Preliminary research suggests that staking on both DNR and BLM managed lands may be occurring in areas critical to caribou. Habitat is healthy and safe until it is not. That threshold question is where we may be now with the Fortymile herd and its habitat. It's a walk with Chicken Little because we know the staked claims may never be developed. But we also know that exploration requires few, if any, permits and that some of the claim holders are big corporations capable of big projects.
Habitat conservation requires a long-term perspective.
Without state park or game refuge status and management proscriptions in most of the Fortymile Herd's range, habitat conservation will only be what the Team makes it. David van den Berg has been a member of the Fortymile Team since 1994. He is a carpenter and a wilderness guide who lives in Fairbanks.