WORKING TO PROTECT IMPORTANT CARIBOU HABITATS

With mining and other industrial developments on the rise in Canada’s North, the BQCMB has gone on the offensive to identify areas of land and water that are especially important to the well-being of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou. The Board is one year into an extensive project that will flag important caribou habitats.

The results of this project will include documents and maps that summarize scientific and traditional knowledge on seasonal distribution and important habitats of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou. This information will be useful for land use planning, protected areas planning, and impact assessment studies by government agencies and aboriginal organizations at local, regional, and territorial/provincial levels.

On the flip side of the coin, the important habitats project will also rate activities harmful to the caribou range. These include things like roads or pipelines that cross important habitats, pollution, mineral exploration and development, camps, low level aircraft flights, airstrips, tourism activities, and commercial harvest of caribou.

Putting down on paper the areas important to the survival of caribou, and explaining in plain language why the caribou need them, proved to be one of the smartest moves made by another wildlife board — the Porcupine Caribou Management Board. Its 1993 report, Sensitive Habitats of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, clearly points out the need to get permanent protection for the calving area in Alaska, says chairman Joe Tetlichi, who adds the report has helped their past lobbying efforts to halt oil development in the ‘1002’ section of the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which contains a large portion of the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou. (Most of the remainder of the calving grounds is protected by Yukon’s Ivvavik and Vuntut national parks.) The battle to protect their Alaskan calving grounds continues.

Traditional knowledge needed

The BQCMB project received a hefty boost in June when Wildlife Habitat Canada agreed to pitch in up to $10,000 for traditional knowledge planning and additional analyses using a geographic information systems (GIS). Wildlife Habitat Canada is a prominent national leadership resource for Canadian wildlife habitat conservation. A non-profit foundation, Wildlife Habitat Canada builds co-operative partnerships with governments, non-government organizations, industries, corporations, and private citizens to protect, enhance, and restore wildlife habitat across Canada.

Wildlife Habitat Canada is providing funding to the BQCMB project since it provides a unique conservation opportunity over a broad geographic region. The participation by local native communities and scientific experts under the direction of the BQCMB is very important and will lead to long-term benefits for wildlife habitat conservation.

Consciously looking to become involved in the northern landscape, Wildlife Habitat Canada contributed $135,000 between 1994 and 1996 to a Northwest Territories habitat conservation program aimed at establishing a network of conservation areas in the territory, and ensuring habitat conservation issues are recognized and addressed by the territorial government.

The contribution from Wildlife Habitat Canada has made it possible for the BQCMB to hire consultant Marc Stevenson to develop a blueprint for collecting traditional knowledge from 17 communities on or near the caribou range in the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Stevenson is surveying all board members for their thoughts on ways to collect traditional knowledge, through numerous phonecalls and meetings in Yellowknife, Wollaston Lake, and La Ronge. Stevenson will present his proposed blueprint to the BQCMB at its November meeting in Thompson, and will recommend that a pilot study be conducted in two communities so that bugs can be worked out and caribou users can recommend changes to methods before the traditional knowledge study goes ahead full steam across the range.

Stevenson, who does work with the University of Alberta’s Canadian Circumpolar Institute, consults on aboriginal, environmental, social and economic issues.

He says there are some special challenges in the BQCMB project to be solved. One is to make sure communities “take ownership” of this study, so that they feel it’s theirs – and not just another study being imposed upon them. Traditional caribou users also have to be involved as much as possible in the collection, interpretation, and use of the knowledge. They have to be drawn into decision-making processes.

Lastly, Stevenson worries about a major obstacle: the “decontextualization” of local knowledge. Once the words leave the lips of the elder or hunter and are passed on to another group involved in the mapping project, and that information is then used by other groups unfamiliar with the local people and their knowledge of caribou, how different will the information be from the original words spoken?

Mutually beneficial

Stevenson’s efforts will complement a similar study that the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC) is doing in Keewatin communities (Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet, Whale Cove and Arviat) as part of an exercise to update the Keewatin land use plan.

The NPC is the new territory’s public institution responsible for creating land use plans that give guidance on how the land in the new territory of Nunavut is to be used. The plans balance resource use and development with environmental and wildlife conservation, protection and management.

The NPC made it clear last year that working with the Board on this project would be mutually beneficial, since caribou cross territorial/provincial boundaries, and both the NPC and the Board need this kind of mapping information. Peter Wilson, the NPC’s manager of geographic information systems, met with BQCMB members at their November 1996 meeting in Winnipeg to describe how his organization could contribute to the project.

