The Yukon Department of the Environment announced today a one-week closure for porcupine caribou hunting along the Dempster Highway.

Department spokesman Dennis Senger said this morning staff flew around the area Wednesday and witnessed several thousand of the herd moving toward the highway in various pockets.

It has become common practice for the last few year to close hunting along the highway as the first of the Porcupine herd reaches the Dempster.

The closure was initiated by elders and supported by the Porcupine Caribou Management Board as a means of showing respect for the leaders of the herd and allowing them to guide the caribou to the wintering grounds.

The closure takes effect Friday at noon, and will re-open the following Friday, at noon, Senger said.

'They flew the highway yesterday and the herd was moving toward the highway, and will probably be there by this weekend,' he said.

The closure runs from the North Fork Pass on the south end at km-77, to the Yukon, NWT border, or km-465.