MAKING MAPS AND SENSE OUT OF AN OCEAN OF INFORMATION

More than five hundred government records and 2,000 mapping files later, the project co-ordinator of the BQCMB’s ambitious important habitats project has gained impressive headway in one area: making maps and sense out of most government information on areas of land and water important to the well-being of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou.

Important habitats project co-ordinator Leslie Wakelyn crafted 49 new maps for the Board’s November meeting in Thompson, drawing on information collected by different departments of the Canadian, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories governments. Going back to 1957 for calving areas and 1966 for other caribou life cycle periods, the maps sketch out where some of the caribou travelled at different times of the year, during more than 30 years.

The important habitats project goes on the offensive to protect areas in the face of mining and other industrial developments altering the North. Reports with black and white maps that will summarize caribou distribution and movements over this 30-year period will go out to communities, resource management boards and government agencies. Meanwhile, a CD (compact disc) with software and scores of mapping files will let computer users view areas used by caribou in individual life cycle periods and in each period for several decades.

Since work on maps based on government data is well underway – while the traditional knowledge (TK) study is still being developed – results of the important habitats project may be published in stages as work is completed. The project received $10,000 in funding from Wildlife Habitat Canada last June for TK planning and additional mapping

analyses using a geographic information system. The project will also include the results of traditional knowledge mapping which is being done now by the Nunavut Planning Commission for Keewatin communities within the caribou range.

GNWT agrees to release data

One hurdle in the important habitats project had been the reluctance of the government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) to release data in digital format prior to verification of its accuracy (see Caribou News in Brief, October 1997).

But on March 12, the GNWT agreed to release all data collected prior to June 1997 to this project, provided these conditions are followed:

data will be distributed by the BQCMB as a report with summary maps, and as a read-only CD. Both items will credit the GNWT as a source of data
people who want to access the original data collected by the GNWT must contact the Wildlife and Fisheries Division of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development
distribution of GNWT data by the BQCMB won’t stop the GNWT from doing its own analyses and using the data to publish its own reports
maps of GNWT caribou satellite-collar location data will state that the information contained has not yet been verified for accuracy.

On a separate note, another block of government mapping information that dates back prior to 1966 arrived too late last year for Wakelyn to blend in with her dataset of 2,000 files, but the information will hopefully be streamed in this spring.

Traditional knowledge study

But even after sorting through and making sense of all government maps and information available, there will still be chunks of history missing. This is why the important habitats project intends to get the big picture by drawing on traditional knowledge as well as scientific information.

In November, consultant Marc Stevenson presented board members with a suggested blueprint for collecting traditional knowledge from 17 communities on or near the caribou range in the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. He urged first, though, that a pilot study be done in two communities that depend heavily on harvesting Beverly or Qamanirjuaq caribou. That way, the ‘kinks’ could be worked out first to ensure smooth sailing for the overall study.

Stevenson estimated the pilot project would cost a little more than $29,000 per community. Although Stevenson was unable to forecast overall expenses for the TK study, board members guessed the wide-ranging undertaking of knowledge as outlined in Stevenson’s suggested blueprint would run to the million-dollar mark.

Because there are so many points to consider, the BQCMB will discuss this issue again at its May meeting in Tadoule Lake. For the time being, any further action, including a final report from Stevenson, is on hold.

AROUND THE RANGE

Funding group approaches BQCMB

The West Kitikmeot/Slave Study Society, an agency that assigns funds to environmental, socio-economic and traditional knowledge research projects in the mineral-laden area north of Great Slave Lake up to the Arctic Coast, has invited the BQCMB to apply for money to start a satellite-collaring project on the Beverly caribou. Although the Bathurst herd dominates the Great Slave Lake area, Study director John McCallum said the group would still consider a proposal involving the Beverly herd. The next deadline application is April 24, 1998.

Mining company backs satellite collars

WMC International Ltd., a mining exploration company affiliated with the Meliadine West Gold Project near Rankin Inlet, partnered up with GNWT’s Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development last fall to help fund the ongoing Qamanirjuaq satellite collaring project. WMC will pay for the purchase, deployment and data retrieval of five collars on caribou in the area of their mineral exploration activities. Two collars were placed on caribou west of Rankin Inlet in late November, says WMC spokesman Ben Hubert, and the remaining three collars were to be placed on animals in March.

WMC is receiving location data from the collars and will send maps out monthly to several groups, including the BQCMB, the Rankin Inlet and Chesterfield Inlet hunters and trappers organizations, and the Keewatin Wildlife Federation.