As of August 1997, NPC’s role was still not nailed down, partly because NPC wants to involve the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board at the same time and talks on this co-operative arrangement haven’t taken place yet. The other sticking point is the reluctance of the government of the Northwest Territories to release data in digital format prior to verification. A territorial workshop to develop guidelines for releasing data is being planned now, and release of data for use by NPC has been promised.

But NPC executive director Jon Pierce confirmed they’re talking about possibly mapping traditional knowledge on caribou distribution in the Keewatin, feeding maps produced by both NPC and BQCMB into their geographic information system, and then assisting with the publication of the final report. Whether that’s what NPC ends up doing should be decided by December 1997.

In return for this help, the BQCMB has agreed to provide its maps and analyses to NPC.

Databases “irreplaceable”

The BQCMB’s important habitats project is being spearheaded by Yellowknife biologist Leslie Wakelyn. With the help of the Northwest Territories Centre for Remote Sensing, Wakelyn has compiled a mapping database of areas used by Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou that contains more than 2,000 files created from over 500 government records. According to Wakelyn, these databases have the potential to be moulded into countless kinds of maps — depending on the objectives, timeframe, and season of caribou distribution — and that makes the databases “the most valuable, and probably irreplaceable” outgrowth of this entire mapping effort.

Ed Benoanie, the Hatchet Lake Band member responsible for economic development and an alternate Board member, asked at the BQCMB’s June meeting in Wollaston Lake if the Hatchet Lake Band could use these databases for their own recently acquired GIS program. Sharing this kind of information would help everyone, board members agreed.

Information gaps

Information gaps in government data became evident during initial work in the fall of 1996. Part of the reason for the gaps is that in the 1970s and 1980s, information came from aerial surveys of both Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou conducted by various researchers in several jurisdictions; in the 1990s, most data have come from one satellite collaring project conducted for the Qamanirjuaq herd.

Survey data and satellite collar data have different advantages and limitations. For example, surveys only show caribou distribution for a “snapshot in time” — for example, during the peak of calving, or a few days during the long winter — while data from satellite-collared caribou comes through year-round, and frequent locations are received every few days.

On the other hand, satellite-collared caribou provide information for only part of the herds (namely cows and calves), so no information exists for other sex/age groups. And it must be remembered that data from a handful of satellite-collared caribou show some areas used by some caribou — but do not represent movements and range use patterns for the hundreds of thousands of caribou in the entire herd.

Finally, caribou travel through several political jurisdictions, and that has meant dealing with governments and researchers who do surveys in different ways, and at different times. It’s been difficult comparing systems that aren’t the same.

ELDERS CURIOUS ABOUT SATELLITE COLLARS

Dene elders who attended the BQCMB’s Wollaston Lake meeting in June threw their support behind the important habitats project, and backed the idea of collecting traditional knowledge to enhance the final product, urging that each community have input. Elders offered to set up committees for this purpose.

Another topic that piqued their curiosity was satellite collars. Some elders in northern Saskatchewan communities have said in the past that they feel it is wrong and unnatural to attach an object to an animal. Important habitats project co-ordinator Leslie Wakelyn has told the BQCMB that without recent surveys or satellite collars on Beverly caribou, it’s tough to analyze distribution and movements of Beverly caribou in relation to recently burned areas and areas with increasing development activities.

However, at least one Wollaston Lake elder told the BQCMB at its June meeting that Dene would support the collaring of caribou if they knew more about it. Elders asked that NWT biologist Anne Gunn conduct a workshop on this.

Communities with Internet access can also relive the 1997 spring migration of the collared Qamanirjuaq caribou by checking out an educational site called Journey North (www.learner.org/content/k12/jnorth/1997/critters/caribou/index.html). The final issue of Caribou News (June 1996) ran a two-page spread in English and Dene on satellite collars.

AROUND THE RANGE

Checking for contaminants

The Board agreed to support University of Saskatchewan scientist Pat Thomas’s bid to sample 10 to 15 caribou around Uranium City and north into the Northwest Territories in the winter of 1998, as long as a few conditions are met. Thomas will play a familiar role: contaminants spy. Several years ago, aided by a scholarship from the BQCMB, she investigated levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 in a study on the lichen-caribou-wolf chain.

Board members requested, in part, that Thomas not sample animals while they are about 50 miles from Uranium City; that she wait till caribou had been in the area around three months; and that she consider placing satellite collars on a few animals wintering around Fouk’s Lake to monitor movements and health conditions.

