Letter to Minister Katrine Conroy related to bighorn sheep and goat hunting

Letter to Minister Katrine Conroy related to bighorn sheep and goat hunting in Region 4
BCWF President Chuck Zimmerman:

A. The Replacement of the GOS Season with LEH is not Warranted by Conservation Concerns

​B. Replacing the GOS with LEH was motivated by an improper purpose

​C. The Improper Purpose and Unreasonableness of the Province’s Decision is Demonstrated in Several Ways

​D. Request

https://bcwf.bc.ca/letter-to-ministe...g-in-region-4/

There is a lot of misinformation in that letter.

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Originally Posted by bearvalley

There is a lot of misinformation in that letter.

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I believe that to be true.

Looking forward to the response from the GOABC...

For a start I’d like. to see proof that R4 Bighorn outfitters got an increase in quota due to Covid relief.
Looks to me like someone wants to start another allocation battle.
Funny Mount Assiniboine sheep are being singled out by the letter writer to be closed due to the sub population falling below 75 but he wants the other Kootenay sheep herds to go GOS even tho 9 out of 12 herds are below the 75 threshold that is the trigger number for a closure.
Chucks kind of talking two stories here.
Also, once again our provincial biologists and sheep & goat specialists are being disregarded while one the BCWF brought in to support their max opportunity methods is being looked at as the gospel.
We have 3 sheep experts that sit on the Wild Sheep Foundation Advisory Board…..and the BCWF President and BOD write a letter stating we have no sheep knowledge in this province.
When you look at past history in R4 with Bighorns it’s not hard to figure out that one individual is using the BCWF to try and get done what he did not achieve 10 or 12 years ago.
F over R4 guides.
Maybe Chuck and cohorts would be better off thinking conservation instead of trying to be superior to people that have forgotten more about wild sheep than they will ever know.
Let’s see proof there’s a quota uplift to where a 250% harvest can be achieved…..

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Originally Posted by bearvalley

There is a lot of misinformation in that letter.

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Yes kind of strange to say there is a significant decline in wildlife populations, but then say they want a increase in authorizations and more opportunity..
Kind of shows a lack of wildlife conservation by the BCWF, but will say there has been some bad/strange things/decisions done by the EK branch.

BCWF is for hunters and asking for a change to the number of opportunities is in support of hunters the way I see it
The opps and the kills are all under the curl restrictions which is the control for sustainability, more hunters won't necessarily mean less sheep

but the line in the sand is the pop number, and how the trigger number has been reached, so something had to be done

Didn't the WSSBC put out a similar letter recently? What do their sheep experts have to say? Richard?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bearvalley

For a start I’d like. to see proof that R4 Bighorn outfitters got an increase in quota due to Covid relief.
Looks to me like someone wants to start another allocation battle.
Funny Mount Assiniboine sheep are being singled out by the letter writer to be closed due to the sub population falling below 75 but he wants the other Kootenay sheep herds to go GOS even tho 9 out of 12 herds are below the 75 threshold that is the trigger number for a closure.
Chucks kind of talking two stories here.

Also, once again our provincial biologists and sheep & goat specialists are being disregarded while one the BCWF brought in to support their max opportunity methods is being looked at as the gospel.
We have 3 sheep experts that sit on the Wild Sheep Foundation Advisory Board…..and the BCWF President and BOD write a letter stating we have no sheep knowledge in this province.
When you look at past history in R4 with Bighorns it’s not hard to figure out that one individual is using the BCWF to try and get done what he did not achieve 10 or 12 years ago.
F over R4 guides.
Maybe Chuck and cohorts would be better off thinking conservation instead of trying to be superior to people that have forgotten more about wild sheep than they will ever know.
Let’s see proof there’s a quota uplift to where a 250% harvest can be achieved…..

