The Mountain Caribou, also known as the “Gray Ghost”, once roamed the Northwestern Mountains with a large range including western Montana, central Idaho, British Columbia to the north. and the Washington Kettle Range to the west.

They were also found in the mountains surrounding Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, but the South Selkirk Mountains in the northeast corner of Washington and the Idaho Panhandle were their stronghold in the United States.

As of 2019, the “Gray Ghosts” have been extirpated from their southern range, although some in the United States are hopeful that Canadian efforts could bring the caribou back to the United States.

From deep snow and rivers full of fish, to ancient cedars and the perfect balance of biodiversity, the Selkirk ecosystem has spent countless years as a model for a striking, pristine wilderness.

As the years passed and the West saw the environment drastically altered by human activity, the species found itself in gradual decline. Ultimately, the southern Selkirk and Purcell herds were the only remaining groups of caribou in the United States and southern British Columbia.

The herds of southern Selkirk and Purcell had been in peril for decades, their numbers rising momentarily and then falling precipitously, according to David Moskowitz, author of “Caribou Rainforest: From Heartbreak to Hope” and producer of “Last Stand: The Vanishing Caribou Rainforest. “. “Eventually the two herds only had a dozen animals, and one winter about half of those individuals simply disappeared.

“By the time they fell to about six animals, the herds were functionally extinct,” Moskowitz said.

British Columbia wildlife officials captured the remaining females from the herds and moved them north into a herd with a better chance of survival in January 2019, and the last bulls remained.

Now, the mountain caribou are extirpated from the United States, listed as endangered by the government of British Columbia and also listed as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Among the western red cedars and western hemlocks of the interior temperate rainforest for which the South Selkirk Range is famous, the Kalispel tribe also found their stronghold.

According to Kalispel tribe biologist Bart George, caribou were not a primary food source, but when the elusive creatures were found, it was a chance for a surplus of food, skins and antlers. But animals are more than a past opportunity; there is a culture in them.

“The caribou are going, you know the tribe is going to be without the caribou, but the mountains are a little different, they lost some of their magic by losing a charismatic species like that,” said George.

Is recovery possible?

The Kalispel tribe has been instrumental in the recovery of caribou in the southern Selkirks.

Now that the herd that roamed those mountains is gone, the tribe is focusing on the central Selkirk herd and the efforts in British Columbia that are the last chance these striking icons of the Pacific Northwest have to return home.

There are several reasons for the decline of the animal.

Roads wind through the high mountains that once protected caribou from predators, allowing wolves to move to higher elevations.

Recreation, primarily snowmobiling, puts stress on caribou and can displace them from where they find food during the most difficult months of the year.

While some agreements are in place to reduce snowmobile-caribou interactions and there are a few roadless areas such as the Salmo-Priest Wilderness in northeast Washington, Moskowitz says without further management and restoration, the animals will only continue to struggle.

Logging is another factor, and perhaps their most complicated opponent.

In addition to arboreal lichen being the main winter food for caribou and logging being a huge factor in habitat loss, even though caribou remain in a wild landscape such as the Salmo-Priest Wilderness in the north corner. east of Washington, any nearby logging harms them.

“The problem with mountain caribou is that they have very large ranges and are then sensitive to ecological conditions not only where they live, but where they are adjacent to. where he lives, ”Moskowitz said. “So the Salmo-Priest Wilderness is great habitat for caribou, but if the landscape around the Salmo-Priest is heavily exploited and it produces a lot of deer, elk, and moose, then it produces a lot of predators. . “

Moskowitz said laws had been passed for decades to protect caribou, but the goal of protecting sufficient habitat at the heart of the law is not being met.

“There is a huge amount of land, theoretically, protected for the mountain caribou in British Columbia, but every time they add more protection one thing that never happens is the amount of exploitation. forest loss. Moskowitz said. “British Columbia does a great job in accounting; shifting numbers and like, “Oh, we protect this and we connect here, now we protect there and we connect here.” Ultimately, over decades of caribou conservation, they have been successful in maintaining the basic land use practices that are causing the problem and continue to make it worse.

