SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Former territorial government biologist Anne Gunn - a lightning rod for big game hunting outfitters who have questioned the government's caribou counting methods in the past - is in agreement with hunters that wolf populations must be reduced in order to protect the troubled Bathurst caribou herd.

Gunn, who recently retired after working as a caribou biologist with the territorial government for over 25 years, was hired as an independent biologist to take part in the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board's hearings on herd management this week in Behchoko.

At the hearings on Tuesday, Gunn said while hunt restrictions to stabilize the herd are a good practice, the territorial Department of Environment and Natural Resources should include management actions on the wolf population - namely, to decrease their numbers.

"The most prudent approach is to manage, to increase adult survival by all means possible and that would include, therefore, managing the wolves and managing the harvest," she said in a response to a question posed by Boyd Warner, a Yellowknife-based outfitter fighting against the ban on hunting Bathurst caribou enacted Jan. 1.

Because of the effect bad weather can have on calf survival and cow pregnancy rates, Gunn said it's imperative action be taken immediately to help stabilize and improve the herd size.

"Hot, dry summers and winter with icing has an affect," she said, "and we can't manage that, but we can manage our own behaviour. It would be prudent to undertake a recovery as quickly as possible to build a buffer against potential years of bad weather."

Dean Cluff, a government biologist for the North Slave, told the hearing that wolf populations appear to be in decline in the Bathurst Herd range, an area that stretches from the Arctic coast to south of Great Slave Lake. His department is proposing a wolf survey for next winter. The wolf count in the Bathurst area was about 1,500 a decade ago, but "we believe it's less than that now, substantially less," said Cluff later in the week.

Gunn said even though there might be fewer wolves roaming the Bathurst range now, they still have a significant impact.

"Even if wolves have declined to 200 wolves, they can still be taking up to 4,000 a year," she said. This number is just short of the estimated 5,000 or so caribou taken by hunters last year.

"The decline in the wolves probably lags behind the decline of the caribou, so there are still wolves out there taking caribou," said Gunn.

Asked by the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board to review the joint proposal put before the board by the territorial and Tlicho governments, Gunn revealed what she thought were gaping holes in the management actions proposed. She said the proposal to re-evaluate management actions in three years could put the herd in more danger.

"It's unlikely the recovery will be sufficiently advanced in three years that it would be detectable through the census," Gunn said of the next survey expected to be completed on the Bathurst herd in 2012, adding while the census can detect changes it also has limitations.

"Waiting three years you will miss the chance to take action or whether in fact you can release some of the actions already underway," she said. "It's a greater risk to miss the chance to detect further decline."

Gunn also pointed out the risk of putting pressures on neighbouring herds, particularly the Ahiak and Bluenose East herds. Gunn said the lack of detail on how the government plans to move hunting pressures onto them is risky until new population estimates are completed this year on the two herds.

"These neighbouring herds are hunted by other communities and are managed by other co-management structures, so there are questions there."

- with files from Mike W. Bryant