“A future for an ancient deer”

The historic Yukon, much of which sheltered large herds of animals during the last Ice Age thanks to its unglaciated patches, sets the scene for the 8th North American Caribou Workshop, slated for April 20 to 24, 1998 in Whitehorse. Caribou, the oldest species of deer, go back to their roots here. That’s why organizers picked the theme “A future for an ancient deer,” with the hope that past events and future plans will find harmony in workshops. For more details, phone (403) 667-5465, fax (403) 393-6263 or e-mail rfarnell@yknet.yk.ca Or visit their web site at www.loon.yk.net/nacaribou

Caribou on the Web

Back to school coincided with the BQCMB’s arrival on the World Wide Web this month. The Board’s web site, at www.arctic-caribou.com, gives an overview of the Board’s past achievements, ongoing projects, a glimpse into communities on the caribou range, and links to more than 40 other caribou-related sites, including the web site of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board (www.pcmb.yk.ca/pcmb.html). E-mail your comments about the BQCMB’s new web site or any Board issue to bqcmb@cyberus.ca

BQCMB meetings

Gracious hospitality set the mood for a great meeting in Wollaston Lake this past June. Hatchet Lake band chief Hector Kkailther not only arranged the BQCMB’s nighttime public meeting — along with translation services – he saw to it that board members dined and were taxied to and from the airport for free. Board members later passed the hat to raise funds for the Father Megret School students who’d prepared the Board’s meals. The money went towards two field trips: one, a senior class trip to post-secondary institutions in Battleford, Regina and Saskatoon, brought students face-to-face with aboriginal instructors and other professionals who provide good role models. A junior class excursion to Battleford and area reserves introduced students to horseback riding and members of a Hutterite colony. In Wollaston, board members also passed out BQCMB baseball caps, a big hit with students.

The board’s next meeting is set for Nov. 28 to 30 in Thompson.

THE ETHICAL HUNTER

The BQCMB is creating a poster that, in straightforward language, outlines wise hunting practices to help conserve caribou. Grappling with real issues and conflicting legislation that today’s subsistence hunter faces, the poster will be distributed later this fall for display in Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou-using communities.

Here is the full text of the poster:

CONSERVE CARIBOU – HUNT WISELY

Caribou are the mainstay of northern peoples. The use of caribou must be sustainable and follow widely accepted conservation practices. Not only must caribou be conserved for future generations but those generations must be taught the means of conservation and sustainable use. Today’s hunters must teach the young people.

Across the caribou range and across cultures there are widely held beliefs and values on acceptable use of caribou. These are the conservation ethics of caribou hunters on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou ranges.

Conservation of caribou includes the use and protection of caribou.

  • A hunter retrieves the caribou he kills. No edible part of a caribou is left on the land to spoil or be wasted. This is true in times of plenty and when caribou are scarce.
  • A hunter caches meat when there is too much to carry. Meat caches prevent the caribou from spoiling and keep ravens and other animals off the meat. Meat caches are well marked so they may be found again by the hunter. Meat is retrieved from a cache as soon as possible by a hunter.
  • A hunter kills only the number of caribou needed by his family and community.
  • Caribou meat is not pet food. People living on the land and hunting with the old ways might feed caribou to their working dogs.
  • A hunter respects the caribou. Caribou are not chased with snowmobiles or ATVs on the land, nor with boats in the water. These vehicles are only used to travel to the caribou and may be used to follow a wounded caribou.

Caribou hunters maintain high standards of skills and knowledge.

  • A hunter practices safe firearm handling. Loaded firearms are not carried on snowmobiles, ATVs, sleighs (komatik or toboggan) or boats. Before shooting a hunter makes sure he is not shooting toward people or camps.
  • A hunter is a marksman. Before shooting a hunter takes aim at a single caribou and makes sure he has a clear shot. A hunter tries to kill a caribou quickly and not wound it.
  • A hunter goes after wounded caribou. If a caribou is wounded it is not left to die. Even when it is difficult to follow a wounded caribou a hunter does his best to retrieve that animal.
  • A hunter relies on his skills to hunt caribou. Snowmobiles, ATVs and boats are not used to herd caribou toward other hunters.
  • A hunter teaches his children the skills they need to conserve caribou and hunt them in a safe and ethical manner.
  • A hunter respects the land and other people’s property. Campsites and cabins are restored after use. Garbage is removed or recycled.

Caribou hunters participate in the conservation and monitoring of caribou.

  • A hunter teaches young people the skills they need to hunt wisely and conserve caribou.
  • A hunter shares information with other hunters and biologists. They cooperate to determine the health condition, movements and locations of caribou herds.

