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Deline harvesters turn to traditional hunting practices Caribou diminished vulnerable under siege Herd that calves in northern Quebec with its winter range in Labrador decreased in size in the 1950s to roughly 5000 animals but recovered to about 800000 animals in the 1980s. It is now in decline again back down to about 10000 animals. The Porcupine Herd with its calving ground on the Alaskan North Slope and winter range into Yukon is actually increasing in size after its numbers dipped in thelate1990sandisnowuptonearly200000 animals. All other herds have suffered steep declines however. Evans told the Journal that negative im- pacts on caribou causing a significant drop in herd numbers are very complex and it is difficult to pinpoint any one cause. The qual- ity of lichen they feed on and how available it is on their range is critical and drought like that experienced in the North in recent years can change what vegetation grows. If they cant eat well they are not robust and then the cows wont have calves. If a cow is skinny it wont go into heat so it wont get pregnant. If that happens to all the cows the herd shrinks. Evans said the newfound health of the Por- cupine Herd may be due to better weather conditions in its range but it is also likely be- cause there are no roads in the region except for the Dempster Highway that provide hunt- ing access and the animals seem to be smart enoughtoavoidthehighwayduringmigration. Evans a lifelong Mtis hunter says the fu- ture of many of the caribou herds hangs in the balance and it is critical that every effort be made to conserve them. A lifelong hunter himself Evans stopped harvesting caribou several years ago and is now focused on con- servation to bring the herds back so we can hunt them again and so our grandchildren can hunt them. Wednesday March 2 2016 7 ENVIRONMENT WILDLIFE By DALI CARMICHAEL AsthecommunityofDeline comes together for meetings regarding its Caribou Forever Plan and harvest manage- ment this week many mem- bers will simultaneously be planning ways to action its principles - namely diversi- fying the harvest. Laterthismonthyouthwill take to the land with experi- enced harvesters for a win- tertime fish camp where they will have the chance to learn aboutfoodsecurityissuesand how to address them in the long term using traditional harvesting methods. This will be the second camp or- ganized through the project the first held last fall. The camp is part of a Health Canada funded study on climate change its impact on the land and the people who live there. Through some of this funding were able to pro- vide money for community harvests so were up here trying to plan the next har- vest where we get elders and youth and as many people as we can said Andrew Spring the head researcher on the project in from Wil- frid Laurier University. Its great because the elders get onthelandandtheyreableto teach the younger harvesters the skills they need. Theparticipatoryactionre- search - which sees research- ers work with the community to identify and solve issues - was initiated by the Deline Renewable Resources Coun- cil and is also supported by the Northern Farm Training Institute and Ecology North. We look at how climate change is affecting their ability to be on the land and there are certainly concerns about that but it really comes down to is the element of knowledge and community concern about - do we have the community knowledge to harvest other species or harvest any species Do we treat all these species with the proper respect according to the traditions of the com- munity Spring said. What started out as two parallel projects have really started to overlap a bit. Youth participating in the camp will be taught the traditions and rules of their ancestors diversify the har- vest share what you get with others take what you need. At the same time they will be chanelling the goals of the proposed Caribou For- ever Plan known as the Belarewle Gotse ekwe in the Sahtgotn Dene dialect of Deline. I think the concept here is to have better relations with wildlife to be part of the ecosystem and contrib- ute to it versus being master said Walter Bayha a special advisor to Deline Chief Leon- ard Kenny. Deline here is saying we want to hunt the way our grandfathers have because that tells us what we have. That is survival that is survival with wildlife. Ted Mckeinzo 22 was hired as a youth mobilizer and project manager for the camp. He sees it not only as an opportunity to focus on food security but as a mech- anism to preserve his culture and language. I feel like our tradition and our culture should be still alive. I dont want to see in 50 years that my grand- kids cant speak my lan- guage that hurts the heart and thats everybodys con- cept in this town he said. My job is to try and get as many youth as we can to go out there so they can have a sense of pride about bring- ing food back to the elders who cant go out any more. I feel like that would help contribute into pushing them towards keeping the cultural and traditional aspects of their lives alive. It feels right its like theres going to school learning the ABCs and counting but for us its going out and learning the tradi- tional ways of surviving. Its not easy running these on-the-land exercises Mck- einzo noted. Despite a high level of interest from local youth barriers like cost a lack of equipment and even school and work responsi- bilities stand in the way of successfully pulling off op- portunities like this. Learning from our grandfathers Earlier this year Deline made the decision to end hunting in the kewe zone - in the Tekacho and tsere Te areas located across from the community on the east sde of Keith Arm of Great Bear Lake. Caribou in this area are mostly from the Bluenose East Herd. The Caribou Forever plan is a two-year project that proposes a quota of about 150 caribou per year a number the harvesters