DELINE/FORT FRANKLIN
The Sahtu Renewable Resources Board (SRRB) is rejecting the territorial government's proposal to impose a Total Allowable Harvest (TAH) of on the Bluenose East caribou herd - for now, says the board's vice chair.

While its range can vary from year to year, this map shows the Bluenose East caribou herd's approximate range based on radio collar data gathered since 1996. - photo courtesy of Bonnie Fournier, ENR

"For now, the board and the community (of Deline) have rejected the notion of a TAH and are going with the community conservation plan," said Paul Latour.

The board is endorsing Deline's own management plan, titled the Caribou for All Time plan. It allows Deline hunters to harvest 150 caribou in a season, 20 per cent of which could be females.

A report was sent to Robert C McLeod, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, for review and he responded to the SRRB on Sept. 26.

He requested the board adjust its numbers to 129 for all Sahtu communities, five of which could be females.

There are five communities in the Sahtu region; Deline, Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells and Tulita.

But other communities in the Sahtu recognize that Deline hunters are the primary harvesters of the Bluenose East herd in the region, Latour said.

"People ask, 'what's in it for the other communities in the Sahtu?', so I guess you have to remember that Deline is pretty much the sole harvester of Bluenose East caribou in the Sahtu," he said. "But Deline also recognizes that other communities have a deep interest in caribou management, so the community plans are working with other communities to come with a better, if I could call it that, regional approach to caribou management."

Because the herd's range falls within both the management area of the SRRB and the Wek'èezhii Renewable Resources Board (WRRB), both boards have plans for the herd.

Originally, the Tlicho Government (TG) and ENR had requested a TAH of 950, but the (WRRB) recommended the number be lowered to 750 bulls. The Tlicho region is within the WRRB management area.

In July, the WRRB imposed its own hunting restrictions, limiting Tlicho hunters to about 39 per cent of the 750. The remaining 61 per cent would be divided among other aboriginal groups that hunt the herd.

The WRRB's decision is final and can't be altered by the ENR minister.

Latour said consultations between the boards and ENR are ongoing, with meetings scheduled to take place early in the New Year.

"Nobody's kind of going away and crawling into their own silos, there is definitely going to have to be a lot of conservation between regions and sorting out how thing are going to work given the fundamental differences in approaches that we saw in the two reports," he said.

Jan Adamczewski, ENR ungulates biologist, agreed.

"We expect there will be some further meetings and some discussions about the numbers," he said."We're basically in agreement on the approach, we like the Deline plan, but we need to talk a little bit further about the numbers because our concern is to try to make sure there is a consistent approach for the entire herd in terms of harvest management."

Hunters in Nunavut also harvest the Bluenose East herd. In June, ENR staff participated in a Nunavut Wildlife Management Board hearing to discuss the herd's management.

At the time, the Government of Nunavut recommended a harvest 340 Bluenose East caribou for Nunavut hunters.

"They also had a presentation from the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Association for a community-based management plan that has quite a few similarities to the Deline plan," Adamczewski said.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board has not yet released its decision.

The SRRB could support a TAH for the herd if numbers continue to plummet, Latour said.

"The board doesn't categorically reject a Total Allowable Harvest if the herd continues to decline," he said. "That kind of government top-down approach may have to be brought in more and more and that might involve a Total Allowable Harvest, but for the time being, the board in its hearing in March didn't see any evidence that would support, in its mind anyway, imposing a Total Allowable Harvest right now."

Population in steep decline

Bluenose East caribou numbers fell from about 68,000 to 38,600 animals from 2013 to 2015, according to Adamczewski.

The population of breeding cows crashed by 50 per cent during that same timeframe, with 34,000 in 2013 to only 17,000 in 2015.

A variety of factors could be contributing to the decline, Adamczewski said. The same drought conditions that lead to the NWT's wildfires in 2014 also likely affected the Bluenose East herd's summer food supply.

"At the same time, if you had very warm dry conditions then the vegetation probably wasn't growing the way it should and that means that feeding conditions for the animals are probably not very good and if they're not getting very good feeding conditions, then they're going to tend to be in poor shape," Adamczewski said. "The most obvious way that that would affect the herd then would be if the cows are really lean in the breeding season then they probably don't get pregnant. So that's certainly, we think, one of the contributing factors here."

Warble fly infestations and predation by wolves, as well as a natural population cycle common to other herds in the region, could also be playing roles, Adamczewski said.

"Part of it probably is sort of a long term cyclic nature of caribou numbers," he said. "So we happen to be kind of in a period where herds across the North are generally, or at least our part of the North, are at fairly low numbers."

But hunting is also a factor, he added. With numbers so low, harvesting is having an impact.

"We believe for the Bluenose East herd, since 2010 the harvest is probably one of the things that has contributed to the decline," he said.

Resident and commercial harvesting of the herd has been banned since 2006, according to ENR.

The SRRB sent its letter to the minister outlining its position on the herd on Oct. 26, which means McLeod now has until Nov. 26 to respond.

"It's kind of a wait and see game for the time being, for the board anyway, until we see that," he said.

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