Hunting 101: there’s lots to learn – Tadoule students on caribou hunt

Eight senior students from Peter Yassie Memorial School in Tadoule Lake had a chance to hone their caribou dressing and skinning skills last November on a nearby hunting excursion. Both boys and girls took part, and apparently some boys were surprised by how well the girls performed what are often traditional male tasks. It was stressed that girls should be involved in the hunt so that they know how to look out for themselves and their families. A boys-only hunting trip did take place later in mid-January, when students ranging from Grades 4 to 7 travelled almost 50 kilometres north to harvest some caribou.

Athabasca chiefs meet

Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) vice-chief John Dantouze met with chiefs Hector Kkailther of Wollaston Lake, Caroline Isadore of Fond du Lac and Ron Robillard of Black Lake, plus elders and councillors, at a week-long session in Black Lake Feb. 9 to 13. Everything from business development and health issues to wildlife concerns was on the agenda, but taking centre stage was the formation of the Denesuline Tribal Council as a sub-group under the PAGC, possibly to include other Denesuline nations in Manitoba, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

Co-management paper to be published

The main paper to come out of the 1992 – 1995 Man and the Biosphere study that compared the management histories of the Western Arctic herd in Alaska with the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds is being reviewed by the journal Human Organizations, a publication put out by the Society of Applied Anthropolgists. The paper is called “Co-Management of Natural Resources: A Comparison of Two Caribou Management Systems.” The publication date has been confirmed yet.

Parks downgraded to park reserves

Due to the concern of Tadoule Lake and Nelson House residents about the effect of new parks on traditional areas, the government of Manitoba has downgraded the newly created Amisk and Caribou River provincial parks to park reserves. A park reserve designation provides the same kind of protection but means there must be consultations with affected communities and groups with a certain deadline. A five-year consultation has started with Tadoule Lake and Nelson House on the park reserve designation.

Bringing Wild Caribou to schools

The Yukon government’s Department of Renewable Resources has harnessed the Internet to help get word out about an educational program it is co-ordinating called Wild Caribou of North America: An Educational Activity Guide. A web site on the work-in-progress (www.taiga.net/nacaribou/caribou.html) explains that this learning resource will spotlight conservation biology, ecosystem management and traditional knowledge principles as they relate to caribou. The Yukon government plans to work with partners, caribou experts and aboriginal groups in creating far-reaching material, and will build on existing projects like the BQCMB’s Caribou Schools Program and a similar program published by the Porcupine Caribou Management Board by adapting portions of their curriculum. For more information, contact Remy Rodden, Conservation Education Co-ordinator, Department of Renewable Resources, Government of Yukon, P.O Box 2703, Whitehorse YT Y1A 2C6.

Night Spirits

Before alcohol destroyed her parents’ life, Ila Bussidor remembers her mother tucking her into bed at desolate Camp-10 outside Churchill, Manitoba, and telling her to be quiet because otherwise e’thzil (“night spirits”) would hear her.

When her father drank, he would sing a beautiful song in harmony with another drunk, Sandy Ellis. “Their spirits were calling for their lost way of life,” recalls Bussidor in the book she recently co-wrote with journalist Üstün Bilgen-Reinart, Night Spirits (University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg; 1997).

The federal government moved the Sayisi Dene ­ traditional hunters and fishermen ­ from Duck Lake in 1956. In 1973 they began to leave Churchill to build a new community at Tadoule Lake. Bussidor spoke about her book at the BQCMB meeting in Thompson last November, and board members donated their own funds to help Bussidor cover expenses in promoting Night Spirits.

BQCMB meetings

Springtime will see the members of the BQCMB gathering at Peter Yassie Memorial School in Tadoule Lake for their next meeting, May 29 – 31, 1998. The action then moves further north for the fall meeting in Fort Smith, Nov. 27 – 29, 1998.

WILL ROADS BRING MORE HUNTERS TO THE CARIBOU RANGE?

To the isolated communities of Canada’s North, a new road can be a double-edged sword.

On one hand, it can bring economic development, jobs and cheaper supplies transported by truck instead of flown in from the South.

On the other hand, it can bring out-of-town hunters who boost the number of local caribou harvested yearly considerably.

Take, for example, the case of about 700 caribou harvested near Southern Indian Lake over a two-week period in 1997 by non-resident native hunters. South Indian Lake has all-weather road access, and hunters from Nelson House and other communities were able to harvest caribou. During their southern winter migration, theQamanirjuaq caribou usually remain north of these communities.

