Tlicho government and GNWT propose wolf cull to protect herd
Ban on Bathurst caribou hunt will continue to 2019
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Updated: Monday, February 29, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Tlicho and territorial governments have announced a caribou joint-management plan, which will push the ban on the Bathurst caribou hunt to 2019 and is planned to include a wolf cull.
A management plan for caribou put forth by the territorial and Tlicho governments proposes a wolf cull, which would offer financial incentives to hunters for killing the animals. - NNSL file photo |
The two governments announced during a Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board public hearing in downtown Yellowknife last week that they are preparing a feasibility study to find methods to kill wolves. The animals are believed to be contributing to the decline of the Bathurst herd. Researchers say Bathurst caribou have dropped in numbers by 96 per cent since 1986.
One community member stood up at the public hearing to air concerns that wolf control has been destructive in the past.
Madelaine Pasquayak from Gameti relayed a story her father had once told her how he nearly ate poisoned caribou meat meant for wolves, which he found while tending to a trapline. Pasquayak said government workers dropped the poisoned meat in hopes of killing wolves but killed her father's sled dogs instead.
"All of a sudden the lead dog started making this strange noise," she said, adding the dog seemed to freeze solid where it stood before it died.
"My dad could have died," she said.
Pasquayak said if banning caribou harvesting will help the herd rebound, she's all for it. She said she prefers caribou to store-bought protein but said she is willing to forgo the pleasure.
"I've learned that I can go without," she said.
In 2010, restrictions on the hunt meant the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN) and the Tlicho government split 300 bulls.
Last year, further restrictions cut that number to 15 bulls for ceremonial purposes and required the YKDFN and the Tlicho to share them with the North Slave Metis Alliance.
The plan announced last week proposes cutting the number of animals taken to zero until 2019, after the territory carries out another caribou count in 2018.
The First Nation's regulatory and research specialist who attended the hearing as an intervenor on behalf of the Yellowknives Dene said continued restrictions on caribou hunting will mean subsistence hunters will go hungry.
"Harvesting restrictions are a fairly blunt instrument, because for every restriction on harvesting, there's a restriction on food on people's plates and the ability to engage in traditional activities and traditional lifestyle," said Alex Power. "The discussion of the last two days has really centered around wildlife and I think that's understandable. However, we can't separate management actions from the consequences."
The management plan calls for the initial killing of between 50 and 100 wolves but Power said the Yellowknives Dene already engage in predator control and have for generations.
"What YKDFN is concerned about here is that errors of the past aren't repeated, like poorly-executed poisoning programs," Power said. "I look forward to ENR's feasibility study to see what options are on the table using science and traditional knowledge to make this possible."
Tlicho lands protection manager Sjoerd Van Der Wielen said the Tlicho government plans to train around eight hunters to kill and handle wolf meat and pelts.
The proposed actions in the joint-submission include wolf-harvest incentives, which amount to a $200 reward given to harvesters upon presenting an intact wolf carcass to any ENR office throughout the territory, a $450 payday for hunters presenting a wolf pelt prepared to traditional standards and $800 for a "good quality, prime, well-handled and properly prepared wolf pelt," including a processed skull.
