Warm weather, low snow levels impact NWT trapping season
Lifelong trapper says he's having trouble reaching traplines
Robert Alexie Sr. has been trapping since the 1950s, and he says he's never seen a season quite like this.
"Trapping would be alright, but there's no snow. It's very, very hard," he says.
The Fort McPherson resident says there isn't even a foot of snow in places where there's usually two or three feet of snow.
And the quality of the snow is making it hard for him to walk or skidoo, says Alexie.
"No snow, and it's swampy, and it's hilly and it's bumpy, you name it. Never seen this in my life."
His trapping area is located about 120 kilometres from Fort McPherson.
"I try hard to get out but it's too rough," he says.
Alexie says other trappers across the Beaufort Delta are having similar problems.
Four degrees warmer than usual
Meteorologist Brian Proctor with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says temperatures in the Inuvik area have been about four degrees warmer than usual this December.
"What we are probably seeing is the snow that's been falling has probably been sublimating over the last two months in the area and the Delta. So we are not seeing large snow packs."
Temperature also affects snow quality, says Proctor.
"If we are the seeing these temperatures on the outer of -20 instead of -32, -35, the snow that falls will be more moist and have less depth to it. So it's a combination of the two factors."