Guardian Coordinator Message – Westin Creyke

WILDLIFE

GuardiansUpdate

Westin Creyke

Wildlife Guardian Coordinator

Message from the

Guardian Coordinator

Since joining the Tahltan Central Government (TCG) in May, I have received a lot of support from the wildlife team and have been getting settled into my new role. As the Wildlife Guardian Coordinator, I have been busy organizing and participating in the Guardians’ activities.

Throughout the field season, our Guardians have been involved in multiple projects with the provincial government. We have worked with provincial foresters on the Forest and Range Evaluation Program (FREP) to monitor and sustainably manage our timber resources. Additionally, we have partnered with provincial ecologists to carry out Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) sampling. This BEC sampling is the start of mapping wildlife habitat quality within our territory. Furthermore, we have worked with the Province to carry out the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network program within our territory. This program allows for us to develop a reference of healthy stream biological communities and use that to monitor stream disturbances. Finally, our territory experienced an unprecedented presence of BC Conservation Officers with three to five officers posted in Dease Lake during the hunting season with whom we regularly partnered with for patrols. The Guardians’ knowledge of the area was crucial in finding resident hunter infractions in our area.

We have also performed various projects of our own. Guardians routinely patrolled the territory and we assisted the Fisheries Department with beaver management near Tahltan Lake. The Caribou and Wolf Collaring Program has continued with monitoring ongoing. We are looking forward to deploying more caribou collars this fall. The Predator Management Program continues. I would like to remind everybody to respect the bears by utilizing the meat from your harvest.

To close, I would like to encourage everybody to do their part for the conservation of our wildlife and help ensure that it can be enjoyed by future generations.

Above: TCG Wildlife Department in front of first OnTrack billboard located in Terrace featuring Guardian Clements Brace.