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SAMBAA K'E/TROUT LAKE
A group designed to help manage boreal caribou in the Deh Cho is about to celebrate its first anniversary.

Community representatives including, clockwise from right, Edward Cholo of Fort Simpson, Darrell Betsaka of Nahanni Butte and Chief Stan Sanguez and Ernest Hardisty of Jean Marie River participated in the first Dehcho Boreal Caribou Working Group meeting last year on Feb. 10. - NNSL file photo

The Dehcho Boreal Caribou Working Group held its first meeting a year ago on Feb. 10.

The group was created to gather information and research about boreal caribou and share it with Deh Cho communities, said Nic Larter, the regional biologist for the Deh Cho with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).

During four quarterly face-to-face meetings, the group's members have reviewed the existing and latest knowledge about boreal caribou in the Deh Cho and the South Slave.

Data has come from a variety of sources, including ENR's boreal caribou programs, ENR's forest management division and researcher John Nagy, who did an analysis on how boreal caribou respond to seismic lines and what they require in their habitat.

"The bottom line is somebody has to speak for the caribou," Larter said.

Boreal caribou are listed as a threatened species by both the Species at Risk Act and the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Data collected over the last six years in the Deh Cho and South Slave shows a slight decline in the boreal caribou population.

The working group is important because elders keep saying that no one knows how many caribou there are and the small herds need to be protected, said Chief Stan Sanguez, who is Jean Marie River's alternate representative on the working group.

Sanguez said Jean Marie River wanted to be part of the working group because the community had a lot of concerns about pipelines and how future developments might effect boreal caribou.

"It's really worthwhile for the community to understand how sensitive these animals are," he said.

The working group has also taken an interest in how forest fires affect boreal caribou habitat. The group has recommended to ENR certain areas that should be protected from forest fires because they are prime habitat.

The department plans to place GPS collars on 16 female boreal caribou throughout the region, paying specific attention to areas that communities said they'd like animals collared in.

Through its work the group has made a number of recommendations related to the management of boreal caribou.

One recommendation is ENR follow the community's wishes and also try to keep an equal balance of collared animals on either side of the Mackenzie River. It was also suggested that smaller numbers be collared every year instead of a large amount in one year.

Recovery strategy

Sanguez said the collars are providing a lot of information about the caribou that the group plans to share with Environment Canada, which is working on a national recovery strategy for boreal caribou. The working group has sent a letter to Environment Canada about the strategy.

The next step for the working group will be to wait to see the national recovery strategy, said Larter. The group is mandated to develop a range management plan for boreal caribou in the Deh Cho but it will have to align with the national strategy.

In the meantime, the working group is developing a newsletter to better inform Deh Cho communities about its work.

The working group is composed of representatives from Dehcho First Nations, Nahanni Butte, Jean Marie River, Kakisa, Trout Lake and ENR. One year in Sanguez said he wants the group's work to continue so that the boreal caribou population in the region can be protected.

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