BQCMB board member andManitoba wildlife biologist Cam Elliott said Nelson House First Nation resource development officer Ron Spence found that the hunters were efficient and wasted nothing in the course of their hunting.

The Nelson House case proved to be a good experience. Yet roads make the potential for over-harvesting a reality. How do the people who want to protect caribou herds handle this before it becomes a problem?

Plan ahead

One way is to have a management plan ready before any traffic hits the road. Construction on the new Points North to Black Lake seasonal road in northern Saskatchewan started Nov. 19, 1997 but long before the first spadeful of dirt was pitched, the Prince Albert Grand Council, Fond du Lac, Black Lake and Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nations signed a memorandum of understanding with Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) on road management.

From that will spring an advisory panel on land and renewable resource issues, to be phased in over the next five years once arrangements are finalized.

Meanwhile, a new winter road between Tadoule Lake and Lynn Lake to serve the Sayisi Dene First Nation must meet Manitoba Environment’s conditions. That includes a report from licencees Ernie Bussidor and Tom Fortin to spotlight any problems with caribou harvest and hunting violations. Failure to meet Manitoba Environment’s conditions could mean the licence gets revoked.

Trouble in Yukon

When a hunting problem straddles several jurisdictions, difficulties increase.

For more than a decade, the Porcupine Caribou Management Board (PCMB) in Yukon has been faced with the tricky problem of managing hunting along the Dempster Highway, a road built in 1979 across the main migration route of the Porcupine caribou herd. Caribou need to cross the road to get to the eastern portion of their range. But when caribou are hunted along a highway, they learn to avoid that road.

When the road first opened, there was a no-hunting corridor which at that time did not apply to native hunters – including NWT native hunters allowed to hunt in the Yukon. By 1982, the harvest by NWT native hunters was up to 1,200. To make matters worse, the no-hunting corridor shrank from 16 kilometres to two kilometres in 1984, and the harvest by Yukon non-native hunters jumped up to 700.

In 1990 the Yukon government put in place the PCMB’s recommendations for better hunting, but the NWT government did not. The recommendations didn’t solve all the hunting problems, though, so the PCMB has since staged several workshops, held public meetings with First Nations, put out flyers and letters, and sent more recommendations to different governments.

Legal steps

Self-government gives native groups like the Athabasca Denesuline Nations the muscle to go even further to protect caribou.

Spurred by their co-management efforts on the Black Lake road, and by unpleasant memories such as the 1979 slaughter at Wollaston Lake when southern hunters collected “truckloads of meat” from a hunting spree, the Prince Albert Grand Council has ratified a 1997 Hatchet Lake resolution that hunting regulations on traditional territory be developed and implemented, says PAGC and Hatchet Lake consultant Jamie Kneen.

On the other hand, “it’s beyond the ability of government” to control harvest by non-resident First Nations, says Elliott. Any Treaty Indian can hunt for food any time of year, in any quantity. Before government can ask non-resident Treaty Indians to reduce their hunting, every other activity that adds to caribou harvest – like sports game hunting or commercial first – has to be stopped first.

CALVING GROUND WORKSHOP SLATED FOR NOVEMBER IN INUVIK

A workshop originally planned for March 31 to April 2 that was to examine how to better protect caribou calving grounds in the Northwest Territories has been tentatively rescheduled for the week of November 16, 1998 in Inuvik.

“Managing Development Activities on Caribou Calving and Post-Calving Areas” was supposed to follow up on a government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) discussion paper on the same topic released in October 1996.

But in a March 2 letter, Doug Stewart, director of the Wildlife and Fisheries Division of GNWT’s Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, said many people had requested more lead time because of busy schedules.”

Since then, a steering committee consisting of representatives from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the GNWT’s Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, and co-management groups and businesses in Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region has been working to nail down objectives for the workshop.

Generally, the workshop will try to figure out how to manage human activites that come with resource exploration, development and tourism, so that the long-term health of the barren-ground and island caribou in the Northwest Territories is protected.

SPECIAL PLACES ARTICLE

The postponement of the original workshop came after the February 1998 issue of Special Places, the newsletter of the NWT Protected Areas Strategy Program, had already printed a sneak preview of the BQCMB’s thoughts on the planned caribou calving ground workshop. The article was prepared by the BQCMB’s important habitats project co-ordinator Leslie Wakelyn, but Special Places chose to run only an excerpt at this time. Here is the full text of Wakelyn’s article.

