Rob

Not to get into an argument about Wildlife Bio's, but in my 30 years working with, around and in the vicinity of said bio's, I have seen a lot change.

the old days of doing wildlife management really changed when the Liberals came into power in the early 2000's and that change is still here today. The old days, management of wildlife was done by regions with deportment heads and a regional manager. They managed the bio's, the budget and what to focus on, and they listened and worked with local R&G clubs, land use plans, local stakeholders and others to develop plans for the region. Now days, everything is run out of Victoria, with the local bios and section heads providing information when requested and following orders. And whats in Victoria? Politicians and all the lobby groups who think they know what is best for the province, along others who don't understand how to manage wildlife and especially don't know the region and the land that the wildlife live on. It's the same way with forestry, mining, agriculture and even oil and gas.

The other big difference is that the most of the new Professionals who are in charge of our resources are changing; the new breed is much more comfortable doing statistics, computer models and following books than heading out in -25 for a day of telemetry. It the new way of doing resource management in BC. No different in Forestry and other resource industries in BC.

I am not saying that all professionals are like this and a lot of the old breed along with some of the new are doing a great job with one hand tied behind their back. But Victoria interference is strong and until those ties are snipped, we will see the same old processes repeated.

Victoria controls the purse strings, the direction that resources are managed and who has a say in what is going on.

Cheers

SS