Revised Final Environmental Study Report (24 MB) - Gold Canyon ...

Gold Canyon Resources Inc.
Springpole Gold Project
Road Alternatives Assessment
opportunity for predators of caribou to utilize roads once they are no longer needed for forestry
operations.
An FMP approved road corridor exists from Dead Dog Lake to within 1 km of the Birch River,
which is planned for construction as early as 2014 (scheduling is currently in progress). This
FMP corridor is planned for use as the southern portion of road Option A, and cannot be utilized
in conjunction with Road Option B. According to the Trout Lake FMP, the Wenasaga road
extension is planned to occur at some point before 2019, to a point extending northeast of
Springpole Lake. Option B would provide a shorter access road to the Springpole camp,
however, this corridor would be built in addition to the Wenasaga road extension, thereby
increasing the density of linear features in the area. Also, if any interested party wished to utilize
the chosen road option in the future, Option B would require the user to access GCU’s property,
whereas, Option A would allow for use without the aforementioned access.
Five road use strategies (RUS) have been developed for the Trout Lake Forest, for existing
roads as well as new roads. These RUS’s identify the type of road maintenance, how
monitoring will be carried out, intent of SFL to transfer road responsibility to MNR, MNR’s
decommissioning provisions prior to transfer, and access restrictions.
The Wenasaga Road extension has an RUS-3, which means that access will be restricted by
signage as a condition of the FMP and the SFL holder will retain the road. The repercussions of
this designation are that if Option A was constructed and the SFL holder wished to use the road,
it would be unlikely to be decommissioned. This would result in GCU only being able to
decommission portions of the road that were not considered needed by the SFL holder.
Additional mitigative measures to reduce predator ease of travel is to create bends in the road
reducing line of sight and to not plow the road in the winter, when possible, to make predator
travel more difficult.
5. Avoid increases in the distribution and productivity of other prey species (i.e. moose, deer) by
minimizing the conversion of habitat (i.e. increased browse, hardwood) in disturbed areas
An increase in the distribution and productivity of other prey species (i.e. moose and deer)
would have a detrimental effect on caribou populations. Vegetation removal results in increased
early successional vegetation which is favourable to other ungulates such as moose and deer.
Increases in moose populations (alternate prey) can result in increases to predator populations,
causing an increase in predation of caribou. Predation by wolves and black bears is considered
to be the proximate cause of caribou mortality, particularly on calves (Bergerud 1974, Seip
1992, Lambert et al. 2006), which is ultimately facilitated by habitat alteration (Briand et al.
2009). Moose and deer populations in this area are inherently low, with only a few deer being
seen in the last two years during field investigations. The amount of habitat alteration that could
potentially occur with the construction of either corridor option would be negligible, particularly
compared to the large-scale habitat conversions that occur through forestry practices. Corridor