Boots on the Ground (BOTG) is a caribou monitoring program based upon the Traditional Knowledge (TK) of Tłı̨chǫ and Inuit indigenous elders and harvesters. The program commenced in the summer of 2016 and is expected to extend to 2021 or longer.
The monitoring program is conducted by two teams of six monitors for each team. Each shift length is three weeks, at the end of which the next team flies in to relieve the first. The first team will be on Contwoyto lake from July 17 to August 7, and the second tam from August 7 to August 27.
For summer 2018, the first team members are Joe Zoe, Jimmy P. Mantla, Moise Rabesca, Petter Jacobsen, Roy Judas, Russell Drybones, Leon Ekendia, Tyanna Steinwand, Mercie Koadloak, John Franklin Koadloak.
The objectives are to monitor the conditions of Bathurst caribou on the post-calving range herd, focusing on four key indicators: (1) habitat; (2) caribou; (3) predators, and (4) industrial development.
The program is a collaboration between the Tłı̨chǫ Government, Government of Northwest Territories-Environment and Natural Resources (GNWT-ENR), the Wek’èezhìi Renewable Resource Board (WRRB) and Dominion Diamond Mines ULC (DD). Funding was provided the GNWT-Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program (CIMP), Dominion Diamond and the Tłı̨chǫ Government.
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