Distress Call - What's happening to our moose? OOD Hunting Annual

[werner.reiche]

Re: native hunting and moose - should be a pretty simple study to do... Correlate the WMUs with significant moose population declines with their distance from the nearest indian reserves...

55A, 55B and 48 aren't that far from Golden Lake. Are there reserves in/near other WMUs with moose population problems? Is there a WMU with a moose population that isn't near a reserve?

[RWG]

This isn't rocket science, the Ontario moose population and adult tag allocations continue to dwindle while more and more individuals are allowed year long and un-regulated access to this resource. What could possibly be the problem?????#$@%^

[justinj]

The Wikipedia scholar is right. Year long open seasons and unlimited bag limits can't possibly be harmful for the population

No, I believe native hunting is a factor, and so are a lot of other things, including habitat reduction.

Without actually knowing the numbers, though, you can't say it is the primary factor.

[rockyboy]

You are right Justinj, management decisions without disclosure is impossible.

[wolfhunter]

I think its a combination of ALL the above. Native hunters, Crossbows, deer pushed into area, increase of predators, city expansion. There are probably a few more as well, like restricting tags so guide outfits can use them, etc,etc,etc......

[Boschmeister]

Some positive news coming out of Minnesota on short term moose population numbers:

http://mnoutdoorsman.com/forums/index.php?topic=30597.0

Interesting discussion on native hunting rights in Manitoba:

http://www.manitobahuntingforum.com/...arvesters.html

[redd foxx]

I think we had all better get used to hunting by First Nations people. It's not going anywhere soon. The Supreme court of the land has told us where we sit with regards to native allocation of the resource. Native access comes first. When conservation of the resource is put in jeopardy then the native harvest may be restricted however....the non-native harvest will be cut first. as long as there is a non-native harvest.... there may not be a conservation issue.


Bottom line is that the more First Nations populations there is....the more moose they have a need/desire/right for whether we like it or not. Similarly... the more non-native people there are hunting moose, the less moose there are to go around.

What we need to do is push for a non-native harvest system that more effectively allocates the resource to non-native people. What that means in my opinion is a change in attitudes. Hunting for non-natives is not a right but a privilege. We should realize that hunting for food is not a right. No non-native person has a right to hunt for food. We may eat what we hunt but that right can be taken away from us. Think of all the convicted poachers who have lost their privilege (and rightfully so).

In my opinion we need to tie an adult moose to a group of people not to individuals. There just aren't enough moose to continue with the hunting pressure we are exerting on them now. Not to mention all the other factors that may be affecting the populations.

We are our own worst enemies sometimes, especially when it comes to the moose draws. Many groups solicit applicants who have no intention of hunting. What this does is inflate the # of applicants for the now scarce tags available. Yes..... the present system has created that process but we can't have it both ways. The only way to correct this is a drastic change to the system and..... the MNR or whoever won't be able to keep everyone happy.

Again...in my opinion....a drastic change in attitudes is what it will take to protect our hunting heritage.

[justinj]

You are right Justinj, management decisions without disclosure is impossible.

Can't argue with you on that one.

[Boschmeister]

I think we had all better get used to hunting by First Nations people. It's not going anywhere soon. The Supreme court of the land has told us where we sit with regards to native allocation of the resource. Native access comes first. When conservation of the resource is put in jeopardy then the native harvest may be restricted however....the non-native harvest will be cut first. as long as there is a non-native harvest.... there may not be a conservation issue.

The Native population in Ontario is growing at 5 times the rate of the non-native population (now 300,000+). This is multiplied by the fact that native population growth is in in areas with access to hunting whereby non-native population growth is almost entirely in urban/suburban areas.

If this trend continues we will almost certainly see a rapid acceleration of the decline of the moose population in Ontario.

We need better data, an immediate move to a temporary (3-5yr) mandatory reporting (to gather data) may make sense. I doubt it will happen but instituting this with a few (pilot) of the local native communities would also be helpful.

[deerslayer]

When a species has to be reintroduced then I believe all people's and groups should have to follow the way of hunters having to put in for tags. One year going up for the moose hunt guy told us moose have been hard to get because one native fellow usually has 11 moose by now and only had 2 hanging now