Fort Smith doing its part to save Bathurst caribou
Hunters have other herds to harvest
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 26, 2015
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Fort Smith hunters have done their part to help save the Bathurst caribou herd, which has experienced plunging numbers over recent decades.
As debate continues over conservation methods for the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou herds, Fort Smith hunter Ken Hudson weighs in saying he, unlike others, does not debate the plunging population numbers put together by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. - photo courtesy of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources |
So says Ken Hudson, a well-known hunter in Fort Smith.
"That's the main herd we've hunted for the last 30-40 years that I've been hunting there," he said. "For the good of the herd, you just had to quit hunting them. They are down in numbers so low that everybody should stop hunting them and be a total restriction on hunting."
The Bathurst herd has declined to an estimated 15,000 animals from 470,000 in 1986.
Hudson, who is also president of the Fort Smith Metis Council, noted Metis hunters in the community stopped harvesting from the herd five or six years ago when concern arose about the population numbers.
"We knew the situation and we voluntarily quit before we were even asked to stop," he said. "We stopped ever since. We haven't hunted there at all."
Hudson said First Nations members in Fort Smith also stopped hunting from the herd.
"They've been good about it, too," he said. "The whole community of Fort Smith has been supportive of doing everything we can to restrict the pressure on that herd."
Hudson said hunters in Fort Smith are closer to other caribou herds and are not as reliant on the Bathurst herd as people in the Tlicho region.
"In Fort Smith, we're kind of lucky because we have the Beverly-Qamanirjuaq herd that we hunt," he said. "It's more expensive to do because we have to fly out to get the caribou and, in some cases, we have to fly out 200 km or more. So it's quite a distance and quite a cost to bring caribou in, but we're not entirely out of caribou."
Plus, Hudson noted hunters in Fort Smith have other animals to harvest.
"We don't feel the pressure as much as the Tlicho people," he explained. "Because we're moose hunters, we have access to buffalo and we still have access to caribou, maybe not in the numbers we used to."
Hudson understands the dilemma facing the Tlicho.
For one, he noted it is hard for the Tlicho to be asked to stop hunting the Bathurst herd when Inuit hunters in Nunavut still harvest from the herd. They are currently banned from hunting the herd until an agreement is made on a new management plan.
"For the Tlicho people to stop entirely hunting that herd and still have big-game hunters taking animals somewhere else off the same herd, that's wrong. That's totally wrong," he said. "Something's got to be done about that."
Hudson believes the number of animals in the Bathurst and other caribou herds in the NWT has declined over the years because of hunting and predation by wolves.
"I would still be concerned about watching them very closely because all the herds seem to be affected at the same time," he said. "It's not just one herd. The Bluenose-East is really feeling the pressure now because there is more hunting pressure on them because of the restrictions on the Bathurst. So they're really down in numbers."
Hudson noted some Tlicho people went hunting this past fall and there were no caribou to be found.
"They're gone from the face of this Earth and, in order for them to come back, we've got to restrict our hunting," he said. "The only real pressure on that herd right now, the Bathurst I'm talking about, is wolf kills. So we've got to do something about limiting that take on caribou."
Unlike some other aboriginal harvesters, Hudson does not challenge the findings of GNWT population surveys of caribou herds, or argue the animals may have simply moved to other locations.
"The reason I would suggest that they're accurate is because they collar animals," he said, noting collaring happens in every herd. "So they know where those herds go ... They're doing a pretty good job out there."