BQCMB TO ADVISE NUNAVUT IMPACT REVIEW BOARD

Under a current understanding, the governments of Canada, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories give the BQCMB an opportunity to comment on all development proposals on the range of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou that may have an impact on caribou, on their habitat, or on hunters in pursuit of their traditional activities. When an environmental impact statement is required, the Board is given an opportunity to comment on the project-specific guidelines and on the environmental impact statements.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB), established in 1996 and responsible for environmental assessment of project proposals in Nunavut, has also invited the Board to comment on project proposals on the caribou range, and to review NIRB’s draft rules of practice.

BRINGING NUNAVUT TO THE TABLE

In November 1996, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Environment Canada announced that they had agreed to the Board’s request to take the co-management group off the chopping block. Threatened federal funding cuts would have sliced the board’s budget by 40 per cent (see Caribou News, June 1996).

This change of heart by the federal government means continued federal participation on the BQCMB until 1999 when, as the Board has recommended, the new territory of Nunavut will be invited to sign on to the Intergovernmental Caribou Management Agreement. The recommendation was readily accepted by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

B. C. STUDENTS NAB SCHOLARSHIPS

Two British Columbia students earned awards this year from the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Scholarship Fund.

Science student Natalie Griller of the University of British Columbia will explore the long-term recovery of arctic plants after heavy grazing by caribou and muskoxen.

Over at Simon Fraser University, resource and environmental management student Barry Kelly wants to learn more about predicting internal concentrations of organic contaminants in the lichen-caribou-wolf/human food chain, using samples taken from Bathurst Inlet and Umingmaktok in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.

The Caribou Management Scholarship Fund will accept applications from students proposing research on barren-ground caribou in Canada until Jan. 31, 1998. Applicants from communities within the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou range get top priority. For more details contact: Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS), Suite 405, 17 York St., Ottawa ON K1N 9J6. Tel.: 613-562-0515; fax: 613-562-0533; e-mail: acuns@cyberus.ca; web site: www.geog.mcgill.ca/northern/acunhome.html

BLACK LAKE VOTE WILL DECIDE ROAD CONSTRUCTION

The “darkhorse” candidate in the race to see exactly where the proposed seasonal road between Points North and Black Lake in northern Saskatchewan would run emerged the winner after a federal/provincial environmental impact assessment wrapped up in January this year. The decision concludes a saga that’s been debated since the late 1970s.

The more expensive southern route won out over the northern route endorsed by a 1981 independent evaluation because the northern route, winding slightly south and west of the Fond du Lac river, was rejected by Saskatchewan Highways and Transportation due to “public and environmental concerns.”

Black Lake band members will vote later this fall whether to allow a seven-kilometre portion of the road to cut through the reserve. A Sept. 12 vote proved invalid because not enough people voted (only 229 people from the 776-member Black Lake band voted; at least 360 ballots must be cast). Harold Hugs of Saskatchewan’s Department of Highways and Transportion says if the vote swings “yes,” tenders will be issued immediately to start construction. Two winter seasons are needed to complete the road. Meanwhile, a memorandum of understanding between Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management, and Prince Albert Grand Council, Black Lake, Fond du Lac and Hatchet Lake bands sees all parties still hammering out larger land and resource management issues spurred by development.

Lorne Scott, minister of Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM), also assured Black Lake residents in his written approval of the southern route that northern communities would have the chance to influence land and renewable resource issues. In 1996, Scott signed a memorandum of understanding regarding road management with the Fond du Lac, Black Lake and Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nations as well as the Prince Albert Grand Council. An advisory panel on land and renewable resource issues will evolve from those efforts, and again include First Nations plus northern municipalities, the Office of Northern Affairs and SERM.

The southern route was guessed to be about $1 million costlier to build than the $8-million northern route, due partly to soil conditions. It was also the route recommended by the BQCMB. That’s because the risk of overhunting while caribou wintered near the road was greater with the northern alternative, where the road would have been closer to actively used range.

Board member Tim Trottier, a biologist with the government of Saskatchewan, was happy to see the southern route chosen over the northern alternative, but he was especially pleased that residents who were concerned about the effects of any kind of road — regardless of its path — had the courage to voice their concerns, “considering the societal pressures favoring a road.”

The long-awaited link to the south, which is expected to push down freight expenses and the high cost of living, comes as the Canadian Coast Guard discontinues dredging and aids to navigation services on the Athabasca River and Lake Athabasca. Future barging services will run only when natural water levels are right.

BQCMB: CARIBOU KNOW NO BOUNDARIES

A discussion paper that looks at how the commercial harvest of caribou should be allocated will be used by the BQCMB to help them assess quota applications using consistent guidelines.

