Herds in the headlines

Caribou, industrial development, climate change, subsistence economies, the importance of traditional knowledge – ­these stories seem to be gaining ever more media prominence in Canada and other countries these days. Check out some articles that caught our attention in recent months.

2011

N.W.T. drafts new caribou management plan
CBC News
February 25, 2011

The Northwest Territories government is working on a new five-year plan to monitor the territory's barren-ground caribou herds and help them grow. The plan builds on the government's previous five-year strategy, which focused on stabilizing declining caribou numbers.

Ottawa reopening talks on protected Arctic wilderness
CTV News
February 22, 2011

The federal government might restore full protection to a vast tract of Arctic wilderness that it quietly opened to mineral exploration last year, but not every area may be covered, leaving environmentalists concerned about the future of more than a dozen northern protected locations.

Caribou herd on the rebound
News/North
February 3, 2011

In late January, the government of Alaska released initial results from its survey of the Porcupine caribou herd completed last July – the first successful aerial photo census since 2001. The survey shows the caribou are once again growing in number, and the count isn't even finished yet.

2010

Labrador's quandary of the caribou
AOL/Globe and Mail
December 24, 2010

Darryl Shiwak of the Nunatsiavut government says he and other Inuit leaders are consulting their people on whether to undertake a voluntary reduction in hunting. For now, how low the George River herd will go and how long it will stay there is anybody's guess.

Two provincial parks created in Manitoba
CBC News
December 1, 2010

Two new provincial parks in northern Manitoba, Colvin Lake Provincial Park and Nueltin Lake Provincial Park, fall within the traditional territories of the Northlands Denesuline First Nation and Sayisi Dene First Nation, and provide habitat for diverse plant communities and wildlife species such as the Qamanirjuaq caribou herd, moose, black bear, wolverine, wolf, lynx, fox, river otter, weasel and mink.

Caribou survival depends on ancient cultural knowledge
National Geographic
November 29, 2010

Academic and government scientists, conservation groups and industry need to do more to consider traditional knowledge along with western science, says this National Geographic editorial. More importantly, scientists, conservation groups and industry should support the rights of indigenous people to determine the future use of their lands.

Labrador Innu offer to help N.L. save caribou
CBC News
November 15, 2010

The grand chief of the Innu Nation in Labrador says his members could help the provincial government communicate with Innu from Quebec who hunt caribou in Labrador.

Bluenose East caribou herd recovering
CJCD
November 4, 2010

Summer surveys show the Bluenose East has gained more than 30,000 animals since the survey done in 2006. For 2010, the post-calving ground survey results show 98,600 animals in the herd, up from 66,200 four years ago.

The Arctic is warming: The evidence
Pravda
October 30, 2010

The reindeer and caribou populations in the Arctic have dropped by around 33 per cent since the year 2000. Severe changes in the abundance of these and other species are sending alarming signals to scientists, now worried about the possibility of catastrophic climate change in this most sensitive of regions, which has far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world.

Meeting pledges to work to save caribou
Winnipeg Free Press
October 29, 2010

Scientists, wildlife managers and Aboriginal leaders wrapped up a four-day summit, the North American Caribou Workshop, by pledging to work to save endangered caribou. However, they didn’t release any plans for specific collaboration. Former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi called for protocols to be put in place that call on First Nations, governments, environmental groups and industry to protect caribou herds.

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Bathurst caribou plan to help preserve herd
CBC News
October 11, 2010

The Wek'čezhěi Renewable Resources Board has agreed with a proposal by the N.W.T. and Tlicho Dene governments to establish an Aboriginal "harvest target" of 300 Bathurst caribou each year, starting this hunting season and running until 2012-2013.

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A troubling decline in the caribou herds of the Arctic
Yale Environment 360 (Yale School of Forestry & Environment Studies)
September 23, 2010

In late July, a group of Inuit hunters set off by boat along the west coast of Banks Island to search for Peary caribou, which inhabit the Arctic archipelago of Canada. Three days of searching later, they’d found none. The great caribou and reindeer herds that once roamed the treeless tundra, providing an indispensible source of meat and clothing for aboriginal groups, are in free-fall.

Aboriginals tell Washington about environmental consequences of oilsands
Oil Week
September 22, 2010

Francois Paulette of Smith's Landing Treaty 8 First Nation doesn’t dare drink the waters he paddles, fearing that Alberta’s oilsands operations have polluted pristine rivers. Instead, Pauilette brings his own drinking water when he canoes. In Washington, he told the U.S. State Department about vanishing caribo and high cancer rates among some First Nations people, and called on the Americans to not approve the proposed TransCanada Corp. Keystone XL pipeline that would ship 900,000 barrels a day of oilsands oil into the U.S.

Caribou consultation ahead
Nunatsiaq News
September 13, 2010

The Government of Nunavut want people to "talk tuktu" and be part of a public consultation on caribou. A draft strategy posted online is available to the public. Public feedback could help create a broad-reaching strategy for caribou management.

Dancing with Caribou on the treeless plain
Winnipeg Free Press
May 8, 2010

Reporter Martin Zeilig visits the North on a great Canadian adventure.

N.W.T. caribou decline questioned at hearing
CBC News
March 23, 2010

The territorial government wants to halt the hunting of Bathurst caribou, citing a sharp decline in the herd. An interim hunting ban imposed this year in the herd's winter grounds have outraged Dene leaders and hunters who have long relied on caribou.

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