BQCMB Eager to Participate in Caribou Calving Ground Workshop

by Leslie A. Wakelyn
for the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board (BQCMB) is looking forward to participating in the upcoming workshop on protection of caribou calving grounds in the NWT. The BQCMB has a long history of concern for protection of calving grounds and post-calving areas used by the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds, and has expressed vocal opposition to proposals to reduce existing levels of protection. The Board has urged governments to maintain the Caribou Protection Measures in the face of mining and exploration, and traditional caribou users in the communities have asked the Board to support calving ground protection.

History of the BQCMB’s Position on Calving Ground Protection

One of the Board’s key management principles is that preserving calving grounds and other important habitats is essential. This has resulted from numerous discussions among board members over the years about land-use activities that could adversely affect Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou or their habitat, such as mineral and petroleum exploration and development, hydro development, contaminants, roads, low-level flights, and transmission lines. The Board has repeatedly called for long-term protection of the calving grounds for these two caribou herds.

During a five-year review of the Caribou Protection Measures in 1983, mining company representatives stated that the Measures should be relaxed to make operating in the Keewatin easier. The Board responded that caribou on calving grounds probably needed more protection than the Measures provided, not less. The Board passed a motion recommending that governments initiate land use planning and biophysical inventories for the area in the interests of long-term protection of the caribou calving grounds. A 1987 proposal by the NWT Chamber of Mines to remove the Caribou Protection Areas resulted in strong and consistent messages from the Board to maintain protection provided to caribou by the Measures.

Review of the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary conducted under the federal government’s Northern Mineral Policy (1986) raised the Board’s concerns about preservation of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq calving grounds once again. The Board acknowledged that the Caribou Protection Measures addressed exploration on the calving grounds, but felt that governments and caribou users had not dealt with the issue of development, and questioned what would happen if resource development on a calving ground was proposed. Although Canada’s position against development on the Porcupine calving grounds in Alaska has perhaps set a precedent for excluding development on calving grounds in Canada, this has never been tested.

Issues of Interest

The Board is interested in addressing a number of issues during the upcoming workshop on protection of caribou calving grounds, including:

  • adjusting the boundaries of Caribou Protection Areas,
  • reinstating the full caribou monitoring program,
  • jurisdictional responsibility for monitoring and enforcement,
  • how development proposals will be dealt with, and
  • year-round protection of calving ground habitat.

What is the BQCMB, and Who Does It Represent?

The BQCMB is a joint management board which advises governments and traditional caribou users on conservation and management of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds and their habitat. The Board’s primary goal is to maintain the caribou herds at a size and quality which will sustain the requirements of native people.

The Board was established in 1982. It consists of a total of 13 members, the majority (eight) of which are traditional caribou users representing more than 13,500 residents in 20 caribou range communities in Nunavut, the western NWT, northern Saskatchewan, and northern Manitoba. The remaining five members represent the governments of Canada (Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and Environment Canada), the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, which provide core funding for operation and administration of the Board.

BQCMB Environmental Assessment Activities

One of the Board’s aspirations is to enhance its effectiveness in environmental impact assessment of development activities on the caribou range. To address this goal, the Board has initiated an ambitious project in which all available scientific information on the distribution and movement of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds is being compiled, entered into a geographic information system, and used to produce maps of seasonal caribou ranges. Traditional knowledge on caribou distribution and movements will also be incorporated into the important habitats project when it becomes available. The Board is currently identifying options for gathering this traditional knowledge from across the caribou range.

The Board is also identifying land-use activities that could potentially affect these caribou and their habitat, developing a classification system for development proposals, and preparing guidelines for assessing potential impacts of activities. These guidelines will be used in conjunction with the seasonal range maps and databases.

Conclusion

The BQCMB recognizes the importance of economic development, including resource development, to caribou range communities. However, Board members are united in their conviction that residents of these communities do not want to trade healthy caribou herds for economic development, and that preservation of caribou and their calving grounds is essential to maintaining traditional lifestyles of communities.

(Leslie is a Yellowknife wildlife biologist and project co-ordinator for the BQCMB’s important habitats project.)

NEW BQCMB MATERIALS DO WELL

A newsletter with a new look, a new web site, and a new poster outlining hunting ethics- the BQCMB’s latest communications efforts all appear to be getting a warm response.

