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Managing Alaska's caribou herds for future health is challenged by a changing climate and the need to balance resource development with protecting habitat near major projects.

So at the very outset of Red Dog, the Subsistence Committee participated in establishing the road, figuring out the route and really talking about how to minimize impacts to the herd while also pursuing the opportunity to have economic development.

How do state and federal managers work together to ensure caribou populations are robust for future harvest?

Amid growing interest in mining and other resource projects in Alaska, we'll discuss it right now on Alaska.

INSIGHT.

Good evening.

Tonight, we're discussing the iconic massive herds of caribou that roam the northern part of Alaska.

This conversation is the third in a series of discussions about the future of the herds.

We took our inspiration from a new documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns called American Buffalo.

Buffalo Herds covered the Lower 48 Plains hundreds of years ago until over harvest and habitat destruction did them in.

Alaskans want to see that caribou, the last wild migrating herds of North America, do not suffer the same fate.

Alaska's rapid rate of climate change is just one of the challenges.

But before we get to that discussion, here are some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's collaborative Statewide News Net Washington state based environmental group Wild Fish Conservancy says it's filing a petition asking the Biden administration to list southern Alaska King Salmon as an endangered species.

The group's petition argues.

KING Salmon are threatened by climate change and competition from hatchery raised fish and existing state and federal management is failing to reverse the decline.

The petition could bring sharp restrictions on Chinook fisheries.

In 2020, the same group filed a lawsuit that seeks to protect a population of Washington killer whales by shutting down the southeast Alaska trawl fishery.

That suit is currently going through the appeals process.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has 90 days to decide whether or not to accept the petition.

The Indiana man who manipulated a group of teenagers, Alaska teenagers in 2019, into murdering a young woman was sentenced to 99 years in prison on Thursday.

25 year old Darren Show Miller pleaded guilty in August to soliciting the murder of 19 year old Cynthia Hoffman.

During the sentencing hearing, Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson described show Miller's actions as shocking beyond comprehension and showing a total lack of humanity, care and compassion.

Of the five then teenagers involved in the killing, two are awaiting sentencing.

One has a case pending trial, and two others are in the juvenile justice system, which is not public.

Alaska Energy Metals executives met with Delta Junction area residents on Monday to discuss a nickel deposit The Canadian based company is exploring near Paxson.

Prospectors initially found nickel in the area decades ago, but exploration, conducted last summer, along with growing demand for the element, has led company officials to believe the time is right to develop a mine.

Some of the residents that gathered on Monday voiced concerns about road construction in the remote area, possible contamination from open pit mining near the headwaters of the Delta River, and whether the company intends to build a processing mill on site or truck the or out on public highways like the new Concho Gold mine.

Exploration at the project site is scheduled to resume in June.

You can find the full version of these and many more stories on our Web site, Alaska Public Dawg, or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now on to our discussion.

Alaska's caribou are an important source of food and cultural identity for Alaskans, especially in rural communities that depend on them.

Alaska Public Media recently hosted a panel discussion at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage about the future outlook for the herds.

Panelists discussed the need to balance modern life and a cash economy with the need and desire to protect the ecosystem that support wildlife like caribou.

Panelist Elizabeth Collett Cravalho is the vice president of Lands for Nana.

That's the Alaska Native Regional Corporation for Northwest Alaska.

She had this to say about resource development and local game.

One of the core parts of Nana's policies in our lands policies is that subsistence is the highest and best use of our land.

As Cyrus talked about, caribou is central to our way of life, similar to marine mammals being really important to our way of life as well, especially for us coastal in you backs.

And when the region was considering the Red Dog mine, it was at a time when we were transitioning.

People were wanting to have jobs, the opportunity to remain in the region and the opportunity to have schools in their communities.

And so the decision to establish the Red Dog mine, which is just north of Kotzebue, across the sound, it's connected to the coast by 52 mile road and it is the highest producer of leaded zinc in the world, depending on the day.

It's either the first or the second, and it has co-existed with the western caribou herd migration during its low point and its high points along with the road there.

And I think central to those decisions and thinking about caribou was our agreement with our operator.

Teck includes a subsistence committee.

It also includes an oversight committee that looks at what potential impacts are, how we can continually improve operations.

We have certain stopping distances that are set and sometimes adjusted when caribou are in the area.

More recently, we've been experimenting with having a slower speeds during migration times and then communicating with communities about any potential impacts they're seeing or impacts that we're seeing up at the site.

