TLICHO
This year's wildfires have destroyed millions of hectares of lichens, an important winter food source for barren land caribou, which could impact the herds for decades to come.

Caribou moss is a slow-growing lichen that can take decades to regenerate if disturbed. Millions of hectares of lichens - an important winter food source for barren land caribou - burned up in wildfires this past summer. - photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Jan Adamczewski, a caribou biologist with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), described this year's fire season is unprecedented.

"I'm not one of the fire people, but this is kind of off the charts," he said. "It's the biggest fire year anybody can remember. We haven't seen anything on this scale for a very long time."

More than two million hectares of the Bathurst caribou herd's winter range and about half a million of the Bluenose-East herd's range burned during this year's fire season. In the territory as a whole, 385 forest fires burned this year.

The burn areas left behind are likely to push the migration routes of the Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds further north for the foreseeable future, Adamczewski said.

"In terms of the two herds, probably what it means is they're not likely to come down and winter in those burn areas, so they're likely to be staying further north," he said.

The Bathurst herd's winter range is usually located within the Tlicho settlement area. However, this year's wildfires destroyed millions of hectares worth of lichens that caribou feed on to survive the winter in that area, Adamczewski said. In order to ensure adequate supply of the food source, caribou typically spend winters in forests that are at least 100 years old.

This is not a problem that is expected to be fixed for years to come.

"Those are very slow-growing plants, so once they're depleted by fire it's a matter of decades before the lichens recover to a point where it's worthwhile for the caribou to go feed on them," said Adamczewski. "The kind of estimates we have are a minimum of 40 to 60 years after fire before there is a reasonable re-growth of lichens."

While he said it's hard to know for sure, it's likely both herds will choose to winter further north and west of their normal ranges.

"Certainly we would expect they are not going to be ranging down into those burned areas and they may not go into them for quite a long time," he said.

Caribou are capable of overwintering above the treeline on the tundra, so it's not clear what the long-term impacts will be, Adamczewski said.

"Caribou can survive without wintering in the boreal forest, but we do know over the years that the big migratory herds that we have, that's typically where they winter and they tend to do best if they have pretty abundant lichens on the winter range," he said.

This comes at a time when the Bathurst herd's population is believed to be in dramatic decline. According to the 2012 barren ground caribou survey estimates, there were 35,000 animals in the Bathurst herd that year - up from an estimated 32,000 animals in 2009.

But Adamczewski said this summer's reconnaissance survey revealed there may be substantially fewer ungulates in the herd this year.

"Unfortunately the reconnaissance survey from June 2014 does suggest that the numbers are down, perhaps substantially, from 2012," he said.

The population of the Bluenose-East herd was found to have declined by 30 per cent during this summer's survey.

This summer's survey also found the Bluenose-East herd's population has declined by another 30 per cent since it was last surveyed in 2013. That survey showed an alarming drop in the herd's population to 68,000 animals from an estimated 100,000 in 2010.

Tlicho cancel hunt

Behchoko Chief Clifford Daniels said the decision to cancel this fall's caribou hunt came after scouts did not find enough animals to warrant sending out hunters.

"There were some sightings, but few caribou," he said. "Not enough to send harvesters out to go hunting."

Tlicho communities usually share the cost of chartering a plane and other expenses to ensure harvesters from each community can attend the hunt, Daniels said.

The cancellation means Behchoko residents won't be able to re-stock meat supplies for the winter.

"I'm pretty sure a majority or all of us here have had some meat from the spring that's all gone. We don't have anything left right now," he said. "We do have lots of elders that like to rely on caribou meat compared to store bought meat. It's really hard on our people here."

Not being able to hunt barren land caribou means residents will have to rely on other sources, such as moose and other caribou, for country food. This could have an impact on those populations, said Daniels.

"What that also would do is have hunts for other sources of big game, which are woodland caribou or moose," he said. "That puts lots of pressure on other big game, too."

While he expects individual hunters will travel further north to access the barren land herds once winter sets in, Daniels said it's too early decide whether or not to reschedule the community hunt.

"That usually will happen, I think it's doable," he said. "But to have a community hunt is something we'll have to discuss."

ENR staff and aboriginal governments are scheduled to hold meetings to discuss caribou in November.

Adamczewski said part of those discussions will include possible management actions as the herds continue to face additional environmental pressures caused by climate change.

"If it's really dry and it's really hot, we're going to see big fires and some of the projections in terms of a warming climate would suggest that we may see more years like 2014," he said. "There's not a huge amount we can do about it, but if that's the case, it's a concern just for communities in terms of safety and it may really change the character of the boreal forest."

Daniels said he and others are working to find out more about how this year's fires will impact the herds now and in the future.

"It's such a big burn and I know we've engaged ENR and said we're curious how this is going to affect the caribou migration into the treeline this year and in future years, too," he said.

"It's a very hard time. The impacts are huge."