Environmental groups say the federal government plans to kill wolves to save threatened woodland caribou herds instead of taking measures to protect habitat from increased industrial development in northern Alberta.

The proposed federal recovery plan, released Friday, allows for more development as long as jurisdictions have a plan to stabilize caribou population by taking measures like killing predators.

Melissa Gorrie, a lawyer with Ecojustice, the group that went to court to compel Ottawa to make a plan, was unhappy with measures suggested in the report, which she says fail to comply with the Species at Risk Act.

Ecojustice lawyer Melissa Gorrie says the plan will not help recover the woodland caribou. CBC"I don't know what they took into consideration. I'm guessing industry needs, economic factors," Gorrie said. "That's not for a recovery strategy and that's illegal under the act.".

Woodland caribou are considered a threatened species but biologists have recently recommended they be classed as endangered.

Herds have been shrinking, primarily in northern Alberta where industrial activity has cut into the animal's traditional territory.

"The cumulative effects of all the roads, cutlines, seismic, oilsands, forestry — it fragments an intact boreal forest that the caribou need to stay away from predators," said Carolyn Campbell, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.

Campbell believes thousands of wolves could be killed under the plan.

"Now that's completely unacceptable," she said. "It's ethically wrong. The public will not tolerate it."

The plan was also criticized by the Pembina Institute's Simon Dyer who said the government can better protect caribou by setting up conservation areas, slowing the pace of oilsands development and compelling companies to speed up land restoration efforts.

"The federal government is ignoring options to protect and restore caribou habitat in northeastern Alberta, and instead proposing to rely on killing off wolves to avoid having to put a limit on oilsands development," he said in a news release.

Ecojustice believes that the woodland caribou could become extinct in 20 to 40 years unless the plan is changed. Gorrie says her group is looking at legal options.

The public has 60 days to comment on the report.

With files from the CBC's Terry Reith and The Canadian Press