Stakeholders Discuss Dwindling Caribou Herd

Stakeholders Discuss Dwindling Caribou Herd

Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 14:58

 

 

Ideas on how to protect the Beverly caribou herd are being generated in Saskatoon this week with the hopes of passing them along to all the communities affected, as

well as government and industry.

 

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board has long been speaking out about the decline of Beverly herd numbers.

 

It says the population decreased around 99 per cent over the last 15 years from 5,700 adult caribou to fewer than 100.

 

BQCMB secretary-treasurer Ross Thompsonsays many ideas have come out of the workshop, such as a renewed plan to designate and preserve habitat, pressuring agencies to continue surveying the herds, controlling predators, and not wasting when harvesting.

 

All the ideas will be compiled into a report in time for the board’s next meeting in May.

 

It will then be sent to all participants from this week’s workshop so they can share the information with their communities in northern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

 

Thompson says it is up to all stakeholders — the hunters and their communities, government, and industry — to protect the herds.