Honouring the memory of Darius Elias with a community-based fish and wildlife work plan for the Vuntut Gwitchin Traditional Territory

Joint news release with Vuntut Gwitchin Government.

Honouring the memory of Darius Elias with a community-based fish and wildlife work plan for the Vuntut Gwitchin Traditional Territory. The Government of Yukon and Vuntut Gwitchin Government (VGG) are proud to release the Community-Based Fish and Wildlife Work Plan (FWWP) for the Vuntut Gwitchin Traditional Territory. The plan is dedicated to the memory of Darius Elias, who served during his lifetime as Deputy Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin Government, as Member of the Legislative Assembly, and as a Vuntut National Park warden. A Vuntut Gwitchin citizen born and raised in Old Crow, Elias’s subsistence-style upbringing inspired his life’s work protecting the lands where he hunted and trapped to feed his family. Elias died in February 2021.

The plan was developed in partnership with the Vuntut Gwitchin Government, the North Yukon Renewable Resources Council and the federal government. 
The plan outlines management priorities for fish, wildlife and habitat in the Traditional Territory for the next five years. 

Highlights of the plan include: 

• exploring habitat management options to better adapt to climate change;
• getting better harvest data from community members for all species;
• offering more fish and wildlife learning opportunities for students in and out of the classroom; and
• developing more trapper assistance programs that support local trappers to be out on the land, maintaining traditional trapping practices and reducing predation rates on moose and caribou.