Ilgachuz woodland caribou herds, disrupting key ecological processes and threatening to collapse the entire ecosystem. 

This recent article written by Parfitt (2025), challenges the province’s conservation strategies thus far to safeguard their caribou populations, particularly their reliance on culling predators, specifically wolves, and discusses how the construction of the road will only further accelerate the decline of the caribou. In the past, the government has created numerous protected areas as refuge for this species, including the establishment of 112,000-hectare Itcha Ilgachuz Provincial Park in 1995. Despite these efforts, caribou populations in this region are at risk of extinction and have decreased by 80% over the past two decades, from 2,800 in 2003, to just 551 more recently. 

The construction of the proposed Anahim Connector would threaten to collapse both the Chilcotin Plateau and the Itcha-Ilgachuz ecosystems, further exacerbating the decline of caribou population by worsening habitat fragmentation and increasing predation. The author underscores how the reliance on predator culling presents merely a short term solution, and does not address the underlying and ongoing issues related to habitat degradation that is caused by logging and human development. Instead, the article calls for a change in forest management and advocates for comprehensive strategies that focus on habitat preservation and restoration, supported by targeted wildlife management strategies to effectively protect and recover caribou.  

The Ecological Design Lab – Building Bridges for Landscape Connectivity

Longtime partners of the NET, the Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, directed by Prof. Nina-Marie Lister, advances research in this field by investigating design solutions that promote landscape connectivity, wildlife conservation and resilience. Since its launch in 2015, the EDL has been part of the Safe Passage project: Towards an Integrated Planning Approach to Landscape Connectivity. This large research partnership investigates the challenges and opportunities around institutional silos, and seeks to enhance collaborations between the relevant agencies, levels of government, and organizations concerning landscape connectivity practices. In this context, their initiative seeks to restore landscape connectivity for species movement, particularly in regions impacted by roads and human development – much like the challenges faced by caribou in the Itcha-Ilgachuz region. Wildlife crossing initiatives, such as those led by the EDL and their other partners such as ARC solutions, are a direct response to the growing need to protect declining species and promote biodiversity amidst the pressures of urbanization, and are critical in mitigating the negative impacts of habitat fragmentation. The Safe Passage project culminated in the Beyond Safe Passage CoLab session – the 2022 Visualizing Connectivity CoLab in Banff, Alberta, Canada, which was co-led by EDL Lab Manager Sabrina Careri (also part of the creative team at the NET). Proceeding this was five other CoLabs part of the Safe Passage project, each with unique objectives regarding landscape connectivity obstacles at varying geographic locations: Liberty Canyon, California; Toronto, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; and Montana.

If / when the proposed Anahim Connector gets developed, evidence-based landscape connectivity policies and design solutions are critically needed. Otherwise, B.C. caribou along with countless other wildlife species will continue to disappear, as a result of logging, roadbuilding, and other human-driven industrial activities. Providing physical and political infrastructure, in combination with efforts to halt habitat destruction create a framework to preserve biodiversity and protect the species of these historically-significant ecosystems. As emphasized in the article, the long-term success does not depend on predator management, but instead on creating and maintaining safe connected landscapes. 

Like what you’re reading? Sign up for NET’s mailing list to receive updates on all things biodiversity.