Funded Management for Our Future

[Weatherby Fan]

Here's a little dose of reality predator control is NOT going to happen!
I spent 25 years doing government funded predator control,and dealing with the associated political fallout.
If you think today's generation of leaf lickers is going to support killing any animal to support your hunting success, you're dreaming.
If we are going to continue to hunt, we better support those species that can survive high predator numbers, poor habitat and unlicensed year round harvest.

There you go, Truer words have never been spoken.....!

Habitat Management is an easy sell to the public and and it helps so of all the necessary evils to support it's the one to go after for funding,

Unlicensed year round harvest is a real issue that effects us Provincially but can only be dealt with Federally for changes unless its in house and that isn't going to happen,

predator management is one you'll have to look after yourselves as a hunter as black lab pointed out you probably have better chances of winning 6/49 as to get any amount of funding or support from our government.

[Weatherby Fan]

I guess Ill just have to donate some prizes for a predator hunting contest to boost the enthusiasm for predator hunting !

[HarryToolips]

IMO There are only 2 priorities .... 1) Predator control 2) FN control/issues .
Manage those 2 issues and then after a few years if we are lucky we will need to manage for more habitat .
The first is PR , PR and then some PR . The second is federal and I dont know if there is a fix if the FN leaders dont or cant co-operate

Agree completely.....though burns are still needed in many parts of the province....

[eric]

A lot of predator control goes on with the GO's, they just never say anything.
Also we should start supporting the trappers that are targeting Wolves, through monetary help.
Trappers get next to nothing for wolves,and it costs a pile of money..
I do believe proguide66, really advocates this approach.
Just need to keep it quiet so the antis don't get ahold of it.

[boxhitch]

Easy to do. Approach a trapper and offer market-plus-$$ for his hides. Fur market prices don't pay for much gas so we need to get the price up to where it makes trapping wolves worth while.

[pg83]

A lot of predator control goes on with the GO's, they just never say anything.
Also we should start supporting the trappers that are targeting Wolves, through monetary help.
Trappers get next to nothing for wolves,and it costs a pile of money..
I do believe proguide66, really advocates this approach.
Just need to keep it quiet so the antis don't get ahold of it.

It's getting harder and harder to do it quietly. Steve is doing his part, but he's also promoting his business and has to deal with a ton of crap over it. I don't even know the guy, but it's obvious to see. Some of the GO's are certainly doing their part in terms of predator control, but it's not enough. We are all in an uphill battle.

[dana]

Here's a little dose of reality predator control is NOT going to happen!
I spent 25 years doing government funded predator control,and dealing with the associated political fallout.
If you think today's generation of leaf lickers is going to support killing any animal to support your hunting success, you're dreaming.
If we are going to continue to hunt, we better support those species that can survive high predator numbers, poor habitat and unlicensed year round harvest.

Actually I wasn't suggesting government sponsered predator control. I was suggesting hunter sponsered predator control. Big difference there. Private money funding current regulation through our trappers would be where I would start. But according to some on this board, i don't have the right to voice my opinion. Hahaha

[dana]

The 14 million we pay for licensing goes back to wildlife.
Small tax is imposed on all goods and services that generate income from use in the outdoors.

Conservatively that would be 40 million going to wildlife.
If adopted it would be a pretty good start.

With an NDP Gov we start out of the gate with we gotta kill more wolves while the majority of their voting base wants all predator hunting banned. Not the best foot forward.

Funding would help build political will and allow education of the general public.
Get those two rolling it won't be as much of an uphill fight.

I could get behind that if habitat enhancement didn't take a backseat for paying for more science to study more things. Could you imagine if one could have taken all the funds that went into the wolf collar program and put it towards true real on the ground habitat enhanment for sheep? If one could ensure the money went towards real on the ground projects instead of paying high wages for some so-called wildlife student to do a thesis on something 'facinating' i could get on that bandwagon.

[Keta1969]

Unfortunately all the points been made here and disagreements that are aired don't give me much hope for the future of wildlife and hunting in B.C. There are many ways a funding model can be constructed but everyone at the table needs to realize they won't get everything they want. There has to be a willingness to listen with an open mind and accept that you will lose some arguments and then STAY at the table. So Dana, Bow Nut, Whonnock Boy,Bear Valley,Fisher Dude, Ourea,BCWF,WKFandGame etc, is this possible? If what's happening on this site is any indication of what to expect it'll never work. The thing with wildlife is it's never one thing not predators not habitat not ranching not logging not access not first nations. All you guys are vocal and passionate about wildlife but can you put your differences aside to work TOGETHER for a better outcome? That's what wildlife needs.

[Brno22F]

An excerpt from the executive summary of a recently posted report on BC govt website entitled DETERMINING FACTORS AFFECTING MOOSE POPULATION CHANGE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA:
TESTING THE LANDSCAPE CHANGE HYPOTHESIS
2017 Progress Report: February 2012–April 2017

Since this project was initiated in 2012, we fitted 388 cow Moose with GPS-radio-collars across five study areas during annual December to March captures. Twenty calf Moose (12 female, 8 male) were fitted with GPS-radio-collars in the Bonaparte study area during January/February 2017. There were 255 cow Moose captured by chemical immobilization using aerial darting and 133 by physical restraint using aerial net gunning. Three configurations of GPS-radio-collars were used: those programmed for one fix/day (
n = 147), 2 fixes/day (n = 107), and >2 fixes/day (n = 134). As of 30 April 2017, of the 388 radio-collars deployed on cow Moose, 215 were active, 101 censored (i.e., dropped at end of battery life, stopped collecting data or slipped from Moose), and 72 were associated with Moose that died. We identified the probable proximate cause of death for the 72 cow mortalities as 36 predation (31 Wolf, 3 Cougar, 2 bear), 12 hunting (1 licensed, 11 unlicensed), 16 health-related (8 apparent starvation, 3 septicemia, 1 peritonitis, 4 unknown health-related - two of which have health tests pending), 3 natural accidents, and 5 unknown. Of the 20 calf Moose radio-collared in 2017, there were 11 mortalities with the proximate cause of mortality being 5 due to predation (4 Wolf, 1 bear), 5 health-related (4 apparent starvation, 1 unknown health-related with health tests pending) and 1 vehicle collision.