Where's the moose you say??

[biggamer]

Short little story here as to the reality of the north. Plug your ears if you don't like the future we are facing. Took a deer into the butcher in the Sudbury area. Got talking about business and they said how busy they have been. They did 69 moose and only 3 of them were tagged by licensed hunters. Also was told how two other shops did 44 and 48. Long and short of it I felt sick to my stomach after leaving. In a WMU where there are less then 20 tags available and if you take in the 3 surrounding wmus there's less then 60 total it goes to show you just how staggering the problem is.

The FN harvest in the north is out of control and the main reason why are populations are declining to record lows. I don't care if you're purple red yellow white or blue, an abuse of the resource is an abuse and these so called "keepers of the earth" are keeping everything. Garden River FN near the Sault went into a moose yard last winter near ranger lake and shot 19 moose in a couple hours.

The brunt of the changes regarding moose tags and quotas are affecting the average joe while there's absolutely zero co-operation towards a sustainable population by the FN. I have many FN friends and even they are upset about the current system in place and how the system is being played. It's a crock that all this goes on under the disguise of "traditional harvest or treaty rights". If that's the way you wanna spin it then use traditional means and traditional weaponry. The problem is there are thousands of people in this province that hold power and still believe that there are large groups of FN struggling to survive in the wilds and living off the the land. I will agree there are some in the far far north but most are integrated as much as myself and look to hunting and fishing as a hobby and passion rather then a necessity.

The govt/ofah/special interest groups can blame climate change/bears/wolves/harsh winters/ticks but everyone beats around the bush when it comes to the real issue at hand. It's time all parties(govt/ofah/FN/hunters in general) sit down and figure this nonsense out before it's too late. Our children guaranteed won't be hunting moose in the province of Ontario and our generation may see an end to the practise too. It's time for mandatory reporting for everyone, better counts, science based decisions, and a change in everyone's attitudes if the moose is going to continue to roam here.

It's not just Ontario that has issues as I was listening to CBC radio tonight and they were having a discussion about Metis spotlighting moose in Manitoba and the declines there as well.

My post is not intended to bash any group/govt/organization, its to bring awareness to people with their heads in the sand. Time to wake up and take some steps towards a brighter future. If I don't hunt moose ever again I'm fine with it, but it would be nice to show the grandchildren what a moose looks like in real life 😉

[Horridfiber101]

150+ sure seems like a lot of animals taken over a short period.
Wonder what a typical season harvest has been as a comparison.
Have they always clobbered that many moose ?

Would be nice to have similar rules for different parties that all try to harvest the same crown resource.
Perhaps these animals were harvested upon FN land.

[higgy]

Well biggamer its sickening for sure! The problem is I don't see anything changing! Its the ones that are taking FULL advantage of their "rights" that are the issue. I believe its the others with the "rights" that would step in and say enough that could help fight the battle! I hear stories of guys with cards in the north actually paying like you and I for licenses and abiding by limits etc but..... And yet our license fees are going up next year and more restrictions for big game hunting opps, its a f$%@#d up system for sure! But it i what it is unfortunately...

[mightyhunter]

Its a shame, at this rate there will be no moose left for our kids. keepers of the earth, my . I remember camping at Grundy Prov Park last summer. Kids in bed and me and my wife enjoying a cold drink at the fire. Its about 1AM and we here gun shots, not saying its the natives and not blaming anyone in particular but it makes you wonder.

[SK33T3R]

This entire country needs a good hard friggin shake!

We're so politically correct and polite that that tail has been wagging the dog for a long time and it's escalating out of control.

At some point the majority has to have more say then the minorities! Wars have never been won with minorities.

I always thought that when a majority won that they'd impose their will and the rest would follow suit, or else.

It's no wonder Trump won in the US. I think the majority reached their breaking point and we as Canadians usually follow suit a few years later.

We're so polite it's sickening. How does our PM praise a dead Cuban dictator???? What's next? Hitler was just a confused, mixed up man and he should be forgiven too?

[35wailin]

I have heard similar numbers about the moose harvest/processing in Sudbury as well. I also work with a few FN members and what really burns me is that one of them actually buys a moose license and enters the tag draw. All he's doing there is taking a tag away from the non-FN hunters. I also have a cousin -in-law that has Metis harvest rights. He is also using those rights to his advantage. Where I have a 13 day gun hunt, minus my days that I have to work, giving me 5 days ti hunt this year, he has from September to end of December, I could only hunt bucks, he can take anything. We ended up with a nice 8 point that my partner shot on the fourth day, but if we had doe tags, we would have harvested one or two in the first few days.

With more and more people being considered FN and Metis, with harvest rights, and most who claim Metis being told to apply for full-status FN because the government will upgrade them most of the time, where will the fish and game get any protection to survive and thrive with that kind of pressure?

[rippin_355]

They don't 'harvest' anything. Its a 'contest' to them. Makes me ill thinking about it.

[tracker]

The last tag and moose we shot in the archery season was on the opening day of archery season. We took it to a butcher nearby that was full and could only cut up moose but no room to freeze and keep so we could fish rest of week up north. He had butchered over 50 and no gun season yet. This fall the local trapper tells me that select group are only recovering moose that were killed near the road and if they ran off too far they would walk away and leave moose. Not sure if this is true, possible or even happening, but I do know we got no tag and saw no moose this fall.

[fratri]

Everyone knows moose are a renewable resource so what's the big deal, take as many as you want, there will be more next year. (what a stupid thought)

[TrapJack]

That's only the number being taken into the butcher shop.... might as well quadruple it if you want the real number.