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Im really interested in this too I’ve been hiking around his main Bighorn for a long time I can’t see this being possible considering his main camp is now 1 leh allocation
The shame of the LEH was pushing all the tags into the main population area in the Elk Not many guys ever get back into the right areas but now we’re pushing everyone where to explore It’s a bad deal for older rams in there now and we’re going to see a lot never exiting the mine or using the traditional routes over the rocks
What spurs me is how effective the States is with their sheep populations in every single state
It transgresses me to say but I’ve lost all faith in our federal and provincial governments and I don’t see our wildlife management actually working

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Originally Posted by wiggy

Im really interested in this too I’ve been hiking around his main Bighorn for a long time I can’t see this being possible considering his main camp is now 1 leh allocation
The shame of the LEH was pushing all the tags into the main population area in the Elk Not many guys ever get back into the right areas but now we’re pushing everyone where to explore It’s a bad deal for older rams in there now and we’re going to see a lot never exiting the mine or using the traditional routes over the rocks
What spurs me is how effective the States is with their sheep populations in every single state
It transgresses me to say but I’ve lost all faith in our federal and provincial governments and I don’t see our wildlife management actually working

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You’ve made some good points.
When you compare how the “States” manages sheep to how we in BC do it all goes back to value placed on the species & money invested back.
BC government has been under pressure for decades to maintain opportunity & access to wildlife for residents that want to utilize said wildlife for consumptive purposes.
While our wildlife species were abundant, this low investment type of wildlife management worked fine but as our provincial human population grew, habitat was destroyed and predator numbers skyrocketed.
This created the perfect storm and for the most part BC’s ungulate populations have collapsed.
We need to start putting a value on wildlife species …. not just taking them for granted.
Name me a state that allows a Mountain Sheep to be harvested each and every year in that state with the purchase of a $60 license?
The same goes for non-resident sheep harvests in this province as well.
I don’t believe anyone should be shooting sheep each and every year…just because they can.
The Wild Sheep Foundations famous line is “putting & keeping sheep on the mountain”.
In BC we’re doing a great job of taking them off.

The RACIST policies, i.e., "UNDRIP" of the NDP, have brought about ever increasing losses of OUR wildlife and this is a disgrace.

I agree that ONE ram per hunter per lifetime is enough, however, this MUST apply to ALL resident hunters with NO exceptions.

I see little real value for we BC people in even allowing "non-resident" killing of OUR wildlife, but, I do respect others p.o.v.'s in this respect. so.........

I have solo backpack hunted sheep, passed up a legal ram as he was only barely legal and am now too handidapped and almost 77 to hunt such game, but, it is TIME to clean out the bureaucracy and support our resident rights. My family has lived in BC for more than 150 years and in the Kootenays, for 130 of those and I do NOT support rich foreigners taking OUR resources!

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Originally Posted by Otto1946

The RACIST policies, i.e., "UNDRIP" of the NDP, have brought about ever increasing losses of OUR wildlife and this is a disgrace.

I agree that ONE ram per hunter per lifetime is enough, however, this MUST apply to ALL resident hunters with NO exceptions.

I see little real value for we BC people in even allowing "non-resident" killing of OUR wildlife, but, I do respect others p.o.v.'s in this respect. so.........

I have solo backpack hunted sheep, passed up a legal ram as he was only barely legal and am now too handidapped and almost 77 to hunt such game, but, it is TIME to clean out the bureaucracy and support our resident rights. My family has lived in BC for more than 150 years and in the Kootenays, for 130 of those and I do NOT support rich foreigners taking OUR resources!

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Glad to see you’re still on top the dirt and kicking Dewey!
At present we are faced with some major issues in wildlife management and who will be in control of said wildlife going forward.
Here’s something to think about….if and when BC shuts out non-residents the ability to hunt BC wildlife species … what will be the fallout?
If non residents are gone do you think the funding from organizations like the Wild Sheep Foundation will still flow into this province?
We need to think big picture and quit crying over crumbs.

That is something that residents rarely think about. It's always us vs. them most of the time and you are right, they need to start thinking big picture, and that includes not just the portion of the resource being allocated to non-residents, but how the resource is allocated among licensed resident hunters and unlicensed resident hunters.

By the way I tried to send you a PM and it bounced it because your box is full apparently.