LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - Environment Canada is asking residents of the Deh Cho and the broader territory to share any knowledge they might have about boreal caribou.

Boreal caribou are listed as a threatened species under the federal Species at Risk Act. Because of that status a national recovery strategy is being developed for the species.

Environment Canada is seeking local knowledge about boreal caribou to be used for the development of a national recovery strategy for the species. - NNSL file photo

Meetings are being conducted in 26 communities in the boreal caribou range.

"We want to learn from the people, so we have a lot of questions," said Donna Mulders, a species a risk biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, which is a division of Environment of Canada.

The first community meeting was held in Fort Simpson on Nov. 23. Weather conditions permitting, the team was scheduled to be in Wrigley on Tuesday followed by Nahanni Butte and Fort Liard. Trout Lake and Kakisa are expected to be visited in December.

Approximately 10 people attended the afternoon meeting in the village.

"It went very well," said Mulders. "People had a lot to share, a lot of knowledge."

Two reasons for the decline of boreal caribou throughout its range are habitat loss and increased predation. Many of the questions put to residents focused on any changes they have seen related to these two topics.

Questions were also refer to the effects of industry, development, noise and light disturbance, parasites, diseases, overharvesting and weather. Participants had a lot of information to contribute on many of the topics, said Mulders. All of the information will be given to the team that is drafting the recovery strategy.

The government of the Northwest Territories has recently released its own action plan for boreal caribou conservation in the territory from 2010 to 2015. The territory's boreal caribou aren't considered to be at risk.

The consultations in the Deh Cho for the action plan were done in 2006. Mulders wants to know if anything has changed in that time.

Local harvester Jonas Antoine was one of eight participants in the evening session. He said the habitats that support caribou must be protected in order to ensure the species' survival. In the Deh Cho there are some groups of caribou that are strong in numbers and very healthy to the north and northeast of Wrigley, because there is no activity in their habitat.

"I hope it stays like that for a long, long time," said Antoine.

Antoine questioned the need for other groups to tell the Deh Cho how to manage the caribou in their area. The Dehcho First Nations has a vision through the Dehcho Land Use Plan that if implemented would protect caribou, said Antoine.