Dave Moyles was a wildlife biologist with the government of Alberta – his daughter recounts his decades chasing woodland caribou. How does a wildfire crisis threaten an already fragile species? Unprecedented and devastating wildfire seasons in recent years have undoubtedly factored into the equation, and the future of woodland caribou in Alberta has never been more uncertain. In 2023, a record-breaking 3.3 million hectares burned — nearly seven per cent of the province’s forests — disturbing more land than the 11 previous fire seasons combined. A recent report by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute found woodland caribou lost more than five per cent of critical habitat to wildfires in 2023, with northern herds facing the most severe losses, including nearly 13 per cent in Bistcho Lake range and nearly 14 per cent in the Caribou Mountains. …We’ve reached a tipping point with caribou… They’ve been here so long and yet they could so suddenly — in a relative blink — disappear.