The first issue of Caribou News in Brief, a smaller eight-page newsletter replacing the Board’s longtime publication Caribou News, came out October 1997. Despite the more limited scope of articles, readers reported being happy with the content and clean, spare format.

The BQCMB web site went on line the same month and as of press time, had received close to 600 visitors. The web site underlines the cultural, economic and social importance of caribou to people living on the range, outlines the history of the BQCMB and its current objectives, and contains a Frequently Asked Questions section to give newcomers to the caribou world a good overall grasp of the herds and caribou issues.

There’s also contact information for BQCMB members, a list of BQCMB products and publications that can be ordered, suggested readings, statistical profiles of each community on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq range, a range map, and almost 50 links to other caribou-related web sites. Each edition of Caribou News in Brief also appears in the “Updates” section, with some expanded coverage. Several enquiries about caribou have trickled in via the site’s e-mail form, and responses to those questions are posted on the site too.

The English and Inuktitut versions of the BQCMB’s “Conserve Caribou – Hunt Wisely” poster were distributed to range communities earlier this year. This code of ethics for the hunting profession, drafted with the help of area hunters, deals with safety and conservation issues, and provides guidelines to hunters crossing provincial and territorial borders who have to deal with conflicting legislation.

The Dene version will soon be available. Read the full text of the poster here.

What they’re saying about the BQCMB web site:

“Great web site! Can’t wait to come back and check it out again. Love that country. Take good care of it.”

Erik Hobbie
Silver Spring, MD, United States

“It’s gorgeous.”

Elizabeth Donnelly
Journey North web site
St. Paul, Minnesota, United States

“I’ve had a quick look at the CMB’s web site – it’s very impressive – congratulations!”

Anne Kendrick
Canadian Nature Federation
Ottawa, Ontario

“I’m very impressed by your web site and your obvious succesful efforts at co-management.”

Amy Craver
The Alaska Native Science Commission

“Congratulations on your site. We will follow it with interest.”

Robbie Keith
Canadian Arctic Resources Committee
Ottawa, Ontario

“Our best congratulations with the new web site! We have a newsletter called IASC Progress, and we have a section in it for selected arctic web sites. Our first action will be to list your site there (as it appears to be well done).”

Odd Rogne
The International Arctic Science Committee
Oslo, Norway

YOU CAN’T KEEP A GOOD HUNTER DOWN

BQCMB alternate member Noah Makayak of Rankin Inlet is in good spirits and recovering from frostbite at the Ublivik Centre in Winnipeg after a dangerous hunting mishap at the end of January left him stranded out on the tundra for more than two days.

“This time I was almost not too lucky,” admitted Makayak, who has been confined to a wheelchair in order to allow his feet to recover from severe frostbite. The veteran hunter had another doctor’s appointment slated for early March.

“It’s really improving now – I don’t think the doctor is going to cut anything off,” he joked.

Makayak left Rankin Inlet to hunt caribou at Pangnirtung Point on Jan. 26, but when his snowmobile broke down late that evening he had to start the 35-kilometre trek back to town on foot.Volunteers from Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove began searching for him Monday . By Tuesday, a helicopter and Bombardier were recruited for the search too.

Makayak kept moving for two days and carved out a shelter under a snowdrift. He was found not more than a kilometre outside Rankin Inlet by searchers Harry Ittinuar and Jo Scottie on Wednesday morning, Jan. 28.

Reflecting on the experience, Makayak said “it was not scary” but he was upset about something else. “I broke my snow knife.”

Fortunately, the three caribou Makayak shot Sunday night before his mishap, as well as his abandoned snowmobile and komatik, were all rounded up and returned to his home in Rankin Inlet as soon as he was located.

SASKATCHEWAN HUNTERS CHARGED

The lawyer for six northern Saskatchewan hunters facing hunting-related charges in the Northwest Territories under new federal government legislation has asked for an extension in the case while a plea bargain is discussed.

On March 17, a Yellowknife territorial court judge granted a new court appearance date of April 28. The Saskatchewan hunters face charges of abandonment of meat, illegal hunting and interprovincial transport. The case is a first, breaking new legal ground, and it could have serious implications for Saskatchewan and Manitoba hunters who regularly head north to traditional hunting grounds in the Northwest Territories.

Involving caribou and muskox, these are the first charges of interprovincial transport of illegally harvested wildlife ever laid in Canada. That’s because new federal legislation called the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act, enacted in June 1997, now makes it possible to go after hunters who illegally transport harvested animals out of the NWT.

