Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger announced that the Bathurst caribou herd will be off limits to hunters until furthernotice after five months of negotiations between the GNWT and aboriginal governments failed to yield a management plan in time for Christmas. - NNSL file photo |
Bathurst ban in effect
Environment minister refuses to hand out tags without plan for caribou herd
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 22, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The Bathurst caribou herd will be off limits to hunters until further notice after five months of negotiations between the territorial and aboriginal governments failed to yield a management plan for the herd in time for the Christmas break.
"As of today I'm indicating that I'm not releasing any of the 300 tags that have been available for the Tlicho and the Yellowknives to hunt the Bathurst herd," Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger told News/North on Dec. 19.
The news comes after participants in the most recent meeting between the government, conservationists and aboriginal leaders on Dec. 3 failed to reach consensus. Despite having met several times since August, Miltenberger said the GNWT and aboriginal governments have yet to agree on a management plan for the herd. Until some kind of plan is in place, Miltenberger said there will be no more tags handed out.
"At that last (meeting) I made it clear to everybody we cannot part the scene at Christmas and leave this matter unresolved," he said.
"In the meantime, we need to do the right thing to protect the herd and ensure there is nothing man-made that is going to put them at risk, which is what hunting will do."
Miltenberger said the herd has declined by 97 per cent since surveys found more than 460,000 animals in 1986. There are now an estimated 15,000 Bathurst caribou left and their numbers continue to decline, said Miltenberger.
According to caribou collaring data from the Bathurst herd, the majority of the animals are currently wintering more than 200 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, south of Kennady Lake.
The GNWT has proposed a "mobile core conservation zone," which would shift depending on where the collared caribou move and prevent hunting in the area around them.
"Rather than just shut off an area the size of New Brunswick, we figure we can protect the herd this way," said Miltenberger. "This is a much more precise, surgical way than the very blunt approach we first took five years ago when the emergency was declared."
1,500 animal limit proposed for Bluenose-East
The GNWT is also trying to hash out an agreement on an acceptable limit for the Bluenose-East herd. The government has suggested no more than 1,500 animals should be hunted this year, with another 1,000 to be hunted in Nunavut. The Sahtu and Wek'eezhii renewable resources boards have agreed to voluntary harvests of 2,800 animals in the NWT since 2010. A total of approximately 3,000 caribou were hunted last year.
That does not include kills that went unreported, said Miltenberger, who reiterated the need for a more stringent method of reporting how many caribou are actually being hunted.
"Voluntary (reporting) has not worked, it does not work," he said. "You can't manage what you can't count."
While some aboriginal leaders are willing to accept the severity of the situation, Miltenberger said others are falling back on populist policies to pander to their constituents.
"Some folks tend to lose track that this is, above all, about the protection of the caribou. It's a conservation issue first and foremost only. It has nothing to do with aboriginal rights, nothing to do with treaty rights."
While the government has been able to secure a plan to manage the Porcupine herd with the Gwich'in and the Inuvialuit, Miltenberger said it has been more difficult to negotiate with governments that don't have settled land claims.
"Down here in the unsettled claim areas where there are no management plans, everything becomes a political crisis because nothing has been agreed to," he said.
"It can't be a question of political expediency because you don't want to say 'no' to constituents."
Neither Yellowknives Dene Chief Ed Sangris nor Tlicho Grand Chief Eddie Erasmus could be reached for comment by press time.
Although some may view Miltenberger's actions as drastic, he said even with the measures being taken right now, he is concerned it may be too late to save the Bathurst herd.
The GNWT will sit down with aboriginal governments again early in the new year. Miltenberger said he hopes all sides can come to agreement before the winter roads in the region open up.
