Rangers are Good Citizen-Soldiers, Says Northern Area Commander

by Dan Davidson

On the day that Colonel Norris Pettis, the Commander of Canadian Forces Northern Area, visited Dawson City, a small squad of the Canadian Rangers he had come to visit had just participated in a rescue operation that turned out to be less of a crisis than people had feared.

“That kind of work, that you do in that regard, is so valuable,” Pettis said as he addressed them in the

Colonel Norris Pettis, the Commander of Canadian Forces Northern Area, would like to see the Rangers used as more than volunteers in the search and rescue area. Photo by Dan Davidson

Legion Hall that evening, “and points truly to what I say about the citizen-soldier, if you can call it that. You get a lot of that across the whole North. The Rangers are the first to respond in supporting their communities. You’re volunteers when you do it for the most part.”

In an interview later that evening, Pettis explained what he meant by that last remark.

“The military is not responsible for ground search and rescue,” he said. “We do marine and air search. The RCMP are usually the lead on the ground. Search and rescue in the North is a sensitive subject because sometimes people don’t feel they are well served.

“Having said that it’s a police responsibility, often our Rangers are the only organized group in the community outside of the RCMP that are able to respond quickly and effectively. They’re good community volunteers and they’re the first to step forward and go out and help.”

Notice that the word, “volunteers” kept popping up. There’s a reason.

Pettis said that the only way he could formally assign the Rangers to an operation (a process called “tasking”) so that they get paid and covered (i.e., for workman’s compensation and insurance) is if the military get a formal request from the RCMP for support.

That was not the case on January 8, and it is not usually the case, Pettis said. What usually happens is that the local Rangers go out as volunteers, on their own time and without any official status.

“Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when you hear they’re out on a rescue mission, they’re doing so as volunteers.”

That’s a situation Pettis would like to see changed.

“In the future I would like to get the Rangers formally tasked to be able to provide search capability. That would allow me to train them in those functions and help equip them - because you can’t spend money on equipment for which you don’t have a task.”

Some of this would be a change in military policy. Some of it would simply be educating local emergency measures organizations, the police and other officials in the proper methods for requesting military assistance. Part of his own mission on this quick trip around the Yukon was to do just that, to educate people in government and in the police about a very basic fact.

“I can’t do anything until I get a formal request,” he said.

Mind you, that doesn’t come without a cost. The military isn’t a charity organization. They don’t operate for free.

“There’s always dollar signs attached to things,” Pettis said. “Technically, if the RCMP or another government department comes to the Department of Defence for help, they’re expected to pay the bills. That doesn’t always happen, but in this day and age there are always those issues.”

There’s a lot still to be worked out, but Pettis has been pushing this issue for a while and hopes his successor will tackle it too when he moves on to a posting in Ottawa later this year.

Just a couple of days later a full contingent of twenty-two Dawson Rangers were out on patrol with their actual commanding officer, Major Stuart Gibson, when they came upon and rescued two snowmobilers who really did need it, in the bush about 60 kilometres north of Dawson City. This time, they were actually on an official patrol. But it doesn’t matter. The results were the same.

Lone Wolf Stalks Dogs in Dawson

by Dan Davidson

Whitehorse has not been the only community with a bit of a wolf problem lately, but Dawson’s chief renewable resources officer, Torrie Hunter (Acting Manager, Field Operations North), believes that the situation here has been resolved.

About two weeks ago Hunter and a fellow officer killed a four year old female wolf, a loner which had apparently been the cause of at least five assaults on pet dogs on both sides of the Yukon River over a period of a few weeks.

“It started just before Christmas,” Hunter said, “with a dog taken on the Dome.”

This was at the home of Shirley Pennell, whose aging, nearly blind pet must have been an easy prey for the wolf, which was identified as a female by its tracks.

Nothing more happened for about nine days, during which time a local trapper was hired to set snares at the dump, a place where wolves often end up.

Around that time a member of a highway crew reported seeing a wolf on the Yukon River,

Then Wendy Cairns of Bombay Peggy’s lost a pet when it didn’t come back home after a fresh air break. She went looking and found the body.

Musher Brent McDonald was the next victim five or six days later, with a dog taken from his dog yard in West Dawson. Snares were set in that area as well, with no results.

Another attack was foiled when a near-by owner heard something happening in the yard and made enough noise to scare off the large shadow near her dog.

The final victim in West Dawson was a dog belonging to Sharon Peerenboom, which was killed at night.

“This gave us an opportunity,” Hunter said. The house was situated so that a window on the porch faced towards where the dead dog lay. They decided to leave it there as bait.

It was a long night for Hunter and Russell Obourne, but the wolf turned up about 3:40 and they were able to shoot it.

Hunter’s guess is that this single female had been expelled from a pack and had not been able to find a new group. Since wolves hunt cooperatively, a single animal musts lower its sights as far as prey is concerned, become more opportunistic, check out the garbage dump and, eventually, go for the local dogs.

There hasn’t been a lone wolf bothering dogs here for a couple of years, but just in case, Hunter has some suggestions for dog owners.

• If you have a dog yard, fence it. A wolf will shy at a fence where it might not hesitate to just pop out of the bush and grab a dog.

• Clear the brush back around the yard.

• If your pet stays outside, move its house closer to yours and keep it away from the bush.

• Walk your dog; don’t just let it run.

• Install motion activated lights around your yard or by your dog’s house.

Wolves, says Hunter, will shy away from people. There is no documented case of a wild wolf attacking people. Advertising the presence of humans will tend to make them go away.