The hunters charged are alleged to have flown into the NWT, illegally harvested five muskox and four caribou, abandoned meat from the harvest, and returned to Saskatchewan with part of the kill. The muskox, from the Thelon herd, is classified as game in danger of becoming extinct. Under the NWT Wildlife Act, the harvesting of muskox is managed on a quota basis and it is illegal to take game from the NWT without a permit. Environment Canada environmental enforcement co-ordinator Neil Scott says this agreement was set up about 10 years ago.

Officials from the NWT Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Environment Canada, Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management and the RCMP were part of the investigation. Charges were laid last October, but in two court appearances prior to the March 17 court date, the lawyer representing the hunters asked for more time to prepare for this landmark case.

If they plead guilty, another date will be set for sentencing. Environment Canada’s Scott could not predict what the sentence might be, saying terms were at the judge’s discretion. If the hunters plead not guilty, however, the case proceeds to trial.

THE GLOBE CRIES WOLF

The Globe and Mail’s coverage of the NWT commercial wolf hunt by a group of northern Saskatchewan hunters has been riddled with shortcomings, creating damage that cannot just be shrugged off.

Its Feb. 26 article was full of unanswered questions like, How do we know the wolf harvest is too high when we don’t know what the total wolf population is? and, Why cite annual wolf kills for other provinces when it’s not the number of animals killed but the proportion of the harvest to the total population that counts?

Not only did it run a story that it had not yet conditionally proven to be a ‘story,’ it ran the piece on its front page, with a large photo and more text trailing inside, with the headline “Wolf biologists say hunt could be ‘disaster'”. Yet twice the article states there are no current statistics on wolf populations in NWT, and twice more it quotes biologists as saying either there’s no shortage of wolves in NWT, or that biologists believe wolf numbers are plentiful in the NWT.

I also find it really hard to believe that Globe and Mail reporter Alanna Mitchell could have interviewed a handful of biologists and not found out what caribou herds were in that area, how big they were, and whether their populations were increasing or decreasing — all of which ties in with the wolves that follow the herds and prey on their young and weak.

Biologists are nothing if not thorough; many have spent hours on the phone helping educate me about an issue I was researching. The combined populations of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds, when last surveyed by the GNWT in 1994, stood at almost 800,000, their highest level since surveying data records began. There’s also mixing between the Beverly and the Bathurst herd to the north, and Stephen Kakfwi, in his letter to The Globe and Mail on March 7, estimated those combined populations at 600,000.

In a story that focused as much on a contentious hunting practice, the reporter quoted only one hunter and never got a comment from local hunting industry or wildlife management associations. For starters, she could have talked to the chiefs of Black Lake and Fond-du-Lac, or the Prince Albert Grand Council, which represents Athabascan Dene, or Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations vice-chief Allan Adam, whose portfolio includes hunting. She could have talked to the Athabascan Wildlife Federation, HTAs at Fort Smith or Lutselk’e, or the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board, which just recently distributed a poster of hunting ethics that it drafted with the help of local hunters.

But the worst mistake The Globe made was when it mixed up facts and gave incorrect harvest figures in its March 7 editorial, “Unfashionable wolf hunt.” The editorial said: “So far this year, this one group of hunters has applied for export permits for 460 wolf pelts. That is more than twice the average number of wolves killed and skinned in all of the NWT annually, and the season isn’t over yet.” That would make the total annual wolf kill less than 230 animals.

Yet not only does GNWT Minister Stephen Kakfwi’s letter to the editor on the facing page contradict this, pointing out the traditional range of the wolf kill is 800 to 1,500, the editorialist contradicted Globe and Mail reporter Alanna Mitchell’s Feb. 26 article, which said: “Until this year, an average of 915 wolf pelts were taken annually in all of the Northwest Territories.”

It’s important to fight for a responsible media in this country because we can’t afford to be without one. Since Stephen Kakfwi was singled out in the March 7 editorial, I hope he considers lodging a complaint with the Ontario Press Council if a phone call to The Globe’s national editor doesn’t at least bring about a correction in the paper.

And I hope that northern newspapers follow up on this story to see what the final wolf harvest for the current year in NWT ends up being. Because if it’s in the 800-1,500 range that Kakfwi says is usual, then this entire affair will have been no more than a case of The Globe crying wolf.