Moskowitz said it might appease industrial interest, but caribou and the lands they inhabit continue to be treated as commodities; the same treatment that led to their extinction in the United States.

A changing climate does not help

Climate change is also a major contributor to the decline of mountain caribou.

Caribou are adapted to cold temperatures, heavy snow in winter and relatively moderate temperatures in summer. Mountain caribou, unlike many other species that migrate to lower elevations during the winter months, move to higher elevations instead. This survival strategy depends on deep snow to give them access to their main food source during the winter, the tree lichen.

Climate change is also affecting the forest structures they depend on for the rest of the year, and global warming is encouraging competing species such as deer, elk and moose to move to places they never went before. It also causes predators to follow other prey towards the caribou.

Hoping to save time for the caribou, Canadian authorities have started killing wolves, a controversial management decision.

Wolves are the main target species, but pumas are also killed in some places to help caribou, especially young calves, live long enough to have a chance to increase their numbers.

“It’s a very fickle conversation from a conservation standpoint,” Moskowitz said.

Why is this important?

The mountain caribou, commonly described as “a canary in a coal mine”, is an animal that relies on its ecosystem for good health; and their disappearance are an indication of the instability of northwestern ecosystems, including the Idaho Selkirks.

“The mountain caribou is an indicator species,” Moskowitz said. “If you have mountain caribou in the interior temperate rainforest and the interior mountains here, that means there are a lot of ecological processes that work well because they depend on all of these different facets of the world. ecosystem to survive.

“And when mountain caribou populations are declining or endangered, that tells you that there are important ecological conservation issues. “

Do not abandon

This is just another reason the Kalispel tribe fought for the mountain caribou and continues to do so, even with species absent from the southern Selkirks, as the focus has shifted to the population of nearest mountain caribou, the central Selkirk herd.

Although 1,150 square miles of habitat is protected for the herd, it has continued to decline and fragment over time.

In 2020, the herd has 27 individuals, only one of which is a calf.

That’s why, in the fall of 2020, the Arrow Lakes Caribou Society (ALCS) of Nakusp, British Columbia, completed construction of a maternity enclosure, a project that has proven successful with others. herds in British Columbia.

In March or April, the gravid female caribou are captured by helicopter and placed in the forest enclosure where they are monitored 24/7. They will give birth in June, and the cows and their new calves will be kept in the pen until July, when the calves are strong enough to follow their mother into the wild. Then, they are released into their habitat.

“ALCS is confident that by combining the Maternity Enclosure with other recovery actions, the population of central Selkirk can recover and hopefully have an increasing population trend in the future. “said ALCS coordinator Erin McLeod.

With the central Selkirk herd potentially being the last chance to bring mountain caribou back to the United States, the Kalispel Tribe donated to the ALCS and showed their full support as well as the hope of continuing to support them through ” fundraising, outreach and conservation work on the ground, ”said George in a Facebook post by ALCS.

The first caribou should be introduced to the enclosure in late March or early April.

Another possible reintroduction option in the United States may be on the horizon for mountain caribou.

“There will be, theoretically, a captive breeding program in which they have caribou in captivity specifically for the purpose of raising them to produce more caribou to eventually return to the wild,” Moskowitz said.

The project is not fully funded (and would cost around $ 7.8 million), but according to George, there has been a major push for the long-term project within the Canadian government.

“If the caribou ever came back to the lower 48, it would be because of this program,” Moskowitz added.

With a recent agreement that British Columbia, West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations signed to support conservation efforts and protect herd lands on their traditional territory, it is clear that those who feel a true vocation to preserve heritage, a representation of unspoiled wilderness and a piece of our mountains does not let the Gray Ghost go without a fight.

“It will be a long road, it will be a long road, but I think there is hope,” said George.