Moose and Whitefish Lake First Nation
Empirical data show young moose strongly avoid seismic and facilities, which may in part explain WLFN community members’ observations about declining moose populations in historic hunting grounds. Traditionally, WFLN has always hunted within the local area (ranging about 5-10 km) to harvest moose. Now, it takes 6 or 7 days of searching, and members must go further into the bush to harvest moose since the moose population is down and moose are using the landscape differently. Hunts taking longer and requiring further travel takes members away from their land, further eroding one of the key reasons members hunted. Extended travel times result in WLFN members spending large amounts of money on gas and food to go hunting and often must drive more than five hours. One of the consequences of this change, which WLFN is concerned about, is the loss of harvesting practices of the past. Traditionally, cows weren’t harvested, but those practices aren’t followed these days because members must take what they can when the opportunity comes (harvest when seen). Members recognize that taking a cow takes out all its future offspring. Thus, WLFN members feel they must bear the responsibility of relearning how and where to hunt anew. Another consequence is the loss of cultural knowledge for younger generations. Elders note that the younger generation is choosing not to hunt because the changing moose availability changes how it is used as a staple. This results in younger members not only missing out on learning how to hunt but also missing out on other important knowledge like how to track moose and how to look for moose forage and other animal signs.
The cultural practice of hunting is not the only loss from changing moose habitat. Members of WLFN note that moose are a very important source of food and are deeply tied to the health of the land, water, and plants. They note that if the overall environment is healthy, so is the moose, and so is WLFN. WLFN members view eating moose regularly as critical for community members to get naturally occurring minerals since moose eat many medicinal plants. As they see a decline in important plants due to post-harvest herbicide use, they recognize that lower-quality medicinal plants result in lower-quality moose. This issue is much broader than moose, though; warming lakes have resulted in more algae, removing plants that WLFN uses and moose eat. WLFN community members also have limited fishing due to mercury, and there are growing concerns over waterfowl health – all issues that contribute to less and less connection to the land and more reliance on Western staples.