The plight of the Porcupine caribou herd needs attention now, not later, was the feeling at a recent public meeting held to discuss the proposed harvest management plan.

The plan predicts that if hunting pressure stays the same, the population would nosedive from the current estimate of 100,000 animals to under 20,000 in 15 years or fewer.

Several measures are recommended in the plan, though the overriding emphasis is the need to cut the average annual harvest of 4,000 by at least half, and take bulls only.

Even still, such measures would just stop the current decline and stabilize the population, the plan indicates.

"I think something needs to be done much more quickly than it is now," Norma Kassi of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation of Old Crow told last Thursday evening's public meeting.

Gone are the days when the Porcupine caribou were so plentiful, they'd walk by as she lay on the ground as a child visiting Crow Flats with her family.

For more than 40 years, said Kassi, she has watched the herd, and is very, very concerned, as are a great deal of others.

Compounding the decline are the negative impacts of climate change which can be seen across the landscape, she said.

"Governments, first nation governments, need to do something now."

Communities like Old Crow, she said, could soon be facing issues with the security of their food source.

Kassi said she believes the discussion shouldn't just be about a harvest management plan, but should include a Porcupine caribou recovery plan.

She asked when the powers of land claim agreements suddenly outweigh the need to conserve the herd.

"I think the challenge to all the communities and users is we have to stop that slide sooner," said Whitehorse resident Ross Leef.

Leef pointed out that based on numbers identified in the proposed harvest plan, the herd could fall below 75,000 members before the plan can be implemented.

The proposed harvest management plan was finalized in July by a working group created under the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, and was the product of the protocol agreement signed last fall. The public has until Oct. 31 to provide comment.

The intent is to have a second draft available for review by signatories to the protocol in January.

Once a management plan has been finalized and accepted, the next step is to negotiate a native user agreement, Joe Tetlichi, chair of the management board, told Thursday's meeting.

There are challenges ahead, Tetlichi said.

He also pointed out, however, that communities and first nations who rely on the herd as a source of food are already buying into the need for conservation.

Computer modelling contained in the proposed plan shows a rapid decline by 2023 at the existing annual harvest of 4,000 caribou.

The model indicates if the harvest was simply cut in half to 2,000 bulls and cows today, the herd would still decline to fewer than 75,000 animals in two years.

Cutting the harvest in half and taking bulls only, however, would stop the decline and stabilize the Porcupine herd, according to the model.

"I'm already hearing at the community level, 'bulls only,'" Tetlichi said. "In my opinion, we are already getting buy-in at the community level of bulls only."

But there are challenges, he said.

How, for instance, would the reduced harvest be allocated?

Would it be apportioned on the current harvest levels by different groups in the three jurisdictions?

What of aboriginal hunters who resist reductions, and any challenge to their traditional harvesting rights?

Additional harvest pressure is expected from hunters in Inuvik and elsewhere in the Mackenzie Delta because the herds they normally rely on have also crashed in recent years.

And the proposed harvest plan won't apply to Alaskan hunters, which account for 15 per cent of the annual harvest, though the Alaskan user communities are watching the development of the harvest plan with interest, it was noted.

There are challenges, acknowledged Marsha Branigan, the N.W.T.'s manager of wildlife management in the Inuvik office. She is assisting with the development of the proposed plan, and was in Whitehorse for the public meeting.

But it is imperative that all parties maintain a positive focus, she insisted.

"We have to stop pointing fingers," she said in response to a suggestion from the floor that it may be difficult to achieve full compliance with a harvest plan.

"We have to start working together to reduce the harvest."

The plan recommends several measures to ease the pressure, including emphasis on recovering wounded animals, improving marksmanship, and encouraging the use of flatter shooting rifles. Reporting of all harvests would be required, to provide more accurate tracking of animals killed.

It recommends the adoptions of a similar colour chart used to indicate the level of forest fire danger.

• The arrow would point to the green zone when the herd is above 125,000 strong, with no restrictions on harvest levels.

• It would fall to the yellow zone when the population was between 125,000 and 75,000, and hunters would be encouraged to harvest bulls only.

• The arrow would point to the orange zone when the population was between 75,000 and 50,000, and a bulls-only harvest would be mandatory.

• At below 50,000, the alert would be red, and there would be no harvest allowed, other than what is required for ceremonial purposes.

Old Crow MLA Darius Elias, and others at the meeting, suggested the categories on the colour chart be adjusted so that conservation measures - such as bulls only - kick in a lot sooner than currently proposed.

Elias also noted the importance of involving the first nations in the enforcement of the management plan.

Both Branigan and Dorothy Cooley, the Yukon government's regional biologist in Dawson City and also an advisor to the working group, said the political will exists in the N.W.T. and the Yukon to advance a harvest management plan for the Porcupine herd.

According to numbers in the draft plan, the annual harvest is broken down as follows:

• N.W.T. Gwichin hunters, 45 per cent;

• N.W.T. Inuvialuit hunters, 20 per cent.

• Yukon first nation hunters, 13 per cent;

• Yukon resident hunters, six per cent;

• Yukon non-resident hunters, one per cent;

• Alaskan native hunters, 12 per cent;

• Alaskan resident hunters, three per cent.

Recent satellite tracking information indicates most of the herd is currently moving west, away from the Dempster Highway toward its winter range in Alaska.