We’re pleased to share the story of the Northern Mountain Caribou Summit in a newly released short film.
Northern mountain caribou are an ecotype of woodland caribou found in northern British Columbia and the territories. Although some northern mountain caribou populations have declined from historic estimates, most of their range is intact, with minimal influence from human disturbance compared to boreal and southern mountain caribou ecotypes. There is an opportunity for forward-looking actions to get ahead of declines seen in other ecotypes across southern Canada.
Since 2022, the Wildlife Science Centre (WSC) has been amassing information on northern mountain caribou herds while building relationships with local communities. In the spring of 2024, the WSC and the Tahltan Central Government co-hosted a three-day summit with Indigenous Nations, outfitters, and independent researchers. The goal of the summit was to exchange knowledge, identify factors that are limiting northern mountain caribou populations, and brainstorm initiatives to better understand and steward caribou populations for future generations.
The persistence of caribou relies on boundary-spanning collaboration. The collective of local communities and land users who attended the 2024 Northern Mountain Caribou Summit expressed a unanimous goal: maintain and cultivate an abundance of caribou populations for future generations. Combining different ways of knowing will be instrumental in understanding the impacts of a rapidly changing world on caribou.
The summit attendees have committed to quarterly meetings to continue sharing knowledge and implementing collaborative caribou stewardship actions. This winter, the WSC is supporting Tahltan Nation in flying a wolf survey within the Edziza caribou herd boundary to estimate the density of wolves. Expanding predator-prey monitoring efforts across the northern mountain caribou range will help us establish a baseline scientific understanding, with the goal of testing caribou recovery actions.
Watch the full film online today:
The Northern Mountain Caribou Summit laid a strong foundation for long-term collaboration. The workshop was enabled by a 2024 Partner Grant from Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) and funding from the 3Nations and the Canadian Wildlife Service.