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Calving grounds and other important habitats
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Calving grounds and other important habitats
Industrial development is rapidly altering Canada's northern landscape. The settlement of aboriginal land claims and the creation of Nunavut in 1999 have improved conditions for mineral exploration in this geologically rich frontier. Much of the area is underlain by the Canadian Shield and other heavily mineralized zones, with the potential for diamonds, gold, platinum, nickel, lead, zinc, iron ore, copper and uranium.
The BQCMB's 2004 position paper, Protecting Calving Grounds, Post-Calving Areas and Other Important Habitats for Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou (links to PDF file), makes five key recommendations for improving the protection of caribou and caribou habitat. With escalating mineral exploration on the ranges of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq barren-ground caribou herds – particularly in Nunavut's Kivalliq region where most of the calving grounds are located – government policies aren't adequate to safeguard the herds' traditional calving grounds and other important habitats.
The BQCMB is urging the governments of Canada, Nunavut, NWT, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, along with pertinent regulatory and planning agencies, to start taking action to address the Board’s recommendations. Consultation with communities and other stakeholders will be required before many of the BQCMB's recommendations can be implemented.
Increasingly, roads are penetrating the North. These can bring benefits by lowering the cost of imported goods, and prompting new business ventures. They can also bring problems such as increased hunting by outsiders, as has been reported with the new Athabasca Seasonal Road in northern Saskatchewan.
A much bigger project, a proposed road and hydro transmission line running from Manitoba to Nunavut, would connect Nunavut with the rest of Canada for the first time. Three routes were proposed for an all-season road. The BQCMB has stated that any route will inflict damage on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou. The final report of the road route selection study, released by contractor SNC-Lavlin Inc. in late 2007, endorsed the eastern route between Gillam-Churchill-Rankin Inlet.
Global warming is being witnessed first and most intensely in the Arctic, signalling changes to come to other parts of the world. The BQCMB is studying the effects of climate change and industrial development. Our Caribou Monitoring Project aims to create a long-term monitoring system that uses two sources of data: local and traditional knowledge collected through community-based monitoring, and information collected by government and scientists. A 2001-2002 pilot project in Baker Lake and Arviat, Nunavut, interviewed elders and hunters for their observations while out on the land. The BQCMB also held regional workshops to nail down the most logical caribou monitoring indicators in regions around the ranges.
Over decades, caribou herd size may increase and decrease, and may also undergo small or large-scale shifts in distribution. Such changes could result from natural events and human activities. There is concern, though, that human activity could speed up a decline.
Population surveys have traditionally been considered the most important tool available to wildlife managers, but government funding cuts have affected the frequency of costly surveys. The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds were last surveyed in 1994 A survey of the Beverly herd (thought to be close to its sustainable harvest limit) was attempted in June 2007 but could not be completed, due to bad weather. However, the very low densities of caribou witnessed during the few times the survey team was airborne appear to point to a decline in population. The BQCMB is now marshalling support for a survey of the Qamanirjuaq herd in 2008.
In March 2006, three governments deployed a total of 40 break-away GPS satellite collars on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds after the BQCMB raised the necessary funds from government, non-government and private sector sources. Satellite collaring is a prerequisite for expensive calving ground surveys. By tracking the spring migration of the caribou to their calving grounds via satellite, survey crews gain good information to help them plan the census.
The BQCMB has called on governments to conduct population surveys of both the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds since 2000, when the six-year deadline between surveys, as specified in the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Plan 1996-2002, was first ignored. More recently, surveys of four barren-ground caribou herds in the Northwest Territories– the Bathurst, Cape Bathurst, Bluenose East and Bluenose West herds – showed their numbers were plummeting. The BQCMB recommended immediate satellite collaring for the Beverly herd, which had never been collared before, and building upon the Qamanirjuaq herd's existing satellite collaring program.
Government staff later discovered the collared caribou thought to be Beverly animals in fact came from a mix of herds. The Bathurst, Ahiak and Qamanirjuaq caribou herd ranges overlap with the Beverly herd's winter range. Additional collars purchased by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada were deployed on cows on the Beverly calving ground during the 2007 post-calving season.
BQCMB meetings have brought about an improved level of trust and respect among different aboriginal and government groups, helping both sides to find common ground in their efforts to conserve caribou for the use of future generations.
Now the BQCMB is striving to bring members of the younger generation to the Board table, in the form of youth representatives. It's important to involve young up-and-coming hunters and wildlife managers who can some day step into the shoes of long-time Board members.
As a trial run, two students from Fond du Lac sat in on the May 2006 meeting in Prince Albert. In June 2007, two students from Lac Brochet travelled to the Board's Thompson meeting to speak about a BQCMB-funded project to interview hunters about caribou.
The BQCMB is also stepping up marketing and fundraising efforts in order to help the Board build on partnerships, spread the word about its accomplishments and ongoing goals, strengthen financial resources, and make sure government agencies and others recognize the Board's value. The Board's mandate has been renewed until 2012, but it's hoped that it will be able to continue advising on the management of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds long after that.