What Happened to the Caribou?

Lee Adler passed away in late 2025. We pulled this op-ed, originally published in March 2024, from our archive to share with readers who would enjoy remembering him. 

By now most residents of the Copper River Valley know that our Nelchina caribou herd is in steep decline. I moved to Glennallen in August 1969. As a wildlife biologist for the BLM I didn’t know anything about caribou then. I knew that there were lots of caribou wintering along the Nabesna road. I drove up to see if I could figure out their eating habits. 

I found an area that they were wintering in and started following their trails in the snow, which was only about one foot deep at the time. The caribou would walk along and stop and paw the ground until the snow was gone, and then browse on the vegetation. I could see that they were eating everything they uncovered, which included lichen, grass, sedge, and brush species. I have also seen this behavior in other places where caribou were wintering. 

At that time the caribou herd numbered about 60,000 animals and it was an easy matter to harvest one. During the winter of 1971-72 we had above average snowfall. As I remember about five feet. That spring of 1972 the herd had declined to about 10,000 caribou. Moose have an advantage over caribou. They eat willows that grow upward and are browsed from the top down, and grow back every year. The moose just walks along browsing the tender terminal tops off the willows down to about 1/4 inch diameter. He doesn’t have to paw down through the snow to get something to eat. 

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During the past three years, we have had above average snowfall. In 2022, 107 inches; 2023, 120 inches, and this year 82 inches so far. The caribou cannot cope with this deep snow.

My old friend, Chief Harry Johns of the Ahtna Natives, had it right.  He told me that in the winter of 1927, thousands of caribou migrated south through Isabel pass into the Copper River area. He said that he had not seen caribou in the Valley Basin this time. 

So, the answer to the question is really quite simple.  The caribou are starving to death. They can’t get enough quality food when the snow is deep.

What does the future hold for the Nelchina herd? I don’t know. They may be facing extinction. It depends on the amount of snow we get in the winter. The snowfall used to be only about two feet all winter. The hunting season will probably have to be closed until the caribou recover, if that happens. The Canadian Biologist, Farley Mowett called caribou “the deer that paws the earth.” He was right.