Wolf management plan suspended until 1995

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The Yukon government has shelved the Yukon Wolf Management Plan until at least 1995, Renewable Resources Minister Bill Brewster said.

The delay puzzles interest groups because the plan has gained widespread support throughout the territory and is being used as a guideline by the department.

Brewster, a hunter and former outfitter, said First Nations have not been consulted sufficiently to pass the plan as policy in the cabinet.

But members of Champagne and Aishihik First Nations disagree, saying they included their concerns this summer and endorse the strategy.

The management plan was developed by a team of Yukoners last summer in response to the government go-ahead on an aerial wolf kill in the Aishihik area, northwest of Whitehorse. The management plan set strict guidelines on when and how such kills could take place. It set prerequisites for a kill, including establishing low calf survival numbers, collecting scientific data, public consultation and a moratorium on hunting in the kill area.

Brewster stalled approval of the plan in cabinet following this year's aerial kill, saying more consultation was needed.

Lawrence Joe of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations is disappointed.

"We've always recognized (the plan) as a useful tool that lays out some important rules," he said from Haines Junction, approximately 190 km northwest of Whitehorse. "This is a disappointment for me."

A group of First Nations who reviewed the plan this summer came up with an implementation plan to be included with the original study. They then encouraged Brewster to pass the document through cabinet.

Joe acknowledged there was limited consultation with First Nations. But the plan should be passed immediately and then reviewed once the federal government proclaims their land claim and self-government legislation, he said.

The government will use the wolf plan as a guideline this winter, said Brewster.

Last winter, 60 wolves were shot in the area in an attempt to increase caribou numbers. This year, the wolf kill will continue, but biologists don't know yet how many wolves will be killed.

The caribou calf survival rate in the Aishihik herd has risen more than five-fold over the last year, said caribou biologist Rick Farnell.

Thirty-nine calves per 100 animals survived this year, compared to just seven out of 100 in 1992.

But Farnell won't credit last year's wolf kill solely with the increase.

"We haven't chosen to do that (link the increase with the kill)," said Farnell. "The technical department sat down and said it's too early to jump the gun on any cause-effect conclusions.

"We want more data. The (wolf) plans gives us two years to evaluate whether survival has concurred."

Approximately 30 animals in the 556-head Aishihik herd are fitted with radio collars. This enables biologists to track their movements over the 20,000 square kilometre range.

Meanwhile, environmental groups from southern Canada are in Whitehorse preparing to intervene in this year's wolf kill.

"We have a team staying in Whitehorse who have rented a house for a couple of months to provide a stable base for activists coming up from the United States, B.C. and Ontario," said Bill Hipwell, of Friends of the Wolves in Ottawa.

The group has a budget of about $30,000 thanks to an anonymous "five-figure donation," he said.

"We feel the objective of the program is to exterminate the wolf from the Yukon. Bill Brewster has produced an agenda to eliminate the animal he hates so much," said Hipwell.

"We have an ace up our sleeve."

Hipwell came under fire in the local media after an article appeared in the Ottawa University newspaper The Fulcrum, in which he accused the Champagne and Aishihik people of not knowing how to live off the land.

But Hipwell says he was misquoted in the article.

"I was just wickedly misquoted. I related to (the reporter) an anecdote about one white guy who came to me and told me about seeing four Natives come back with 12 carbou, but it came out in the article that this was the actual situation," he said.

"I said when we met with (the Natives) we talked about traditional denning (or wolf pups) and some said they didn't know how to do that any more.

"I'm not wiling to say because they're Natives they have this wonderful touchy-feely thing with the land because not all of them do."