have already reached this hunt- ing season. It has been put forth by Deline First Nation the Deline Land Corporation and the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board. At the meetings this week Environment and Natural Resources representatives will expand on their recom- mendations as well which include limiting the harvest of caribou to 163 bulls for Sahtu beneficiaries pro- posals for other manage- ment measures including predator management op- position to potential devel- opment activities on caribou calving grounds support for improved hunter education and use of aboriginal laws and hunting methods to promote respect for wild- life and reduce wastage and prioritizing accurate harvest monitoring enforcement without closing the door to community-based cultur- ally appropriate measures. ENVIRONMENT WILDLIFE By DON JAQUE Most of the great Canadian migratory cari- bou herds have declined to tiny remnant pop- ulations and are in a vulnerable state and Earl Evans chair of the Beverly Qamanir- juaq Caribou Management Board BQCMB is worried that faced with new challenges their chances of recovery may be overwhelmed. Evans said it is critical caribou are well managed and protected for the long term but particularly now when they have small populations and are vulnerable. The health of the caribou herds is very important to in- digenous Northerners he said to culture and to their everyday lives. He advocates that all hunting stop completely to give the herds the chance to recover. Evans quotes one study that determined the food value of the annual caribou harvest for the Beverly Qamanirjuaq and Ahiak herds alone is close to 20 million if replaced with the equivalent volume of hamburger meat. That is not even the good cuts of meat - just hamburger he said. The greatest threat to caribou that is man- ageable is human activity. Evans said mineral exploration and development disrupt both calving activity and migration. Exploration and new industrial sites disturb the animals and winter roads are a problem because they create a linear barrier. Studies have shown the long berms on iceroads deflect caribou migration. Worse still a continuous line of trucks like the ones now supplying the dia- mond mines north of Yellowknife cause con- stant noise and create snowdust. In the two month re-supply period between now and springtime 8000 loads will be hauled on the winter road that crosses the migration route of the Bathurst Herd. It now numbers fewer than 20000 animals and continues to decline. Since all the trucks return empty the total is 16000 trips to and from the mines in a two month period. Evans said roads to industrial develop- ments provide hunter access which can have a huge impact on herd numbers if hunting is not limited responsibly. Every time a winter road goes in hundreds of animals are taken further depleting the herds and hurting their chance of recovery. The way hunting is carried out will have a long-term impact on the animals as well Evans stated. Trophy hunters take the biggest healthiest bulls which are the best breeders. Indigenoushunterspickoffthefattesthealthi- est cows. When a herd numbers in the hun- dreds of thousands the impact is not signifi- cant but when herd numbers are diminished as is the case now the gene pool is impacted. He said it is like selective breeding except the animalsarebeingbackwardsbredovertime. He quotes a European study where after 30 years of that kind of hunting weaker smaller more disease prone animals resulted. Internet sales in Nunavut have become a new problem Evans said where people buy and sell caribou online. Someone can post a shout-out for caribou in Iqaluit - say they want to buy three cows and a hunter will jump on his snowmachine in one of the communities that is near a herd and go out and shoot the animals right away. Two airlines in Nunavut offer discounted air freight for backhauls so there is good money to be made for the hunter. Evans said thousands of pounds of meat is being delivered this way all of it legal as many as 2000 animals in a couple of months. The number of predators that feed on the caribou also seems to be high observed Evans. He said he was amazed at the number of predators bears and wolves following the caribou right into the calving grounds of the Beverly Herd. That herd has now been deemed extinct after the last cows in the remnant population relocated to join another herd to the north seeking safety in numbers. He described one incident where a wolf was seen killing ten young caribou in a short space of time by shaking them to snap their necks. Then it dragged one off to the den to eat and left the rest for later. Evans said 52 wolves were seen in one pack near the Saskatchewan-NWT border and a pack of over 70 wolves was counted by chop- per on the north coast. It would take a lot of caribou to feed that many wolves stated Evans. He said there are large numbers of griz- zlies on the range as well. He saw 15 grizzlies within an hour of flying in the Beverly range. Climate change is bringing new problems to the animals. He said melting permafrost in some areas the animals traditionally travel had melted bogging them down in mud. He said rain in mid-winter coats the lichen they feed on with a crust of ice and the animals can cut their hoofs trying to get at it. He said because the range where they migrate may now stay wet their hooves do not heal result- ing in a disease called foot rot. He said Inuit hunters have reported thousands of animals limping as they travelled trailing at the back of the herd being picked off by predators. Temperatures in summer mean more biting insects for a longer period of time which means calves can be swarmed and die. Since climate change is new and coming on so fast the overall impacts are unknown and could be devastating. Drastic population declines are not unusual for caribou herds. Numbers can rise and fall dramatically over time. The George River