> Research suggests that wolves can travel up to three times faster along roads and trails than they can in unbroken forest, and has also shown that woodland caribou avoid areas within 500 meters of human development. In the range of a single herd, Alberta killed 841 wolves. Yet at the same time, the province issued hundreds of permits for new oil-and-gas wells.
Restoring caribou habitat in that area would require buying the energy leases from the companies that hold them. But purchasing those leases on the range of just one herd in Alberta’s oil-sands region would cost 33 billion U.S. dol…