SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT government said Monday it would allow a small harvest of Bathurst caribou if the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resource Board were to recommend it.

Though steadfast for months on prohibiting hunting of Bathurst caribou by anyone in the territory, during the first day of hearings to determine the fate of hunting rights government officials said a limited harvest of 500 caribou would allow the herd's population to stabilize and hopefully increase in the next six years.

The territorial government banned all harvesting of the Bathurst herd - including the aboriginal hunt - Jan. 1 after government biologists estimated the 2009 population at 32,000, a substantial drop from the 2006 estimate of 128,000.

In an hour-long presentation to the Wek'eezhii board at its public hearing in Behchoko on the Bathurst Caribou Joint Management proposal, government officials said though a number of factors such as climate change, forest fires, mining and predation are possible causes of the decline, limiting harvesting - if not outright banning it - would be the first step to saving the dwindling herd.

Hunters currently harvest an estimated 5,500 caribou from the herd annually.

"Under these conditions the rapid decline would continue and the herd could disappear in five years," said Jan Adamczewski, a wildlife biologist for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "The herd's best chance for recovery is no harvest."

Adamczewski said while the number of calves has increased in the last two years compared to the earlier part of the last decade, he said the herd composition is young and needs time to age.

"The herd currently has a large number of young caribou and it would need another year or two to produce lots of calves," he said. "Calf productivity is now at a point where it would at best balance natural mortality.

"The longer harvest management is delayed the harder it will be for the herd to recover."

Todd Slack, representing the Yellowknives Dene, said the government's presentation didn't address any of the other issues that may be contributing to the decline, such as mining and development.

"I see nothing that suggests anything but hunting and harvesting being discussed," he said, wanting to know how the government plans to address these larger issues.

Ernie Campbell, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said his department is looking first at actions that have an immediate impact on the herd's survival, while planning long-term to deal with other factors such as development and mining.

"When the herd is down to the level we see it now at 32,000, the most immediate measure that will help the herd recover is the harvesting issues," he said.

Martin Knutson, president of the NWT Wildlife Federation, pointed out only a handful of government reports have been peer-reviewed in the past - completed by the Alberta Research Council in early 2009 - and said having reviews done on the government's scientific work is imperative.

"We need to look at better science," he said. "There is a lack of ethics that is important. There is no ethical association the biologists have to abide by. We've have a unilateral decision and no one is being held accountable for the decisions."

Knutson said the resource board's decision has "already been made. Comments made during the proceedings today make it sound like they've already decided and I think we're just going through the motions."

During a three-hour question period, interveners questioned the government from all angles of the issue.

Boyd Warner, a Yellowknife outfitter, said the government admitted that prior to 1996 when the government began to identify six herds, including the controversial Ahiak herd, which many outfitters believe actually belongs to the Bathurst, all caribou hunted were considered to be Bathurst. Warner said this is crucial because caribou hunted prior to 1996 could have been Ahiak and Bluenose East, meaning the Bathurst hunt numbers are estimated much higher than they should be.

"If they believe the caribou are in that big of a crisis than we will take the management actions," Warner said.

But if the population isn't in rapid decline, and has just been carved into different herds, "it's a divide and conquer attitude," he said.

The hearings are scheduled to take place the rest of the week.