Originally Posted by
biggamer
I've hunted in a few different jurisdictions south of the border...they know how to manage hunters as well as game far better than Ontario in my opinion. There are a lot of less restrictive rules in place for the day to day stuff but one thing that is strongly enforced is the actual hunting act and the use of off road vehicles.
All places I've been you must shoot your own animal, tag it with your tag, and you're done hunting....ATV use is strictly regulated and you don't dare get caught on public land off a maintained trail or road. It's a great experience to wonder miles of woods and mountains without stepping in quad tire ruts and flattened landscape. You also don't cut living trees down for firewood and leave no trace when camping.
We in Ontario are so blind to the impact of off road vehicles both in the population equation of our animals as well as the impact on our wetlands and forest areas. A fella can cover 100 miles before noon on a quad hunting in the big clear cuts of northern ontario, a huge day in Colorado or Idaho on foot might be 4 or 5 miles! The OFAH and other organizations push for more use and access to crown land, I agree totally! But make it non motorized areas and let's use our two feet/canoes/bicycle to get there. Opening up huge tracts of land so a bunch of "hunters" can roar back and forth on the roads all day aboard their snorkel equipped/27" mudszilla tire quads, hoping to intercept a crossing moose or deer, is a recipe for species depletion and defeats any gains we have made as far as our hunting tradition and ethics. I hunted parry sound area this fall for deer. I sat for 7 days and there wasn't one hour go by where I didn't hear or see guys ripping around. I spent 14 days on a self guided elk hunt in Colorado and saw one hunter on foot up close and two on horseback through bunks over a mile away. I also saw one piece of garbage on that trip that likely fell from a backpack. I'm disgusted as to what people leave in our woods here, makes me cringe.
But we can't see the forest for the trees here and blame everyone but ourselves for our issues. I own a quad myself so I'm not against them, just an advocate for their proper use as far as crown land goes. If you own a couple hundred acres and wanna rip the hell out of it go nuts, just don't do it on public land that was granted to us for all to enjoy and marvel at. It's. Pretty simple concept really, leave it the way you found it, or better.....