Draft Letter for our Elected Representatives

[peaceriver]

Hey everybody,

I am new to this forum, as well as new to hunting. Long before I decided to get into hunting, however, I have always had a passion for the outdoors and for conservation.

I was under the impression, like I'm sure many of you were, that conservation efforts in BC were well managed, with healthy populations and good environmental conditions. As I have been doing more research I have found that this is most definitely not the case.

It seems our previous government, and our current one, do not take the issue of wildlife management as seriously as they should, and that is why I am writing a draft letter outlining not only how important conservation is for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, but for future generations. In this letter I call for a tax to be placed on all outdoor recreational products and activities to be fully dedicated to funding conservation efforts in our province.

Looking at the US state of Idaho, they spend far more than we do on conservation with a population of 1.68 million and a GDP of $59 billion. Our province has a population of over 4.6 million and a GDP of nearly $250 billion. There is no reason our annual expenditures on wildlife management should be less than theirs.

I am writing this draft letter so that everyone here on this forum who is interested in increasing our conservation efforts can have a ready-made template to send to your local MLA. If enough of us make noise regarding this then we increase the chances of something being done. I would greatly appreciate any ideas, comments, or concerns any of you have, and look forward to discussing this with you all.

[Bugle M In]

sounds good...looking forward to reading it.

[steepNdeep]

Nice work peaceriver. Good to see people getting motivated!

Here is a petition for that very issue: http://www.bcwf.net/index.php/2017-p...n-the-petition

Supporting conservation organizations are the best to get a united voice heard. The BC Wildlife Federation is British Columbia's largest and oldest conservation organization with 50,000 members: http://www.bcwf.net/index.php/about

[338 Mag]

Good plan, More needs to be done. First year without a moose or elk, numbers are way down. I saw 4 moose in two weeks 135rd Alaska highway. Lots of wolves managed to get one of those but need a wolf cull big time.......

[Taylor329]

Petition signed, will be spreading this around social media, hope it gains some more traction.

[Greenthumbed]

Hey Peaceriver,

How's the draft letter coming along?

[dbergen69]

Great idea peaceriver. Let me know if there is anything I can do to support you. I think it is critical that has hunters we make sure that the government hears us. We are not outspoken as a group so I feel like the government does not know we exist. In additional to the suggested tax, which should be on ALL outdoor gear whether purchased locally or online, all funding from licenses and LEH applications should go into a dedicated fund for wildlife management.

steepndeep thanks for sharing the petition.

[boblly1]

i am going to stick my neck out so that one of you can cut my head off. Because i feel that leh process is one of the largest predators that needs to be dealt with. To allow someone to harvest the offsping bearers is about as stupid as it gets everyone knows that you are asked if one encounters a cow with calf please take the calf seriously like that is done possibly 1 in 1000 times and we all know as hunters. That 80 to 90 percent of the cows being taken by the end of rut are already pregnant. So in essence every cow taken actually kills 3 no amount of funding money is going to fix that. So i think they need to fix their own mistakes first then. I have no problem giving funding to help fix mother natures problems. Just my own opinion no female of any species should be up for grabs White folks or FN no senior or junior no one period. Ok fire away

[dbergen69]

boblly1, in almost all parts of region 7A there is only 1 cow draw per unit. 7-23 and 7-16 are the exception and this is because the moose population is being managed to support caribou populations. Region 5 has not had any cow LEHs or a calf season that I can remember. Sweden harvests moose of both sexes and all age groups. Sweden has the highest moose concentration in the world and an increasing moose population. Region 7A and 5 have a low moose concentration and significantly declining population. So close to home we have 2 areas:, 7A with a calf season and some cow harvest, declining moose population, 5 with no calf season and no cow harvest declining population. It does not seem like the lack of a cow/calf season in the region 5 has helped the population. Also region 5 has been 100% on LEH for approx. 15 years. Does not seem like this has helped either. The biologists in Sweden feel that by harvesting across all classes they keep the population in balance, ie correct bull/cow ratios and balanced to the carrying capacity. I am not sure about you but I would sooner have Sweden's moose population and a cow harvest than the region 5 population with no cow harvest. Based on the facts above it is my opinion that the current hunting regulations are not the cause of the decline in moose population. None the less the moose population is in serious decline I don't know why, I am sure you don't know why, and unfortunately the folks that should know why don't either. I am not sure what the solution is but a good starting point is to getting funding into the hands of the trained wildlife managers so they have actually factual data to base there decisions on. Maybe the cow harvest is a problem but I would like the managers to make that decision based on science and facts rather and a blind guess. The only way we are going to get the science and the facts is to spend money on management. The only way that will happen is for all us to lobby the government so they know that wildlife is important to us.