NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

The Barren-Ground caribou management strategy for the next five years is expected to cost an estimated $19 million, said Susan Fleck, director of the wildlife division at the department of Environment and Natural Resources.

"You don't get all the money you ask for, but we'll put the money to the main actions people think should be taken," she said.

This would require $11 million of new money from the territorial government over a five-year period.

Most of that money would pay for herd and predator surveys, to measure the effects of development such as mining, increase patrols and for hunter education.

But if hunters and other interested parties disagree with the direction of the strategy, they are advised to comment.

So far, Darrel Nasogaluak of the Hunters and Trappers Committee in Tuktoyaktuk is pleased with the strategy, which began as a system of voluntary compliance.

This strategy is another part of the effort to formalize voluntary hunter regulations.

"The community's pretty much happy with the way it's going," he said.

He added that he'd like to see more patrols done in the future, even though he expects most people are already following the rules.

Of the nine caribou herds in the NWT, seven are stable or declining in population. The Bathurst herd, once one of the largest, dropped to 32,000 animals in 2009 from 472,000 in 1986, prompting a temporary ban on hunting them.

Doug Ritchie of Ecology North said his group does not have the resources necessary to properly observe the caribou management process. He also added that he doesn't know of any other environmental organizations currently observing the caribou file.

"It would be nice if some other NGOs could weigh in," he said. "It's a complex file. We're hoping that government and aboriginal governments hopefully can bring enough resources to the table to actively and properly manage the caribou."

The Tlicho government, whose chiefs have been unhappy with restrictions on the Bathurst caribou in the past, also have not commented on the new strategy yet.

Fleck said one of the goals of her department is to come up with a detailed plan for the management of all the herds in the NWT.

She said the Cape Bathurst caribou plan should be completed soon.

As an example of a good way to manage caribou herds, she cites the plan for the Porcupine caribou harvest. There is a colour coded system that tells hunters how many animals they can hunt.

"It recognizes that caribou numbers fluctuate naturally," she said.

Ranging from green to red, the scale is updated every time the herd is counted. Hunters can keep more bounty if the scale is green and less as the scale gets closer to red.

In the past, some herds had only been counted once every decade.

Fleck said, ideally, each herd would be monitored more frequently than in the past, at least once every three to five years.

Nasogaluak said such a system would be an improvement on the way the caribou was hunted in the past.

"The previous plan didn't have a plan for restricting the people from hunting," he said. "They were just doing counts and keeping an eye on the population for caribou but it didn't include any restrictions to the harvest."

According to the draft strategy, the wildlife department is hoping to spend upwards of $1 million per year to monitor the caribou herds.

Another part of the strategy aims at developing a "cumulative model" to assess the impact of mines, roads and other infrastructure on the caribou.

"With your cumulative effects model, you can see what's the additional impact of a new mine or new winter roads on the range and condition of health of the caribou," Fleck said.

This is a complicated mathematical formula that would help politicians make decisions on future development in the caribou herding area.

"It can give you some projections and then the land and water boards that review those activities can have an understanding of what the impact is," said Fleck.

According to Fleck, the last five years of caribou management were an improvement.

"They are resulting in stabilizing the herds," she said. "What we need to focus on now is getting the numbers back up."

The strategy was tabled in the legislative assembly on Feb. 24 and has been sent to aboriginal groups and other stakeholders for review. Comments will be accepted until April 15.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.