Saving The Fortymile Caribou Herd At Gilmanton Year Round
Library May 12
Saving Alaska’s Fortymile Caribou Herd is the subject of Craig
Gardner’s program at the Gilmanton Year-Round Library on
Tuesday, May 12, 6 pm.
Craig Gardner will present a program describing the effort to
preserve Alaska’s Fortymile Caribou herd on Tuesday, May 12, at
6 pm.
Mr. Gardner’s program summarizes a long term study to develop
and implement management steps to recover the Fortymile Caribou
Herd. At one time, the Fortymile Herd was one of the largest
caribou herds in the world and certainly the most important to
Interior Alaska and Western Canada. It resided in both Alaska
and Yukon Canada. The herd declined from 100s of thousands down
to about 6000 animals during the early 1970s due to a
combination of management mistakes, a series of severe winters,
and intense predation. The herd declined to such a low level it
no longer migrated to large portions of its traditional range
including all of Canada.
“It was the most satisfying project I was involved during my
career” says Craig Gardner. “Not only did it require interesting
biological study but also required fostering close working
relationships with other agencies including ones in Canada and
more importantly, with a wide variety of First Nation Tribes,
public groups, industries, and even the military. We had to
consider management steps that were going to affect harvest,
predators, and industry. Any drastic changes to help the herd
were going to require all groups to willingly compromise their
ideals and not try to stop the project politically.”
For about 30 years Mr. Gardner was a biologist for Alaska’s
Department of Fish and Game working as a predator/prey
biologist studying impacts of wolf and bear predation on caribou
and also studying furbearers including marten and wolverines.
He did a 5 year study developing methods to manage a parasite
introduced to Alaska via domestic dogs that , infested the wolf
population in parts of the state. He worked for the
US Fish and Wildlife Service on polar bears for 4 years and for
independent consulting firms studying caribou and walruses for
about 2 years. During graduate work at the University of Alaska
he studied wolverines. He admits that “In my younger
years I had the bad habit of taking time off work to chase other
passions. During those periods, I ran sled dogs, learned how to
fly, and hunted, trapped, and skied as much as possible. I flew
supercubs as part of my job and was able to visit a great deal
of the state either conducting my own studies or helping on
other studies.”
The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome.