Scientists say wild berries are in decline in Yukon and they don't know why

Late summer in the Yukon is usually lush with berries.

There are haskaps, cloudberries, bearberries, saskatoon berries and more. But in recent years, it's been slim pickings.

Mary-El Kerr owns and operates Mary-El Fine Food and Catering, which often features locally grown and foraged produce. 

"I remember years ago we could go and get gallons in a day of these beautiful, juicy, big fat huckleberries," she said. "And they're just not there anymore. Or not nearly as prolific as they used to be." 

Kerr said the change is worrying. 

"I love wild berries, but I didn't even go out this year," she said. "A lot of my berry-picking buddies were saying they hardly got anything. It's really declining." 

In January 2023, a study in the scientific journal Botany revealed that Kerr's experience is borne out by data. The project was a collaborative effort by University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, and Government of Yukon researchers. It was spearheaded by Charles Krebs, a retired professor of zoology who has worked in the Kluane region for over 50 years. 

The study began in 1997. Researchers monitored 710 sites in Kluane over 26 years to assess how berry ground cover was changing over time. In Mayo, they began monitoring 500 sites in 2005, marking off sections with flags. The results revealed that berry plants have been receding for decades. 

Tom Jung is a senior wildlife biologist with the Yukon Government and co-author on the study.  

"The overall decline is 0.6 per cent to 1.3 per cent, but this is annually," said Jung. "So it is cumulative and over the two decades of our study it starts to add up quickly ... about a 10 per cent decline per decade."

While he notes that the research is limited to southwest and central Yukon, he said the findings are consistent with anecdotal reports from across the North.

"We've been hearing [similar stories] from scientists and Indigenous people, local people, from Alaska and other parts of North America," he said. "So there does seem to be something going on with berries." 

So far, researchers aren't sure what's causing these changes. The data didn't find any relationship between summer temperature or rainfall. Jung said he's working on a follow-up paper.

"We believe it may be other things we haven't been measuring, like the amount of shrubs in the areas that may be concealing or blocking sunlight, or soil moisture related to snow depth. We're not too sure what the cause is." But Jung did hedge a guess that it is related to climate change in some way. He said the research on berries is part of a larger ecological monitoring effort by the Yukon government to try and understand how the environment is changing.