The Yukon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan is under review, for the first time since it was drafted in 1992.

Among its primary functions is to establish what conditions must exist prior to implementing an aerial wolf-kill or other methods of reducing the wolf population to assist troubled moose and caribou populations.

The review is being conducted by a six-member committee established through a partnership agreement between the Yukon government and the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board.

Richard Sidney, co-chair of the management board, told a news conference Monday afternoon that local renewable resource councils have asked for the review of the document.

Some concern has been expressed by a couple of councils regarding caribou and moose populations in different parts of the territory, Sidney acknowledged.

Updating the document, he added, will also ensure the board and local renewable resource councils keep current with their responsibilities laid out in the Yukon land claim agreements.

Sidney said the intention is to have any recommendations arising out of the review ready by next July.

"What we are looking at over the next couple of months is a series of meetings with communities, councils and First Nations to get some input in the plan,” Allan Koprowsky, assistant deputy minister with Environment Yukon, told reporters.

He pointed out that when the plan was drafted 18 years ago, there were no local renewable resource councils in place, but that's all changed.

Having the councils established now enhances the opportunity to gather local input, Koprowsky suggested.

While the councils were not up and running in 1992, they were contemplated as the parties moved towards finalizing the Umbrella Final Agreement, the blueprint for negotiating individual First Nation agreements which was signed off in 1993.

The management plan, in fact, calls for the agreement of the local renewable resource councils before any wolf-kill programs are implemented.

A budget of $148,000 has been indentified to complete the review.

Karen Clyde, one of three Environment Yukon representatives on the review committee, said the committee will be holding its first meeting next week.

It plans to provide the public with access to background material and a copy of the 1992 plan sometime in January, Clyde said.

She said the committee wants the material out in advance of the community meetings scheduled to begin in February and run through to the end of April.

In addition to setting out conditions required before implementing a wolf-kill program, the plan sets down principles to ensure the long-term survival of wolves across the Yukon.

It also calls upon the government to undertake education efforts to enhance awareness and understanding about wolves, and management decisions affecting the animals.

Eighteen years ago, however, the management plan was viewed by some as a compromise to assure critics of the aerial wolf-kill that there is more to managing wolves in the Yukon than shooting them from helicopters.

The government adopted the policy in December 1993, and the Aishihik wolf-kill began shortly afterwards.

Management of wolves in the Yukon reaches back into the history of the Yukon's aboriginal people, and how they would remove cubs from their dens as a means of controlling the local population to reduce pressure on caribou and moose.

Non-aboriginal programs were common throughout the 20th century, with the use of a bounty program to the use of poison by the Yukon government.

In addition to the aerial wolf-kill, the Aishihik wolf control program included a sterilization program involving the capture of wolves and their release after they were operated on.