By Chuck Tobin

Plans for an exclusive wildlife viewing business at $2,000 US a day
were released Tuesday afternoon by Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Joe
Linklater and Premier Dennis Fentie.
The business plan was developed by the Vuntut Development Corp. in
partnership with a private investor.

It envisions 28 visitors a year to the Bear Cave Mountain area inside
the Ni’inlii’Njik (Fishing Branch) Ecological Reserve.
A place of cultural and archeological significance for the Gwitchin
people, the area has also been a focal point for wildlife researchers
intrigued by the closeness of the grizzly bear activity during the
fall months while the chum salmon are running.
Visiting the area provides one with a breathtaking experience,
Linklater told reporters and a large gathering of government and
corporation staff at Tuesday’s unveiling of the new business.
This year will be limited to two visitors and one guide, with a
gradual build-up over three years. There will never be any more than
four clients and one guide at the facility.

“We are very proud the Vuntut Gwitchin are going to share our culture
and our history with the world,” said the chief. “We believe by
sharing this area with the rest of the world, we will be able to
ensure its future protection and the protection of other areas as
well.”

Similar to Alaska’s world-renowned bear viewing opportunity on the
MacNeil River, during the salmon run on the Fishing Branch, bears are
abundant and very visible in the viewing area where the base camp has
been established.

Footage advertising the business shows the grizzlies fishing for
salmon, frolicking with each other or just strolling by with snow-
covered ground creating a scenic winter backdrop.
For the first couple of years, the fee will be set at a reduced rate
of between $1,250 US to $1,500 US per day, as an incentive to attract
professional magazine photographers and the like.
It was explained by the myriad on hand for the announcement that the
business plan provides for approximately three slots a year for
Yukoners at a cost of about $800 a day.
Even when the regular rate is raised to $2,000 US, there will be
provisions for the three packages at the reduced rate, one of which
will be reserved annually for a member of the Vuntut Gwitchin First
Nation.

The Old Crow chief said the wish is to eventually incorporate the
facility into the land-based experiential science course for Old Crow
students.
For students interested in pursuing a career in science and research,
there can be no better classroom setting than the Ni’inliijik
Ecological Reserve, Linklater said.
Heralded as a unique arrangement for Canada, the reserve was created
from a pocket of public land and private Gwitchin settlement land
inside the larger Fishing Branch Wilderness Preserve. It’s located
about 290 kilometres north of Dawson City.

Over the last three years, the Yukon government has spent
approximately $250,000 building the camp, which includes a main cabin
where all cooking will be done, two sleeping cabins, a high cache, an
outhouse and raised viewing platform.
For exclusive use of the facility from Sept. 1 to Nov. 1, Bear Cave
Mountain Eco-Adventures will pay the Yukon government $1,500 annually.
At other times of the year, it will be used to accommodate
researchers and others there on government business or other purposes.
Stephen Mills, president of the Vuntut corporation, said visitors
will take the 70-minute helicopter flight out of Dawson, though
ultimately, when the day comes that it’s feasible to park a
helicopter full-time in Old Crow, the Yukon’s most northerly
community would become the transportation hub in and out of Fishing
Branch.

While there will be opportunities to hike different trails and visit
different cave sites of archeological importance, most of the day
will be spent watching bears from the five viewing areas in the
vicinity, Mills said.
“We are very excited with the release of this new tourism-related
business,” Mills told the gathering, adding the business will provide
an opportunity to show the world a unique part of the Yukon.
He also described the business as a perfect fit with the first
nation’s mandate to promote its culture.

The development corporation, Mills explained, partnered with Phil
Timpany to form Bear Cave Mountain Eco-Adventures because of
Timpany’s decades of experience living amongst and learning about
bears and their behaviour.
Timpany has operated similar businesses, and as a Whitehorse
resident, was a natural for a business partner.
And it will be Timpany who will act as the guide initially, though
others will be trained.

“There is no question from anyone here that this venture by the
Vuntut Development Corp. and Mr. Timpany will become a world-class
experience,” said Premier Dennis Fentie.
“What we are witnessing today is an example of positive economic
initiative based on two levels of government co-operating and a
private sector company.
“This initiative will also be a model of how local communities and
government can protect the environment and deliver economic
opportunities for those communities.”
The economic benefits for the territory, said the premier, will reach
far beyond Fishing Branch.

Fentie said it was shortly after the Yukon Party came into power that
his government was able to solve a deadlock with a mining company
that had interests near the Fishing Branch area and that provided for
the completion of a management plan for the Fishing Branch Ecological
Reserve. It was that plan that provided for the commercial viewing
opportunity.

“I am almost at a loss of words to describe how proud and
enthusiastic everyone involved in this new Bear Cave Mountain project
has been over the past few months.”
The ability for Yukoners and others to obtain a permit to visit the
area on their own will continue, but for the fall months during the
congregation of the grizzly bears, access will be restricted to staff
and clients of Bear Cave Mountain Eco-Adventures.
Linklater said the approach taken in the development of the business
plan was to limit the number of visitors every year to minimize
impact.

There are areas and national parks that have been “loved to death,”
as they say, said Linklater.
Historically, the abundance of all types of wildlife in the Bear Cave
Mountain area has traditionally been an important source of food for
the Gwitchin people.
“The abundance of animals and fish there was guaranteed,” he
said. “So it has that significance, and it will always be there for
that purpose.”

Bear Cave Mountain is also the site where a legendary Gwitchin hero,
Kuihenjik, died, the chief pointed out.
Linklater said he’s been told it takes two days to tell the full
story of Kuihenjik.
“So for those reasons, I think culturally, it is very significant.”