South Dempster caribou hunting ban signed

The Yukon government has imposed an emergency ban on caribou hunting along the southern part of the Dempster Highway in order to help protect the smaller Hart River herd.

The emergency order, signed by Yukon Environment Minister John Edzerza on Wednesday, will come into effect on Friday and run until Jan. 31.

The order bans hunting of caribou along the Dempster Highway between North Fork Pass and the Ogilvie River Bridge. It also covers much of Tombstone Territorial Park.

The ban applies to licensed hunters, although members of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in and Na Cho Nyak Dun First Nations can still hunt caribou as set out in their final land-claim agreements.

Yukon government biologist Dorothy Cooley said there is concern that the Hart River caribou herd could be over-hunted by people wanting to hunt from the Porcupine caribou herd, which uses the same area.

"It's quite a bit smaller than the Porcupine herd," Cooley said of the Hart River herd. "We did an estimate in 2006 and estimated about 2,200 caribou in that herd."

Porcupine herd already moved north

By comparison, the Porcupine herd is estimated to have around 90,000 to 100,000 animals, making it the largest caribou herd in Yukon.

Cooley said most of the Porcupine herd has already migrated north of the Arctic Circle and to the west of the Dempster Highway for the winter.

That means the only caribou along the south Dempster right now are from the Hart River herd, which uses the area as its winter range, she said.

"If Porcupine caribou don't come into that overlap area, we close that area to protect the Hart River caribou herd from the extended season for Porcupine caribou," Cooley said.

The annual hunt of the Porcupine caribou would normally be peaking next week, with licensed hunters from Whitehorse and other communities often making the drive up the Dempster around Remembrance Day.

But Cooley said tracking collars data on some Porcupine caribou indicate that most of the herd is in Alaska already. There may be a few Porcupine caribou north of Eagle Plains, Yukon.

But overall, she said she expects the annual Porcupine caribou hunt this year to be much smaller than usual.