Marion Soublière
Editor

UPDATE: TOTAL WOLF HARVEST EXPECTED TO BE FAIRLY NORMAL, GLOBE NOW REPORTS

In the wake of critical coverage by the southern media of this year’s commercial wolf harvest in the Northwest Territories, a workshop that will give biologists, managers and hunters the chance to review wolf research, management, legislation and harvesting methods — including the controversial use of snowmobiles for hunting — is being planned for this fall, and the BQCMB will be invited to participate.

The “local genocide” widely predicted in Globe and Mail articles about the Rennie Lake wolf harvest failed to materialize. On April 22, the GNWT’s Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Stephen Kakfwi, issued a press release stating that the Rennie Lake harvest had wrapped up, and its harvest of 635 wolves was only slightly higher than usual.

On April 24, The Globe and Mail reported in a small news brief that “Northwest Territories officials predicted . . . that the total harvest for the year would not be much higher than normal.”

Total harvest figures for all of the Northwest Territories won’t be confirmed at least until October, when fur auction figures roll in.

According to the GNWT, it was an unusual winter for wolves here. Two very large caribou herds, the Bathurst and the Beverly, spent part of the winter together in the Rennie Lake area, which is normally occupied only by Beverly caribou. The coupling led to a much higher number of wolves in the area.

The wolf harvest was taken to task by some southern media, readers and animal rights groups that protested both the high harvest of 460 animals reported in a Feb. 26 Globe and Mail article, and the fact that snowmobiles were used to chase down the animals. Kakfwi, contacted by The Globe after the story was broke, said his government was not opposed to doing wolf studies to prove their populations are resilient, as long as financial support could be provided by another organization. The GNWT does not have current data for the resident wolf population.

As a result, the GNWT is now working with other groups, including the World Wildlife Fund of Canada and Environment Canada, to expand wolf research and monitoring capacity.

Fuel will be cached this summer to prepare for more wolf monitoring flights next season, and GNWT biologists are working with other wolf specialists to find out what is the most important information needed for wolf management. Genetic material is also being collected to help determine wolf populations.

The Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development has since been in touch with hunters in order to work together on this issue. Kakfwi singled out the BQCMB for praise.

“We are very proud of the co-management mechanisms, such as the Beverly-Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board, used in the NWT for addressing management issues,” said Kakfwi in the April 22 press release. “Other countries have studied our co-management system as a model for managing their wildlife.”

The GNWT hopes to gather input from hunters via the BQCMB and other groups. BQCMB chairman Bas Oosenbrug, a protected areas biologist with GNWT’s Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, will speak to BQCMB members about this at their May meeting in Tadoule Lake.

DNA: FROM COURTROOM TO CARIBOU RANGE?

A character witness that’s invisible to the eye recently helped figure out who didn’t commit the crime in some infamous Canadian court cases. Now that same witness could be called on to identify individual caribou, right down to the herd they belong to.

DNA is the name of the chemicals in humans and animals that decides exactly what they will look and be like. The DNA of every living creature is unique. That’s why DNA eliminates suspects in court cases if it doesn’t match the DNA at the scene of the crime.

In the caribou world, DNA could point out herd delineation, herd distribution and genetic mixing, and do it fairly cheaply too. It could even help thwart illegal activities.

BQCMB member Don Thomas suggested at last November’s meeting that University of Saskatchewan scientist Pat Thomas could pick up DNA during her planned sampling of 10 to 15 caribou around Uranium City and north into the Northwest Territories this winter. DNA samples can be processed at the University of Alberta.

Since DNA would clear up just which herd was in a hunting area, it would steer the proper harvest figures toward the right herd. Caribou north of Wollaston Lake, Brochet and Lac Brochet may be from either the Beverly or Qamanirjuaq herds, while caribou in the Great Slave Lake region could belong to the Beverly or Bathurst herds.

When Nunavut becomes a territory, Thomas points out, this will help with Nunavut Wildlife Management Board harvest quotas, and sorting out which herd Manitoba and Saskatchewan hunters are harvesting.

BQCMB members agreed to co-ordinate the collection of samples for DNA testing among Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

PEOPLE AND CARIBOU

“It was a good meeting,” reflected BQCMB Saskatchewan user member Jimmy Laban in late February shortly after he and a group of Dene elders from Athabascan communities got back from two days of talks in Rankin Inlet where they pressed for the continued existence of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board beyond the year 2002, when the current agreement terminates. The Dene delegates met with members of two Inuit organizations, the Keewatin Wildlife Federation (KWF) and the Kivalliq Inuit Association, as well as Nunavut Wildlife Management Board (NWMB) chairman Ben Kovic. The three organizations, impressed by the BQCMB’s track record, were supportive of the Board, says Laban, and have promised to send written resolutions expressing their hope that the BQCMB can continue. David Kritterdlik, another BQCMB board member, is president of the KWF and it was Kritterdlik who, at the BQCMB’s November meeting, invited a user member from Manitoba or Saskatchewan to speak to the KWF about the need for the caribou managment board to continue. While the importance of good relations between Dene and Inuit was understood in the Keewatin, pointed out Kritterdlik, it was not so well understood elsewhere in Nunavut.