So at the very outset, a Red Dog, the Subsistence Committee, participated in establishing the road, figuring out the route and really talking about how to minimize impacts to the herd while also pursuing the opportunity to have economic development.

Joining me tonight to discuss the current and future management plans for the caribou herds in Alaska is Ryan Scott.

Ryan is the director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

And Lisa Gretchen is the Wildlife Division supervisor for the Federal Office of Subsistence Management.

Welcome, both of you.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lisa, I want to start with you.

We heard from Liz Cavallo with Nana Lands.

Describe how the regional corporation works to balance development with protecting subsistence resources.

The Red Dog mine is a big facility.

Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline are built on Caribou country.

Now, the Willow oil development Project is moving forward and there's growing interest in large scale mining in the region.

How well do you think extractive industries have coexisted with caribou in the past few decades?

And does infrastructure damage herd health and migration?

Yeah.

Thank you, Lori.

And first of all, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

And frankly, I'm not the best person to address that question.

My expertise is primarily federal harvest subsistence regulations.

But what I can say is it's certainly a big concern.

There have been many studies to address this very thing.

And caribou in the western caribou herd have been collared.

And they showed delays in crossing the Red Dog Mine road.

And that's certainly very obvious in the data when you see caribou migrating.

They hit that road and a few of them cross it.

A few of them might take days to cross it.

And there's also been recent studies done on the number of vehicles in the speed of vehicles going over roads.

And the time of year may impact whether caribou are calving or it's insect harassment time.

So they're certainly having a lot of mitigation measures attempted to mitigate the vehicle speeds and the number of vehicles going down roads.

And then but there's certainly more work to be done and it continues to be a concern.

And so are you saying that the caribou walk up to what is a gravel road, but just because the surface is so different than the tundra that they just don't want to walk across it?

I mean, that's what it appears from, again, the radio collar data.

Yeah, the Park Service has radio collars out on caribou in the western Arctic herd.

And you can pretty clearly see the caribou moving south in the fall.

And then they kind of hit that road and, you know, before they actually realized it was the road, they're kind of scratching their heads what's going on at the caribou in that area.

And then as soon as they overlaid the road, you know, in their data, that it was a pretty clear relationship there.

Ryan, your thoughts here about this?

Of course, we know that state leadership is in favor of development for the future economy of Alaska.

So balancing those things, you know, we just heard Lisa's comments about caribou don't seem to like the roads.

What are your thoughts about how well the two have co-existed over the past several decades?

Thank you, Larry.

And also thank you for having me as well.

I think Lisa makes some good points.

I mean, the we need to do something like a road to the environment.

There's going to be changes and wildlife and other things are going to adjust to those, too.

To some extent, at least with the Department of Fish and Game working in concert with other departments and other divisions.

You know, we spent quite a bit of time looking at caribou behavior, looking at the status of the herds.

We also use radio collar data throughout the state.

So what we do is in instances like this is we learn as much as we can about those herds and their habits and what they're doing, and then work with all parties to develop mitigation processes.

Development is a big push for sure, but we also recognize the importance of caribou alerts around Alaska.

Brian From a state manager's perspective, talk about the herds that are of most concern and what's known about their populations and the challenges for them.

Sure.

No, that's a great question.

And there's lots of hers.

I think we have right around 31 caribou herds that we've identified.

It's important to keep in mind we have small groups of caribou that we don't actually assigned to a herd oftentimes, or they're known by local names, things like that.

The biggest one that I think is really we're focused on right now is volcanic, multiethnic care are occupying portions of the management unit 17 and 18 that has been in decline for quite a while.

It appears to have stabilized now somewhere in the neighborhood of about 12,000 animals, but that's down from 30,000 just a few years ago by other herds that are showing some decline.

And we're definitely focused pay close attention to, you know, the western Arctic has declined as well.

You know, the high point reached several years ago, I think about 500,000 animals.

And now we're down to about 150.

It's important to recognize that 150 caribou is still a lot of caribou, and the reproductive potential for the Western art is still very high.

The other herd that is in decline that also we're focused pretty heavily on is now cheetah curve and that one is down, I believe.

my gosh.

I don't remember the last census number, however.

Bottom line is, it's down far enough that there's no hunting available.

And that's true of the herd as well.

And that includes all hunters, whether they be state residents, subsistence users, nonresidents, anything.

And when herds get down to that, that level, you know, that's not a good thing here.

But they're relied on heavily.

And we try to we really want to keep those at a level where we can provide that hunting and subsistence food opportunity for Alaskans.

