A map showing the range of the Bluenose East caribou herd. (N.W.T. Department of Environment and Natural Resources)
The Wek’èezhii Renewable Resources Board has imposed hunting restrictions for the Bluenose East caribou herd within its boundaries, recommending a smaller total harvest than proposed by the Northwest Territories and Tlicho governments.
The board released recommendations today that include a total allowable harvest of 750 bull caribou annually over the next three hunting seasons.
Under the Tlicho Agreement, the Wek’èezhii Renewable Resources Board has sole responsibility for determining the total allowable harvest in their management area, which includes the Northwest Territories’ Tlicho region.
The board’s decision allocates Tlicho citizens about 39 per cent of that harvest, recommending the rest be divided up among other Indigenous groups that traditionally harvest the herd. The restrictions within the board’s boundaries will come into effect as of July 1.
The board’s management area does not include the Sahtu region, whose own renewable resources board is evaluating plans put forward by the territorial government and the community of Deline. It also does not include caribou harvested in Nunavut.
The Tlicho and N.W.T. government’s joint management proposal had suggested an annual harvest of 950 bull caribou divided between Indigenous groups in the N.W.T. and Nunavut.
The board found that number could not ensure the herd would stabilize or recover. Calving photo surveys from 2015 show the herd has dropped to less than 40,000 animals from 100,000 in 2010.
It also recommended that if a proposed wolf harvesting project is successful with the Bathurst caribou herd, that it be extended to the Bluenose East herd.