Tlicho cancel fall caribou hunt
Meeting to discuss Bathurst herd scheduled for November
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 13, 2014
TLICHO
Whati's chief says elders will be hardest hit by the decision to cancel the Tlicho region's fall caribou hunt this year.
"It will be a setback," said Whati Chief Alfonz Nitsiza. "People, especially elders, are used to these country foods."
The hunt, which usually includes between 50 and 60 hunters from Tlicho communities, had to be cancelled this fall due to a lack of Bathurst caribou in the region, Nitsiza said.
Scouts went out multiple times to look for the herd, but found very few.
"There were caribou there, but there weren't enough," he said.
Tlicho communities usually come together and charter a plane to perform the hunt. When hunters heard about the lack of animals, they decided to cancel the trip.
"We thought because of the money involved and if there is not enough caribou, we thought it's not worth the trip," Nitsiza said.
There were about 470,000 Bathurst caribou in 1986, according to the Department of Environment and Natural resources. That number fell to 35,000 by 2012.
In June, the department performed a survey on both the Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds' calving grounds and found both populations are still weakening.
The burn areas left over by forest fires near Whati and Gameti have been reported in other media to be contributing to the change in the Bathurst herd's migration patterns this year, however ENR could not provide a spokesperson to speak to this by press time.
"The trends from these surveys suggest that both herds are declining at an alarming rate," ENR Minister Michael Miltenberger stated in a press release on the continued population decline. "As leaders and managers, there is a need for us to review the current information about both herds and determine together, the management actions needed to help in their recovery and conservation."
In 2010, the government banned resident and commercial hunting of the Bathurst herd, but allowed an aboriginal hunt of up to 300 bulls. The tags were evenly distributed between the Tlicho Government and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
Leaders discussed the herd during a meeting in Yellowknife in August, which included Miltenberger and aboriginal governments, Nitsiza said.
"There has been a lot of talk," he said. "We know there is a decline in the numbers and more decline every year because of all the activity in the area."
In an e-mail to News/North, ENR spokesperson Ella Stinson stated that increased development was one of the possible factors putting pressure on the herd.
"Evidence from traditional and scientific sources indicates that the number of caribou in a herd periodically increase and decrease at relatively regular intervals, which could be tied to regular fluctuations in climatic patterns," she stated. "Other factors that may be impacting barren-ground caribou herds include local weather conditions, wildfire, predation rates, insect abundance, harvesting, increased easier access to herds and resource development activity."
There is still a chance hunters will be able to perform a winter harvest, but Nitsiza said it's too early to say for sure.
Another meeting to discuss the herd's future was scheduled to take place sometime this month, but has been moved to November.
Decisions about whether to further restrict the hunt could be discussed at that time, Nitsiza said.
"We'll see how the decision is made," he said. "I'm sure everything will be considered."
The next population survey for the Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds is expected to take place next summer.