And when you say 150, you mean 150,000.

We just want to clarify that point.

150,000, right.

Yes.

Yeah.

And what do you see as the biggest challenges when when these herds are are in trouble like that and the numbers are dropping quickly?

What what are you seeing that is pointing to what's happening there?

So caribou are an interesting species.

They cycle period.

Right.

Most folks, I think, recognize that caribou tend to go up and down over time.

What we're trying to do, what we would hope to do, is to mitigate those peaks and valleys that might mean we not might not have 500, 100,000 animals at one time, but we're not sure.

500,000 animals is actually healthy.

You know, it could be too many.

The same would be applied to them.

Will Chapman, Caribou or so.

There's a variety of things that are potentially happening.

Certainly with climate change and climate, we have different weather patterns and that's impacting several species where we'll get snow layers and then get rain and that creates ice layers and that makes it very difficult for animals to access, to forage.

Certainly one of the places that's very prominent right now is in the north China Basin, where we continue to lose large cohorts of calves to ice events and then really late springs.

Lisa, your thoughts about the declines and and what is going on there?

Just are you in agreement with Ryan or do you think there could be other things happening?

yeah, of course.

I mean, federal and state biologists and managers work very well together on doing that, conducting the surveys and conveying that biological data.

And just to add on to Ryan's thoughts in regard to the western Arctic caribou herd, the number one thing impacting that herd is cow survival.

You know, cow survival, upwards of 80% is needed to see growth in that herd.

And right now the cow survival is 69%.

So, you know, when you're looking at calf production, recruitment, you know, calves surviving and becoming adults into the herd, those metrics are looking pretty average or even a little above average.

But cow survival is the number one thing driving the decline of the western caribou.

And is that because hunters are hunting more cows or why are they having survival problems?

I think, as Ryan mentioned with weather, that could be a big factor.

You know, with climate change, there's a lot more rain on snow events.

So instead of digging through snow, caribou were digging through ice and that's expends a lot more energy and time.

They tear up their hood.

So it might be tied to weather events, maybe predation, maybe hunting, you know, as caribou are migrating later in the year, hunters might be targeting more cows because the bulls are in rut.

And when they're in, they're unpalatable and not able to be eaten.

So why cows are not surviving?

You know, there might be a number of factors and I don't think there's anything one thing you know, there's no certain reason why cows aren't surviving.

But as far as conserving that herd and helping it recover, protecting the cows and helping increase the cattle survival is the number one thing that's a lot of layered pressures that the one herd that's doing well is the porcupine caribou herd.

Why is that her different?

Does it have better habitat, less hunting pressure?

What's going on with that herd that it seems to be doing okay right now?

You have any insight on that, Ryan, or you want me to?

Yeah.

I mean, I can speak to it in general, you know, there's three big herds, you know, essentially on the Arctic Coast, you know, just east of where we typically see the western Arctic herd.

That's the textbook herd, the central Arctic in the first by herd.

And they're all doing fairly well, actually.

We would categorize them as doing good.

There is some harvest associated with them.

Habitat appears to be adequate for them.

I'm not sure that they're actually experiencing that type of weather events.

We would see farther west and closer to the coast.

I don't have that information.

But, you know, again, for whatever reason, they are strong and they're healthy and they're producing cabs and we're providing harvest opportunity not only to Alaskans, but Canadians also harvest out of the Porcupine for, well, we've been talking about the Western Arctic herd and the Mull, charting the herd, knowing that they're in trouble.

Ryan, in an earlier interview, you said that you'd been getting a lot of criticism about the states decision to kill nearly 100 bears near the Mull charting in herd.

Were these complaints mainly from local residents and hunters or from outside of the area?

Yeah, good question.

I appreciate that.

QUESTION The majority of comments we got from residents in the area of the range area were very positive and supportive.

I would say the negative comments that we've received and the negative input is, you know, it's probably it's mostly 5050 other Alaskan residents as well as folks from the lower 48, former UAH professor Rick Steiner, now with a conservation organization called Oasis Earth, requested an end to them all chat and a predator control program, he wrote.

In part, Many biologists see little or no scientific justification for the effort.

The 2023 effort effort was likely the largest kill of brown bears in one area at one time by any government in world history.

He calls for a halt of 3 to 4 years and goes on to say the department's tenure, Wolf, control effort in the area had no measurable effect on the Montana Caribou herd.

How do you respond to this, this specific criticism?

Sure, that's a big onion and there's several layers there.

So let's start with the the wolf control efforts.

