Aboriginal chief fed up with Dempster Highway caribou hunting rules

Caribou hunting regulations along the North's Dempster Highway are too restrictive and even infringe on his people's right to hunt, saysa Gwich'in aboriginal leader in Fort McPherson, N.W.T.

The regulations, which were created in the early 1990s by a joint board that included one Gwich'in representative, were made without properly consulting his community, Fort McPherson band chief Wilbert Firth told CBC News.

"They didn't go out to communities properly," Firth said. "[There's] a few people involved in the process."

The Porcupine Caribou Management Board's regulationsbar hunters from shootingwithin a 500-metrecorridor on either side ofthe highway. The rules also prohibit the use of motorized vehicles on the tundra.

Firth said he plans to discuss his opposition to the rules with his band, but has not made any formal challenges to the regulations.

People inFirth's hamlet, located about 110 kilometres south of Inuvik in the northern part of the territory, don't support the board's rules, he said,especially the one creating the 500-metre corridor. It isdangerous for hunters to go too far from the road, he said, especially given that people there have seen more grizzly bears than in the past.

"It's a safety issue for the hunters, too," Firth said. "If you have to shoot 500 metres off the road, which is half a kilometre, your safety is jeopardized, too. The grizzly's population [is] building up, and they're not scared of people, they're not scared of machinery."

Hunters should also be able to use all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles wherever they want, Firth said.

But Joe Tetlichi, chairman of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, said the regulations exist to keep people along the Dempster Highway safe from flying bullets.

"We're just concerned that if we get a whole pile of people ... in a congregated area and everybody starts shooting, then it might be a safety issue," he said.

The regulations also aim to conserve the caribou herd, which Tetlichi said is in decline.