Deline to host community hunt to cap off Bluenose East harvest
March public hearing will decide how to manage next season for rapidly dwindling caribou herd
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Monday, January 25, 2016
SAHTU
Hunters in Deline decided against closing the Bluenose East caribou hunt for the rest of the season during a meeting in Deline on Jan. 22, said Deborah Simmons, executive director of the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board.
The meeting was intended to discuss Deline's management plan for the herd. Titled Caribou for All Time, A Deline Got'ne Plan of Action, it is guided by traditional knowledge and includes traditional laws that govern the people's relationship with the caribou. The plan suggests allowing a harvest of 150 caribou in a season, with the Deline Renewable Resources Council calling a meeting once 100 caribou have been harvested to discuss shutting down the hunt.
As of Jan. 22, between 110 and 115 caribou had been harvested so far this season. Hunters will close the season with a community hunt, which will only allow the harvest of young bulls, Simmons said.
Deline's hunt runs through the fall and winter. It is the Sahtu's primary harvesting community of the Bluenose East herd.
Snowshoes symbolizing Deline's relationship with the herd were given away during the meeting.
"(They) are kind of a symbol for people, to prevent wounding loss and to strengthen their traditional ways of hunting," Simmons said.
The Bluenose East herd has fallen to 35,000 to 40,000 animals in 2015, from 68,000 in 2013. The number of breeding cows had dropped by 50 per cent in that same time frame, with only 17,000 in 2015 compared to 34,000 in 2013, according to a September count by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).
While making immediate decisions for the herd, harvesters also discussed Deline's long-term management plan.
"There was this huge support of the plan while recognizing that it's going to evolve," Simmons said. "People are pretty clear they want to follow through on implementing the plan. They're pretty proud of what they have accomplished."
People also offered suggestions on ways it could improve, Simmons said. The plan is intended to cover a two-year period, but will be reviewed and updated regularly.
"Everyone agrees this is a living document," she said. "During the meeting, people said there were things they think could be added."
ENR also has a proposed management plan for the herd, based on a three-year period from November 2015 to November 2019, during which commercial and resident harvesting would continue to be banned.
Indigenous hunters would be permitted to harvest a total of 611 bull caribou a year, with 163 animals allocated to communities in the Sahtu region. The Tlicho would receive 373, the Dehcho would receive 15, the Inuvialuit would receive 8, the NWT Metis Nation would receive 14, the Akaitcho, 20 and the North Slave Metis Alliance, 17. The numbers would be reviewed annually.
The government hasn't allowed residential and commercial hunting since 2006.
The Sahtu Renewable Resources Board (SRRB) is reviewing both plans, said Simmons.
"Deline has worked closely with ENR on finalizing their plan and they understand that there needs to be discussions with the other communities and this is part of just one beginning part of a larger co-operative management process," she said.
Part of that process includes a public hearing to take place in Deline in from March 1 to March 3 to discuss how to proceed with next year's hunt.
The board is asking the other Sahtu communities to consider holding one-day workshops prior to the hearing, which would allow communities to put together any information requests or presentations they want to contribute, Simmons said.
Input can be submitted to the board in electronic format, including documented phone or in-person conversations with board or resource staff, audio recordings or video.
"We're putting a huge effort into ensuring that the affected parties have a full opportunity in a cross-cultural context to have their say," Simmons said. "And that includes taking seriously and accommodating both traditional knowledge and science."
The Wek'eezhi Renewable Resources Board (WRRB) will also host a public hearing and members of both its own board and the SRRB will attend the other group's proceedings, Simmons said. The two boards signed a memorandum of understanding last October, agreeing to work collaboratively on the herd's management. The SRRB will then compile a hearing report, which will be finalized and submitted to ENR Minister Wally Schumann. The report will include the board's final recommendations. The deadline for the SRRB decision is May.
The minister can then modify, accept or reject the board's recommendations, but Simmons said the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim states that the minister must provide reasons for changing any of the board's positions. The reasons must be provided to the board in writing.
"According to the land claim, the minister has to give reasons for varying positions of our board, so it has to be taken very, very seriously," she said. "We are the main instrument of wildlife management in the Sahtu region, so this process is hopefully something that will lead to good consensus because of the collaborative approach that we're trying to take."
While working together is priority, Simmons said the group is also working under a tight deadline.
"We're considering the time it takes to get to that point of making regulations and having them in place for the next harvest season," she said. "The idea is to act as quickly as possible."
Kenny said he agreed.
"The bottom line is the declining numbers, so we have to do something about it," he said.
