Bill Kudlak

All of our park is regulated. We’re one of the few of the parks—maybe even the only one—that has a calving ground area. It’s really important that our calving grounds for caribou are protected for generations and generations to come.

It started with a few people—a few of the Elders. Our community had so little amenities, so they sat, working with Parks, something in the end like a community development plan, which we have and still exists. It still needs to be updated periodically. We try to use that framework to guide our park and to co-manage with our Boards in a good manner that is sensible and manageable.

Te Elders, they’re all my relatives. Some of them are my uncles. Tey fought really hard to get the final negotiation using our land claim—Inuvialuit Final Agreement because that’s a big thing, the IFA. We all use the same caribou, the same herd, they go to the same calving grounds. With the extension of the Sahtu, a representative from the Deliné was added to the Board.

Te best memory of the Board was going to the park—a really nice place. I’ve been there twice for Management Board meetings. Uyarsivik Lake, it’s called. Just the scenery! Te wildlife, the birds… lots of rocks. Tere’s even some soapstone up there, that’s similar to alabaster found x in Ulukhaqtuuq. I’m one of the artists in Paulatuuq; I myself, I’m a carver. I always use the antler. Tat’s why the caribou is really important to me. One year I brought some jewelry to the park, just to keep busy, sand it. It was cool to bring something to do when it was nice out. But I never did go to Artists in the park. I don’t mind going one of these days!

Different Kinds Of Tuktu

25 years ago, it was a real big day, I remember! A lot of people came in. A lot of people wanted our park established. Now that it’s established, I think that we should keep setting up programs and meetings there. Te first year we were there we had barely any heat and camp in little dome tents.

In the past 25 years, the caribou route and the migrations to the calving ground have changed. It’s always been diferent areas every year, and they go by diferent routes. It’s because of the wolf population; we are overabundant with wolves. Wolves are a major predator to caribou. One of the reasons why we have such a low population of caribous is from other predators and predatory animals. Tey know when the caribou is coming, they follow them, and it’s been the cycle for hundreds and thousands of years. And that’s why we protect our TNNP.

One year we had a pilot from Calgary to see if it’s feasible to have a runway in the future. Tey landed and checked it, but we have restrictions here we have to follow. Tere’s some big boulders to move if they wanted to continue. So, they stopped it because it was so close to our wildlife—Arctic char, caribou and geese—right by the river, where they wanted to do the runway.

Another year we had a scientist who was doing a “green up” program using satellite imagery to check our vegetation, the soil, what the caribou are eating. Tey even have pictures of when the “green up” starts, way back from satellite imagery, and they compare it nowadays with the current state of the land and our vegetation. Tey were trying to determine what the caribou’s diet is, in the vegetation program. It was a really big program.

Tere is also water monitoring on the Hornaday River. Tey do a lot of sampling to see how our water is… Tere might be diferent fish, crustaceans, and small stuf they detect during the water sampling.

Perry Caribou are from Sachs and Victoria Island. Tey’re a smaller caribou but they’re really tasty. Tey still come close to us. One year, my brother was out bear hunting and he saw three or four things coming to him; he thought they were bears! But when they got closer, they were caribou. Our Bluenose-East and West are a lot bigger, ‘cause the Perry Caribous are really small. You could notice it. One year we had over 180,000 Bluenose-West, this was 30-40 years ago maybe. Tey have the data and numbers. And now it’s like 20,000. It has declined but we only have so much tags each year, and we have to follow our HTC and ENR rules, must have all the proper tags with you when getting the caribou.

Protecting The Herd

We have to make sure we always have our caribou migrating to where they always go. Have people on the ground. Another Elder, Peter Green, wanted people on the ground to count the caribous. We don’t always have the right numbers all the time and we don’t like getting our caribous tagged with collars. It’s a really sensitive topic for our community and our Elders. Te Elders say that they’d like to see people counting on foot which is a more sensible thing than invasive methods like collars. I know it’s the only system right now, but we have to deal with it. We have no choice but to use the collars to get an accurate count.

We hunt and live with the caribou, and we continue to watch our herd. Sometimes we can’t because we’re in real bad area for our caribou in terms of numbers. I’m always concerned about how do we know our caribous’ declining, and what can we do? Tat’s a really tough question. We have to find solutions. We have so many predators. We should start with the little things like seeing how much wolves are out there, do more with incentives for wolf hunting. Like we’re overpopulated with wolves and grizzlies. We should start to do something to manage it because that’s a major reason why we’re losing numbers in our herds—Bluenose-West, Bluenose-East, and the Dolphin Union caribou. Te hard thing is the predatory animals—something has to be done soon, put in writing, ‘cause we’re only gonna keep losing caribou. Pretty soon our caribou will be a delicacy! It already seems like a delicacy; we hardly get them. Very few people share it, that’s why it’s a big issue, the caribou.

It’s a really tough question to think about how our caribou populations have declined, and how can we sit down with other organizations like ENR, Game Council, Canadian Wildlife Service, IRC, and other Hunters and Trappers groups, to find solutions and see why our caribou are declining. It has to be done fast. It’s just unreal how we can lose so much caribou. I know we used to have 180,000—that’s unreal. One day they might be extinct because we’re not doing anything in terms of the predatory animals that live of the caribou.

But, this year, our caribou seem like they’re coming closer. Tey came in earlier to our land. It used to be only in around June or July, but we seen them in April, which is like how it was in the early 70s. So, we’re getting some kind of… animals coming back and to their natural habitat, the seasons, and the month that they usually should come in. Tis year, it’s been a real natural year for them, and a good season for them.

We just have to leave them alone. Like there’s so many studies, so many counting… leave them alone and our Elders know—a lot of knowledge. If you leave them alone, they will be populous again.

How I see it is to keep protecting our National Park for the caribou calving ground. Have monitors check all the wolves to determine how they follow the caribou. One year they had a wolf denning program close to the bottom of the Sahtu extension of the park. Tat sounds like a good project—to see where the wolves are denning.

And, to have more access to the park. Tere’s so many things we can do in the park with keeping environmental impacts low. You know, overall, I see a good future for our park. Tere’s so many summer camping trips going on now. You have Board Meetings up there. Tey check our waterways where the Hornaday River is, where they sample it. Tere’s a lot of things yet to do in our park. It’s just how the community wants to manage it and keep it protected. Tat’s the number one thing—and low environmental impact.