Controversial aerial wolf-kills shot down

Photo by Whitehorse Star

Shooting wolves from helicopters to help boost moose and caribou populations in the Yukon has been taken off the table.

Although aerial wolf-kills in the territory were last used 15 years ago, they were still technically available as a wildlife management tool until Thursday, when Environment Minister Currie Dixon announced a new approach.

Dixon has officially accepted the updated Yukon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.

That exercise was the product of more than a year of public consultation and meetings.

The 28-page document eliminates aerial wolf-kills as a management tool while placing more emphasis on local control of initiatives to manage and conserve wolves.

The plan requests the minister change the law so than he can authorize higher bag limits for hunters and longer trapping seasons on a case-by-case basis as methods to address wolf problems in specific areas.

Yukoners should work together to develop a wolf-human conflict policy to provide guidelines that set out if and when additional management of wolves is needed, the plan recommends.

The original Wolf Management and Conservation Management Plan was developed in 1992, on the eve of the Yukon government’s aerial wolf-kill program in the Aishihik area over four years.

Records indicate 849 wolves were shot from the air between 1982 and 1997 in the Aishihik, Southern Lakes and Finlayson Lake areas to help turn around declining moose and caribou numbers.

In his book Wolves of the Yukon published in 2010, retired government biologist Bob Hayes – who managed the aerial control programs – said they don’t work, and shouldn’t be used anymore.

Wolf populations eventually return to their previous numbers once the aerial shooting stops, Hayes concluded.

“Today, much has been learned about the impacts, long-term effectiveness, and costs and benefits of this technique,” reads the new management plan in reference to aerial wolf-kill programs.

“There appears to be little interest to focus so much effort on this management approach. The 2011 plan reflects a strong desire for a more complete range of tools to conserve and manage wolves.”

Alaska still uses aerial wolf-kills as a management tool. B.C. hasn’t done so since the early 1980s, and there’s no record of an aerial program ever being conducted in the Northwest Territories.

The review of the 1992 management plan began in 2010, when the territorial government and Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board created a six-member committee

The committee held public meetings across the Yukon, produced a draft of its new plan last July and forwarded its final recommendation to the minister in December.

It contains 27 recommendations.

Management of wolves in the Yukon must include a recognition of their importance to biodiversity, says the plan. It must recognize their social, cultural and economic importance to all Yukoners.

Harvey Jessup, the new chair of the wildlife management board and one of the co-chairs of the review committee, said the emphasis in the plan is on co-operation and collaboration among Yukoners.

Its success depends on it, he said in an interview Thursday.

Jessup said the Environment minister accepted the plan in its entirety, but for one change.

Each of the 27 recommendations assigned responsibility to different parties to follow through on the recommendation, he explained.

Jessup said the assignment of responsibility has been removed, though each of the recommendations has been accepted.

For instance, the plan calls for a change in Wildlife Act regulations to provide the minister with the flexibility to approve different management strategies for changing circumstances, he said.

Jessup said the wolf trapping season runs now from Nov. 1 to March 31.

There may be, however, interest among trappers in northern Yukon to extend the season into April, because it’s still winter there in April, he said.

Jessup said providing the minister with the adaptive management tool would mean not having to go through an extensive territory-wide review to change the season across the Yukon.

Similarly, if a local renewable resource council is experiencing an issue with wolves in a particular area, the plan recommends empowering the council to implement a local management strategy with the minister’s permission, he explained.

“So we are trying to make this more efficient, if you will, and recognize the interests of the communities and the ability of the renewable resource councils to make recommendations.”

It’s no secret that in recent years, there have been discussions in some corners around the need to do something about the wolf population in areas where wolves are increasing pressure on the ungulate populations.

Some of those discussions, it has been said, prompted the review of the Yukon’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.

It’s also no secret that communities from time to time have experienced an abundance of pet dogs killed by wolves, most recently the community of Teslin where signs were actually posted warning residents about the presence of wolves.

Jessup said developing a wolf-human conflict protocol as called for in the new management plan will clarify when and if action should be taken in a particular situation that might have a community on edge.

It would be much like the existing wildlife-human conflict policy in the Wildlife Act that allows for the defence of life and property, even if it means shooting an animal, he said.

Jessup said the wildlife-human conflict policy, however, also stipulates individuals are responsible to keep themselves out of dangerous or threatening situations.

The wolf-human conflict protocol would outline what happens under particular circumstances, in black and white, he said.

The new plan also speaks to respect for wolves and their habitat, and the importance of recognizing the need to maintain that respect.

Goal number one in the management plan reads: “Conserve wolf populations in recognition of the role of wolves in ecosystems and the maintenance of biodiversity.”

The Recommended Implementation Measure: “Provide input to land use planning and environmental assessment processes to protect known dens and mitigate disturbances to wolves during the period of pup rearing.”

Jessup said today’s plan, unlike the 1992 blueprint, is fairly well-entrenched, and changing it wouldn’t be a matter of simply shifting policies.

The 2011 plan, he said, has been developed under the provisions of public consultation stipulated in the Yukon aboriginal land claim settlements, unlike the 1992 plan that pre-dated the first four land claim settlements in 1995.

Changing it, he said, would require an extensive public review.

• Environment Yukon estimates there are 4,500 wolves in the Yukon.

• In 2011, records show 150 wolves were harvested by trappers, 50 were killed by hunters – 29 by non-resident Yukoners and 21 by resident hunters – and nine were killed by vehicles or other means, for a total mortality of 209 animals.

Figures for the five years from 2007 to the end of 2011 show that:

• A total of 640 wolves were trapped in the five years;

• 320 wolves were hunted – 163 by non-residents and 157 by Yukoners;

• 48 wolves were killed incidentally; and

• Altogether, 1,008 wolves were trapped, hunted or died incidentally in the previous five years.