At the BQCMB’s last meeting in Thompson, however, there was a Nunavut presence in the form of NWMB member Joan Scottie. The NWMB has an open invitation from the BQCMB to attend meetings. . . . Thompson in Thompson: a namesake dear to the Board – former chairman Ross Thompson, now with the Manitoba government’s Department of Rural Development – also came to the Board’s last meeting. He spoke about an arrangement between Manitoba and Nunavut to co-operate on shared services, including renewable resources such as caribou. . . . What’s a meeting without a brain-teaser of a game? BQCMB member Cam Elliott staged a ‘guess what the caribou are doing in this picture’ photo contest. And what were they doing? Archie Enekwinnare of Lac Brochet knew. The huddled animals were milling because of insect harassment. Stella Spaak, a University of Toronto PhD student who has attended several BQCMB meetings, picked up the booby prize for most incorrect guess: “they’re eating ice cream.” Enekwinnare and Spaak split the winnings of $38.

Meanwhile, Canadian Wildlife Service caribou biologist Don Thomas, a member of the BQCMB since 1988, retired from his job at the end of February this year, but will stay on with the BQCMB until March 1999 . . . Former BQCMB member Gerry LePrieur, who left the board in 1995 when he became the Sahtu district’s regional superintendent of what was then the GNWT’s Department of Renewable Resources, is back in Yellowknife as Director of Community Economic Development. He’s hoping the travels of BQCMB members bring them through Yellowknife sometime. . . . The Alaska Native Science Commission has asked if the BQCMB could send a representative to attend the circumpolar session on indigenous peoples and ecosystems at the upcoming May 21-23 International Arctic Social Sciences Association conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Amy Craver of the Alaska Native Science Commission says her organization is keen to compare notes with the BQCMB on similar work . . . Thomas, BQCMB Saskatchewan member Tim Trottier and important habitats project co-ordinator Leslie Wakelyn, who’s giving a poster presentation on this major BQCMB undertaking, were to have travelled to Whitehorse to attend the 8th North American Caribou Workshop, April 20 to 24. They were invited to drop in on a meeting of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board. . .

“When my Dad shot a caribou,” wrote Caribou Schools Competition entrant David Thom of Manitoba “He was happy. I was to”

The Manitoba portion of the 1997 Caribou Schools Competition attracted 74 creations of artwork or stories from students in Brochet and Tadoule Lake. Among Grades 3 to Grades 5 students in Tadoule Lake, Danielle Powderhorn ranked first (see her essay below) and Michelle Nalge came second. Meanwhile, Michael Nalge pulled into second in the Grades 6 to Grades 8 category, with Stewart Yassie taking first. In Brochet, Grade 5 student Sarina Merasty scored the top prize, followed by fellow student Brent Bighetty.

Finally, all will be glad to hear that Tim Trottier is on the mend after a December incident left him with hands that looked like “pounded hamburger.” Trottier was trying to stop a fight between two quarreling females in his dogsled team when the dogs decided his hands were fair game too. Trottier ended up with some stitches and “lots of bandages.”

Essay by Danielle Powderhorn

Caribou are important to my community because they make food for us. Caribou stomach is made for cooking pots and bones are made for tools. When my Granny cuts a caribou she take the hid and uses it for her te-pe and she makes egene for her family. My other granny Effie knows how to make mocassins and mitts and other stuff.

Some people go hunting and bring back caribou parts for the community and everybody makes good use of it so non of it gose to wast.

Caribou goes down south to have ther babys and then come back up north to get some food and then go bake south to migrate.

My grammpa is good at hunting and he is good at making tools.

My mom made a vest from caribou hide and made it very nice for my Grampa.

The stuff on the antlers is called velvet and you cooked it and eat it.

Grade 5 student Brent Bighetty of Brochet School took second place in the Brochet category of the Caribou Schools Competition with detailed artwork showing how caribou is used for food, different types of clothing and shelter