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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Two large signs have been posted to protect two pairs of whooping cranes nesting on Salt River First Nation reserve land, about 40 km west of Fort Smith.

Ronnie Schaefer displays two new signs that will help protect whooping cranes on Salt River First Nation reserve land, about 40 km west of Fort Smith. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The signs were to be erected on Aug. 1 on Fox Holes Road, about five kilometres north of Highway 5.

They warn people that the whooping crane nests to the west of Fox Holes Road are a restricted area and also provide information on the endangered birds.

The signs were put in place by Ronnie Schaefer, a volunteer monitor of the whooping cranes with Salt River First Nation, under the NWT Species at Risk Stewardship Program.

Schaefer, a member of the Fort Smith-based First Nation, has been involved with the stewardship program for two years in an effort to protect the birds.

"We can't stop people from going on that road," he said, referring to the Fox Holes Road, which is outside the reserve area. "It's just that we want to stop people from going into the reserve lands without proper authorization."

Fox Holes Road is frequently used by people cutting wood, hunting, berry picking and riding ATVs, and there are some cabins in the area.

The reserve land is home to the Lobstick nesting pair of whooping cranes – named after the Lobstick Creek in the area – which have been there for about 18 years. Another nesting pair has been in the area for several years.

The two nests are over five kilometres west of the Fox Holes Road in an area bounded by that road, Highway 5 to the south and Wood Buffalo National Park to the west.

The goal of the signs is to stop people from going into the area during the summer months, Schaefer said.

"We don't want the birds to be scared off their nests when they have their eggs on the nests."

The birds are rarely disturbed by humans, he said, although he noted the wetlands are more accessible because of drought conditions.

"There are people that go joyriding and who go out there with quads," he said, noting that, because of the new signs, they will now not be able to say they didn't know the whooping cranes are there.

The signs will bring it to everybody's attention that the whooping cranes are "in our backyard" and they have to be protected, he said.

Schaefer said a tourism initiative may eventually be established in the area so visitors can view the whooping cranes, but that has to wait until Salt River First Nation establishes bylaws and policies on the use of the land.

"After the band sets that forward, then people like myself would be able to have the opportunity to get into the tourism business," Schaefer said.

He noted he has been working on a business proposal for a couple of years for birdwatchers and eco-tourists to be able to see the whooping cranes in the area.

That might involve a viewing site that could be established about a 1.5-km hike from Highway 5 on an elevated area overlooking the wetlands and about a kilometre from the whooping crane nests.

Schaefer hopes a viewing area might be established in a few years.

The vast majority of the roughly 300 birds in the whooping crane flock, which migrates between Texas and the NWT, spend the summer in Wood Buffalo National Park.

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