YTG, board at odds over caribou management

The Yukon government is proposing a major shift in the management of the Porcupine caribou herd, much to the chagrin of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board.

The Yukon government is proposing a major shift in the management of the Porcupine caribou herd, much to the chagrin of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board.

Board chair Joe Tetlichi said last Thursday the move would undermine years of work by board members who are trying to entrench a Harvest Management Plan while building the trust with communities and hunters who rely on the caribou as a primary source of food.

The government, however, maintains a couple of key items in the board’s proposed management plan do not go far enough, government consultant Doug Larsen, a senior biologist recently retired from Environment Yukon, explained last Thursday.

* In its proposal released this month, the government is proposing to implement a mandatory bulls-only harvest this fall for all hunters - aboriginal and non-aboriginal.

The caribou board’s management plan recommends a continuation of a voluntary bulls-only harvest.

* The Yukon government is proposing to implement mandatory reporting for aboriginal hunters. Non-aboriginal hunters are already required to report their harvest. The board is recommending the continuation of voluntary harvest reporting for aboriginal hunters.

* The government is proposing to reduce the bag limit for non-aboriginal hunters from two Porcupine caribou where allowed along the Dempster Highway to the one bull.

* The government is not proposing to restrict the harvest level for aboriginal hunters - but bulls only.

* It’s commonly accepted the herd has declined from its peak in 1989 of 180,000 to somewhere around 100,000, though the last scientific count was completed in 2001, when the herd was estimated at 123,000.

Unfavourable weather and smoke from forest fires have foiled attempts for a new census ever since. But crews and their airplanes are currently standing by in Alaska and the Yukon for the right conditions to make another attempt. (See accompanying story.)

* It’s believed the annual harvest is somewhere around 4,000 animals, about 60 per cent of which are females, though the most reliable harvest information is now 15 years old.

* One female and its offspring will produce 23 caribou in 10 years.

* Aboriginal hunters in the Northwest Territories take 65 per cent of the annual harvest, while aboriginal hunters in the Yukon take 13 per cent, based on the 15-year-old data.

Non-aboriginal Yukon hunters harvest 240 annually, while big game outfitters take 40. The total Alaskan harvest accounts for 15 per cent.

The urgency for conservation efforts to protect the declining herd requires concrete measures now, said Larsen, the government’s representative on the caribou management board for the last eight years.

He emphasized the government is currently in a period of consultation with its proposed regulations. Nothing, therefore, is final, he explained.

On the other hand, Larsen added, the government, with the support of the Vuntut Gwitchin of Old Crow, remains convinced it needs to implement the restrictions.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that provincial and territorial governments can only restrict aboriginal harvesting rights where they can demonstrate the urgent need for conservation.

By all accounts, said Larsen, the state of the Porcupine caribou herd fits the test of the highest court in Canada.

A successful count in the next two weeks may show otherwise, but all available information is suggesting the herd’s in trouble, and that climate change may be having an impact, the biologist said.

He said as member of the management board, the government has received the board’s recommendations. As the government is ultimately responsible for managing the herd, however, it needs to do what it feels is necessary, Larsen said.

Almost without fail, he noted, all the parties, all the communities, have stated a need for conservation measures.

The difference in the board’s proposed Harvest Management Plan and the Yukon government’s proposed regulation is simply the approach to get there, he explained.

Larsen said the government doesn’t think the Porcupine herd can withstand another two, three or five years of voluntary hunting practices and reporting measures.

The cow harvest needs to be stopped, and accurate harvest information is needed to understand what hunters are taking to further clarify management requirements, he suggested.

“I would like to see something done this fall.”

Larsen said there are examples in the Yukon where reliance on voluntary measures by aboriginal hunters have not worked.

The chair of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board said the Yukon’s call for restrictions after the board has spent several years working on a harvest management plan would do more harm than good.

Having communities and hunters demonstrate responsibility for managing the herd through their own voluntary actions would result in greater success than dictating how to manage a resource that is part of their culture, he said.

Tetlichi said the board has been working toward the completion of a Harvest Management Plan for seven years now.

Earlier this month, the board delivered its recommended plan to the different governments and parties, he pointed out. It is a plan, the chair of the board insists, with a long-term vision.

Tetlichi said that at the very same time, however, the government walked through the door at the 11th hour with an entirely different proposal, calling for short-term measures.

Tetlichi said the last thing communities need is another round of consultations, as they’re already “meeting out” with consultations on this, and consultations on that.

“I think it is going to confuse the communities,” Tetlichi said, adding the board has written to Environment Minister Elaine Taylor objecting to the unilateral direction her government has taken.

“I would prefer voluntary, because then what you are doing is giving the responsibility to the communities.”

The Gwich’in Tribal Council, representing the N.W.T.‘s four Gwich’in communities of the Mackenzie Delta which take an estimated 45 per cent of the annual harvest, is already encouraging a bulls-only harvest, and it’s working, Tetlichi said.

He said the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation of Old Crow has been encouraging a bulls-only harvest for several years, and it’s working.

The government’s proposal after so many years of co-operative discussion, said the chair, is going to anger people.

“It’s going to p—s people off, basically.”