Board member Cam Elliott, who tabled a draft of the paper at the board’s June meeting in Wollaston, said feedback obtained from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board (NWMB) and others will mean the final version will be revised slightly, but there won’t be a departure in substance. The paper makes it clear that, more than anything else, decisions on quota applications hinge on the availability of caribou.

The BQCMB and the NWMB appear to differ on one point: allocation of caribou by province or territory.

At the Wollaston meeting, NWMB member Gordon Koshinsky asked if harvest allocations could be set by jurisdiction. Elliott and fellow board member David Kritterdlik both stressed that, in order to best serve all residents on the caribou range, the interjurisdictional BQCMB tries to set priorities for use across provincial and territorial boundaries.

The NWMB has the responsibility of managing all wildlife in the new territory of Nunavut. That means creating a system that complements Inuit harvesting rights, but still ensures a long-term, healthy, renewable resource economy. It is a decision-making board, unlike the BQCMB, which is an advisory board.

PEOPLE AND CARIBOU

Membership — especially long-standing membership – has it rewards. Jerome Denechezhe and David Kritterdlik earned certificates of recognition for their many years of service to the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board at its Wollaston Lake meeting in June. Denechezhe has been with the Board since its inception, 15 years, and Kritterdlik has been an avid BQCMB member for the past decade. The two men are leaders in other aspects, too: Denechezhe was recently re-elected chief of Lac Brochet and Kritterdlik was voted back in as president of the Keewatin Wildlife Federation. . . . Meanwhile, after more than 40 years in the business, Board member and Canadian Wildlife Service caribou biologist Don Thomas was named a Fellow of the Arctic Institute and praised in the June 1997 issue of Arctic (published by the Arctic Institute of North America) as a “major figure in the study of caribou in northern Canada.” Thomas has authored publications on barren-ground caribou, woodland caribou and the rare Peary caribou. . . . Jimmy Laban, a BQCMB member representing northern Saskatchewan Dene, has been hired by mining companies Cameco Corporation, Cogema Resources Inc. and Cigar Lake Mining Corporation to work as an employee relations counsellor to their Athabasca mine employees. There has been high turnover among new employees at uranium mines. Laban will work to keep lines of communication open between mining personnel assistants and supervisors, and community leaders and employees’ families. Laban will report not only to the mining companies but to the Athabasca Working Group, community representatives who meet to discuss matters related to uranium mining in the Athabasca Basin.

Board members learned with regret that Eddy Powder suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1996 and will no longer be able to serve on the Board. He was appointed in June 1991 to represent the Métis Nation. A successor has yet to be appointed. . . . Lawrence Catholique of Lutselk’e has decided to go into the tourist outfitting business with Antoine Michel, also of Lutselk’e. Their business will be known as LA Outfitting and, in partnership with Witherspoon Outfitting of Edmonton, they plan to operate a caribou hunting camp on Artillery Lake. While this venture has the support of the Lutselk’e Dene Band, the band council does not think it appropriate for Catholique to continue to serve on the Board. Catholique was first appointed in March 1991 to represent the Dene Nation. George Marlowe of Lutselk’e is expected to succeed him. . . . Board members were delighted to have Gordon Koshinsky, a member of the NWMB, participate at the Board’s Wollaston meeting, and to talk at the public meeting about developments in Nunavut and the importance of working together. . . . BQCMB vice-chairman Bas Oosenbrug has assumed a new position with the government of the Northwest Territories’ revamped Department of Resouces, Wildlife and Economic Development: that of protected areas biologist. Among other duties, Oosenbrug is responsible for compiling, assessing and communicating biological information on areas of important habitat wildlife.

The BQCMB’s first co-chairman, Rich Goulden, died June 3 at the age of 56, scant months after his retirement as chief executive officer of the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation. A kidney transplant 15 years ago eventually led to medical complications and failed health. Goulden graduated from wildlife management at Utah State University, adding to a degree in agriculture from the University of Manitoba. He worked in wildlife and resource management all his life, including a stint as assistant deputy minister of the Manitoba Department of Natural Resources, and served on more than a dozen provincial, national and international resource management initiatives. “He was extremely objective and patient and fair,” remarked another former BQCMB chairman, Ross Thompson, “and that’s how he trained a lot of people” in resource management initiatives. . . . Meanwhile, Thompson, now with Manitoba Rural Development, wants to accentuate the positive in his additional new role as manager of community and northern development. In June 1996, a memorandum of understanding was signed to enhance all joint programs between Manitoba and NWT. Thompson hopes to build on strong existing structures, like the BQCMB and co-operative polar bear work shared by the province and the territory.