Fur Harvester's CEO makes Argument against MNRF direction

[Species8472]

I have not even researched how many policies came into place under Conservative Governments that are complained about in this article,maybe they were in power when the wolf fiasco came into play?

First seasonal ban on wolf hunting happened in 3 Townships outside Algonquin and came into play in 1993 during the Bob Rae years. This ban was during the winter trapping season only.

The 40 township year round ban was implemented by the Mike Harris government in 2001 as a test/pilot program and than made permanent by McGuinty in 2004.

So all 3 parties had some involvement in sending us down this road.

[Gilroy]

First seasonal ban on wolf hunting happened in 3 Townships outside Algonquin and came into play in 1993 during the Bob Rae years. This ban was during the winter trapping season only.

The 40 township year round ban was implemented by the Mike Harris government in 2001 as a test/pilot program and than made permanent by McGuinty in 2004.

So all 3 parties had some involvement in sending us down this road.

Great information,I feel justified in not voting for any of them in the last election.LOL

[Bonkers]

I love the article. Having parents and other family members that work for the MNRF the budget seems to get slashed every year. No one new that is hired there is full time, they're on a contract. It's sad really

[bucketboy]

it seems that none of the governments in power want to hear from the real eyes and ears of the bush. with declining hunting opportunies and an aging demographic that commits time and money into camps the mnr failed to forecast the decline in revenue. in another decade what will any of these governments have left to the next generation. The mnr do claim to manage our resources but react in an untimely and often pitiful way usually selling out to the dollar value they can recover (tax) or advice from anti sportsmen groups
I too am personally tired of the current system and agree that the in charge powers no longer care to hear the truth from people who have first hand information or experience in any given wmu
ultimately it falls back on the hunter,
to continue supporting the government and the existing system,
quit an enjoyable past time
or
write, email or call your mp and continuously be a pain to them until you are heard
this is all of our resource if we cave and let the uneducated lead the way we will have nothing in the future with no one to blame but ourselves.

[Gilroy]

it seems that none of the governments in power want to hear from the real eyes and ears of the bush. with declining hunting opportunies and an aging demographic that commits time and money into camps the mnr failed to forecast the decline in revenue. in another decade what will any of these governments have left to the next generation. The mnr do claim to manage our resources but react in an untimely and often pitiful way usually selling out to the dollar value they can recover (tax) or advice from anti sportsmen groups
I too am personally tired of the current system and agree that the in charge powers no longer care to hear the truth from people who have first hand information or experience in any given wmu
ultimately it falls back on the hunter,
to continue supporting the government and the existing system,
quit an enjoyable past time
or
write, email or call your mp and continuously be a pain to them until you are heard
this is all of our resource if we cave and let the uneducated lead the way we will have nothing in the future with no one to blame but ourselves.

Well that is what we have the OFAH for but unfortunately they play the political game also and favor one party,guess what happens when that party gets shut out? Yeh right answer,we all get shafted.

[DGearyFTE]

Well written and a good read. It captured the essence of the issue. The politics of this need to be set aside. Right now IMO it is time for the hunting community to work toward educating the next generation on the need to properly manage wildlife. Now that we (humans) have intruded on their habitat is our responsibility to manage it. To do this, there is a need for the general population to understand the impact of such foolish legislation to ban hunting of any particular species. Banning any predator hunting will always result in unacceptable changes in the food chain up and down.

[McKenzie]

This is a very well written article, and I couldn't agree more. The MNRF needs to be doing more to protect the species that are in decline. There is no point in having a draw for 1 tag in a wmu. Hell in WMU 39 there are 25 tags being allocated this year and to me even that sounds foolish. If the population is in decline in a specific area then they should establish a 3 year moratorium on moose hunting, after which, only allow a moose hunt every second year. This will really give the animal populations a chance to rebound. I would much prefer to have to wait every other year to get a moose tag then to continue to apply to a draw where there are so few tags available I may as well be playing 6/49.

Also I was looking at the moose tag quotas for this year and in WMU 21A there are over 1500 tags being allocated in the draw. Obviously the moose population is flourishing in that WMU. In addition to the 3 year moratorium I mentioned above, why can't the MNRF relocate 600 to 1000 moose from the WMU's where the animals are thriving to help the populations rebound in the areas where it is rapidly declining? If they can relocate Elk from across the country then I don't see why they can't relocate moose a few hours away to help the population in other areas.

Just my two cents.

[SK33T3R]

McKenzie
The reason why there is 1500 tags in 21A is not because the moose there are flourishing. It's a hair brained idea of the current MNR staff to decimate the moose population in 4 or 5 units around 21A - like 21B, 19, and a couple others. And their using hunters as the tool to accomplish the goal (and collect licence fees too) The plan is devised ultimately to starve off the wolves by removing their main prey animal - the moose! When the wolf population caves in then the endangered woodland caribou will have the entire area to themselves to hopefully rebound in the next 20 or 30 yrs. The MNR doesn't give a rats azz about moose in those units. Rather then institute a wolf bounty and deal with the culprit directly they sneak around with this plan and also avoid the wrath of he wolf lovers!

and it gets better! When and if the wolf population plunge's I'm sure the MNR will blame the hunters for over harvesting the moose causing the wolf collapse and make sure the world knows - we did it!

After seeing what the MNR has done to our once healthy wildlife populations I have no trust or faith in any of those cork soakers!

[ninepointer]

When I was in my 1st year of university I remember feeling disappointed when my schedule would not allow me to get into John Theberge's class. By my final year I was glad to have luckily dodged that social engineering bullet.

[parkcity]

... Now that we (humans) have intruded on their habitat is our responsibility to manage it. To do this, there is a need for the general population to understand the impact of such foolish legislation to ban hunting of any particular species. Banning any predator hunting will always result in unacceptable changes in the food chain up and down.

THISS X10000

probably the most true line of thinking that antis don't get. At this point we've come so far that i don't think nature can "just balance itself" as it did before contact. there are too many artificial opportunities for predators to continue to feed if the ungulate population dwindles and keep their numbers up and rising. so now we have a shrinking ungulate population and instead of a resulting in shrinking predators there are just as many if not more. add ontop of that our efficiency as predators and realistically we need to keep natural predators lower than their native numbers to account for our harvest. theres no question we need natural predators but they need to managed the same as the large game, not additional protection. U.S is going through the same thing in and around yellowstone with wolves being protected although they've hit their re-introduction threshold.