NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, caribou, infrastructure, vegetation monitoring, Dust Monitoring, todzi

Objective(s): To determine changes in todzi harvesting pressure following construction of the road and to determine sustainable levels of harvest for boreal caribou in the North Slave area before the road is built.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5210. The purpose of this project is to determine changes in todzi harvesting pressure following construction of the road. The research team will determine sustainable levels of harvest for boreal caribou in the North Slave area before the road is built; Monitor harvesting pressure on boreal caribou and moose after the road is built to determine if it is too high; Determine effects of the road on hozìi ?ekwo?` winter habitat; Determine impacts to winter habitat from the road based on Tli?cho traditional knowledge; Use this information to enact measures to protect winter habitat near the road; and, Develop an Aboriginal harvest monitoring and reporting program for hozìi ?ekwo?` (barren ground caribou) and todzi (woodland caribou) and moose. Given the sensitive nature of this type of program, the research team will explore the feasibility of a pilot program to identify protocols for Aboriginal harvest levels along The All Season Road (TASR). Results of this program will be confidential to the Tli?cho Government and will be used to inform discussions with the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) about measures to reduce harvesting pressure along the road, if necessary. The team will collect habitat data to compare to collected baseline habitat data. This includes surveying for vegetation species abundance and composition at a variety of distances from the road. The team will collect data about dust concentration at various distances from TASR to understand the extent of the impacts of dust on vegetation and caribou and wildlife habitat. Establish a Harvest Advisors Committee – (K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee), reporting to Department of Culture and Lands Protection (DCLP). This group, composed of elders and knowledge holders, will provide advice and guidance to the monitoring program, managed by the DCLP. They would contribute both as advisors to the design of the program and as interview participants. They will assist in interpreting results and making recommendations about additional mitigations to implement along TASR, based on the results of the monitoring programs. The Committee will be struck at the outset of the study, and engaged on an as-needed basis. Work with the K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee and key informants to establish baseline conditions for todzi and hozìi ekwo?` along TASR. This work will include using qualitative interviews and/or focus groups to identify the current state of hozìi ?ekwo?` winter habitat, and the state of hozìi ?ekwo?`, todzi and moose harvesting levels and their relative sustainability. The K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee will assist with identifying the types of questions to ask and who should be interviewed. Participants will include members of the K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee as well as other key informants they identify. As part of this task, Tli?cho monitors will be trained to assess the state of winter habitat and assist with monitoring harvesting pressure along TASR. Develop a voluntary harvester report program. Tli?cho harvesters who regularly interact with TASR area will be asked to carry log books and/or a digital app to record their kills and observations, and will submit these log books and/or their recorded data to the Lands office. Combined with effort (i.e., an estimate of how much time people are spending on the land), these data can be used to help inform population estimates and changes over time. Conduct yearly interviews with people who are actively on the land in the vicinity of TASR. This work will use follow up interviews to identify changes to the state of winter habitat and changes to the state of hozìi ?ekwo?`, todzi and moose populations in the vicinity of TASR over time. Interviews will be administered to a similar group of people who helped inform the baseline condition, using the same questions to provide consistency over time. Depending on advice from the K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee, trained Tli?cho monitors will also be involved in aspects of this monitoring work. Explore approaches to establish a Tli?cho-staffed checkpoint along TASR during the winter hunting season to collect harvest data and observations from returning harvesters. Tli?cho operating this checkpoint will be provided with appropriate training to safely conduct interviews and vehicle checks with harvesters using TASR. The location, timing and duration of operation for this checkpoint will be informed by the K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee. Data will be used to report out on harvesting pressure along TASR and may help inform the need to impose limits on the use of the road for harvesting. Explore approaches for tracking Aboriginal harvesting protocols and levels along TASR. Explore the feasibility of conducting a pilot study on hunting protocols and success levels with a group of Tli?cho harvesters. Harvesters who participate in this program will be asked to provide their input on protocols that are used to manage hunting levels, as well as possible survey approaches or methods based on traditional knowledge that could be used to track Tli?cho harvesting levels in the future. All results from this pilot project will be kept confidential within the Tli?cho Government, and will be used to inform measures that should be taken to reduce harvesting pressure along TASR if necessary. Vegetation and dust sampling will use a distanced gradient approach at specific distances (5, 50, 100, 150, 200 m) from the edge of the roadway in perpendicular transects on both the East and West sides of the road, matching locations measurements were taken in 2021. Along the transect, monitoring plots will be sampled using 1 x 1 m quadrants. Data will be analysed and reported as follows: To establish the baseline condition of hozìi ?ekwo?` winter habitat, and the state hozìi ?ekwo?`, todzi and moose harvesting levels in the vicinity of TASR, data from focus groups and interviews will be summarized in a baseline condition report; These data will be updated using a consistent format each year to identify changes in the condition of hozìi ?ekwo?` winter habitat and hozìi ?ekwo?`, todzi and moose harvesting levels; Data from the voluntary harvester report program will be used to track changes in population numbers and health over time; Data from the Tli?cho-staffed checkpoint will be used to track changes in harvesting pressure over time and identify situations that may warrant road closures, or other mitigation measures; The Tli?cho Government will retain full confidentiality and ownership of the initial work to explore hunting protocols and guidance for understanding and managing the Aboriginal harvest along the road, and will use this study to determine how best to manage Aboriginal harvesting along TASR in the future; All non-confidential data will be reported out in an annual report to wildlife management partners and incorporated into the Wildlife Management and Monitoring Plan where appropriate; All data will be reported to the K’àgòò Ti?lii` Deè Committee each year, who will provide advice on changes to the monitoring programs and adaptive management. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 22, 2022 to December 31, 2022