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Jimmy Johnny, whose signature cowboy hat many of you will know if you have ever worked with Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation or the Mayo Renewable Resources Council, has been awarded the 2016 Gerry Couture Stewardship Award by the Yukon Conservation Society for his work to protect the land, water and wildlife of the Yukon. The Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board is immensely thankful for Jimmy’s work and wisdom, which we can all learn from.

Jimmy Johnny was born four miles downriver from Mayo. In 1958, as a young man, he began what would be a long career as a hunting guide and outfitter in the headwaters of the Bonnet-Plume, the Snake, and the Stewart Rivers of the Peel River Watershed. Jimmy Johnny’s knowledge of the terrain has made him one of the most well respected guides in the territory.

“Jimmy has driven countless miles up and down the highway from his home in Mayo to Whitehorse and Dawson, to attend government consultations and board and council meetings to share his knowledge and call for protection of the water and wildlife of his traditional territory,” said Executive Director of YCS, Christina Macdonald. “He has been a tireless spokesman for the Peel River Watershed and a fierce defender of the plants, animals and culturally important areas of the region.”

Graham Van Tighem, Executive Director of the Board, reflected on his long working relationship with Jimmy: “Not much has changed with Jimmy Johnny since I first started working with him through the processes and challenges of the co-management machinery that graced the Yukon’s management frameworks back in 1993. He still wears the same boots and the same belt buckle but more importantly, he still evokes the same passion and demonstrates the same profound commitment for fish and wildlife and their habits today as he did when he first started.”

Said Jimmy Johnny about receiving the Gerry Couture Stewardship Award: “I am honoured and I remind people when you are in the wilderness and you see water, remember how it keeps us all alive – everyone needs to try hard to get it protected.”

Since 2009, an anonymous donor has provided the Gerry Couture Stewardship Medal and $1,000 prize to an individual chosen for outstanding personal dedication to natural resource conservation and management in the Yukon. The donor of the award is inspired by Gerry Couture’s fearlessness, creativity, innovation, and ‘curmudgeonliness’. Gerry Couture has a long and varied past as a commercial pilot, homesteader, trapper, commercial fisherman, and placer miner. For years he was on the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board and the Yukon Salmon Committee. Gerry most recently worked as YCS’s Mining Coordinator until he retired in 2009.

More information about the award can be found on the YCS website.

The Board office (409 Black St, Whitehorse) will be closed from December 16 to January 2.

We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you in 2017!

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The Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board is pleased to provide our 2015-16 Annual Report online now! No paper copies were produced this year, in an effort to eliminate unnecessary printing.

The Annual Report focuses on the Board’s recent projects and accomplishments in the 2015/16 fiscal year. Additionally, the Annual Report describes the Board’s roles and responsibilities that fall within our mandate as the primary instrument of fish and wildlife management in the Yukon, established in Chapter 16 of the Yukon First Nations Final Agreements.

Some highlights of this year’s Annual Report:

• The recommendation of 15 regulatory changes under the Yukon Wildlife Act, which passed through a successful public review process and were advanced by the Board to the Yukon Minister of Environment
• The Grizzly Bear Conservation and Management Plan, which is working to understand local, Indigenous, and scientific knowledge about grizzlies before drafting the plan
• The renaming of the Alex VanBibber Sharing the Land Scholarship, which recognizes a Yukoner with deep respect for fish and wildlife

The Board is proud to continually support and engage in meaningful work with First Nations, territorial and federal governments, Renewable Resources Councils, and the Yukon public to ensure the protection and conservation of Yukon fish and wildlife, and their habitats, for the benefit of future generations.

If you have any questions regarding the Annual Report, please contact us. The 2015-16 Annual Report (and previous reports) can be found on our Publications & Projects page, or by clicking the image below. Thank you for your support!

As of October 5, 2016 Environment Yukon would like to inform Yukoners that the threshold has been reached in the Faro-area moose hunt.

An immediate closure of moose hunting is in effect in Game Management Subzones 4-44, 4-45 and 4-46 following the harvest of 15 animals this season.

The closure of these subzones helps ease hunting pressure on moose in the area.

(photo: CC0 Public Domain)

Together with the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board, Environment Yukon released last week an update to the 2008 Management Plan for Elk in Yukon. The plan is a framework to guide elk management and focuses on free-ranging elk, which includes an estimated 200 elk in the Takhini Valley and 60 elk in the Braeburn area.

As mandated under Chapter 16 in the UFA to “make recommendations to the Minister on the need for and the content and timing of all Yukon Fish and Wildlife management plans for species”, the Board participated in the plan review, along with the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Ta’an Kwäch’än Council, Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation, Alsek Renewable Resources Council, Laberge Renewable Resources Council, Carmacks Renewable Resources Council, and several other fish and wildlife associations in the Yukon.

Find the updated Elk Management Plan here: Updated Management Plan for Elk in Yukon

Find out more about elk in the Yukon here: Yukon Species – Elk (Cervus canadensis)