People need to understand that those efforts are actually done by public public people and other Alaskans same day are building permits are issued to pilots and gunners and then they can travel out to that area and harvest wolves under those permits.

It's a very remote place, so it takes a long time and it's expensive to get there.

The other thing is for those things, to those programs to be very successful, you need to have really good weather and essentially snow to be able to track animals as well as to operate the airplane, to land and take off, refuel, things like that.

So it hasn't been very effective because of the logistics and the weather challenges.

Now, switching over to what the department operations were, yes, we conducted those operations in May and June of 2023.

We did remove 94 brown bears, six black bears and five wolves.

These are tough things.

And it's it's hard to go do them.

But I believe we're doing it for the right reason.

I mentioned earlier that we've got support from most of the communities, including a resolution out of AFN this year supporting the work.

I believe there's like 48 villages in the control area.

Four of them will chat in a range and we estimated up to 4740 800 caribou a year were used for subsistence.

That herd is closed to everybody right now.

It doesn't you know, it's state hunters, federal hunters, nonresidents.

Nobody can legally be out there taking care of them.

So we have an obligation and we have a mandate when something of this this effect happens.

With that going on with animal chatting, we need to take a look at it and we need to try to to change it.

We need to try to fix it.

It's a difficult thing.

We recognize that.

And I recognize that there are a variety of opinions and there's a lot of emotion and different philosophies about predator control.

But we can't ignore the law and we certainly don't, or the people who are asking us for help and in this case, those folks living out in western Alaska.

Thank you for that description and explanation.

On the federal side, do federal managers support coal programs?

Yeah.

Thanks for their question.

I'm going to sidestep it a little bit by stating that the Federal Subsistence Management Program actually has a policy regarding Predator control, and it basically states that the Federal Subsistence Board recognizes that Predator control may be an effective tool of management tool in restoring and recovering prey populations, but they simply do not have authority over it.

So their authority is specific to the take up of Fish and Wildlife for consumptive subsistence uses.

And so other habitat or other wildlife management activities, such as habitat management, predator control is outside their scope of authority and lies within the individual land management agencies.

All right, Thank you.

Let's quickly get one more clip in from the panel discussion.

Climate change is causing so much disruption.

Another panelist, Cyrus Harris, who is the co-chair of the Western Arctic Caribou Working Herd working Group, describe the changes in storm frequency.

Something that is important to keep in mind is, is that as we move towards these declines, we see more restrictive regulations and the cost of participation impacts the ability of younger people to participate in a traditional and cultural activity.

I remember hearing stories when I was younger about the punitive measures that were taken and when the herd was in originally at a steep decline in the seventies, where it was a sudden stop and at that time someone might harvest illegally and all of their gear was taken and they may be a primary provider for their household and the impact on them is very severe.

And so I think right now we're in a place where we can mitigate by taking appropriate measures and avoid those kinds of things and making criminals out of our own people, but also avoid severing the ability to pass on knowledge from one generation to another because of the limitation of activities, because that is how we learn, That's how we participate in our culture.

Okay, we heard a different clip than the one I was expecting, but this sort of gets at the heart of what we heard during the panel.

And on Talk of Alaska, people said that, you know, they want to be able to harvest.

And as climate change continues, do you think that there will have to be other ways of looking at management because of all the uncertainty that comes about from climate change?

And to avoid what Liz Cavallo was saying about punitive measures going forward in about 30 seconds.

Brian, I'm sorry to leave you only a little bit of time there.

Yeah, no problem.

Well, certainly, I think we are always going to have we are and will continue to look at different ways to manage wildlife resources in the state due to whatever conditions exist in there.

I mean, they are changing for sure.

But, you know, we have groups like the Western Arctic, a great group of people who does a lot of work.

We also work closely with our federal counterparts to try to, you know, to adjust and provide that harvest opportunity in caribou, do different things every year.

You know, they move around, they travel, they migrate differently, things like that.

So it's a it's a moving target for sure.

But it is something that we know is happening and we continue to look forward into the future.

All right.

Well, thank you.

We'll have to leave it there.

Thank you, Lisa and Ryan, so much for being with us this evening.

Alaskans care about the future of Alaska's caribou herds.

We got an impressive number of calls and emails before, during and after the numerous programs we have dedicated to discussing the state's herds.

Alaskans may not agree on how to manage caribou populations, but they clearly understand the importance of sustaining these amazing wild herds.

As climate change and development alter their range.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Visit our website, Alaska Public dot org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free daily Digest so you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.