Sheep Management and Allocation in Alberta

[GoatGuy]

Some good discussion about sheep management and allocation in Alberta. Sounds like the resident hunters are facing some of the similar issues we are/will be in BC.

This is a bit older.


Here's the link

http://esrd.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/wildlife-management/documents/TrophyBighornSheepManagementInAlberta-Feb03-2012.pdf

[budismyhorse]

So from a brief look... It seems the Albertan outfitters don't get more than 20-30(ish) percent of bighorn Harvest. .... While across the border in our province .... Up to 40% of allocation alone.

[GoatGuy]

So from a brief look... It seems the Albertan outfitters don't get more than 20-30(ish) percent of bighorn Harvest. .... While across the border in our province .... Up to 40% of allocation alone.

Up to 20% across the entire province for Non-res. That 20% includes non-guided LEH for Canadians as well.

There are also resident only areas and also resident only seasons.

[Walking Buffalo]

Up to 20% across the entire province for Non-res. That 20% includes non-guided LEH for Canadians as well.

There are also resident only areas and also resident only seasons.


Not sure where you are going with this..... ? An awful lot of hot air and BS has been released since this 2012 document.

The current sheep issue here in Alberta is that there are pressures to change our sheep hunting regulations now that researchers have "conclusively" proven that hunting under a general season 4/5 curl restriction has caused "Hunting induced genetic selection" resulting in smaller rams (3.5% for six year olds).:roll:



We can't give you any historical numbers as our government still refuses to release the Public domain ram harvest data... but we do have the data for 2014.


Total Licenced Rams killed - 130
Resident - 101 = 77.3%
Outfitters - 29 = 22.3%

Ram Harvest in areas where Outfitters do not have allocations - 32

Ram Harvest in areas where Outiftters have allocations -98
Residents - 69 = 70.1%
Outfitters - 29 = 29.9%

As you mentioned, Outfitters are allowed 20% of the province wide AAH despite not being allowed to hunt in the southern SMAs 1-3.



Here is a funny bit of trivia. ESRD has not determined AAH levels, so it is impossible to determine if outfitters have exceeded their 20% threshold. :)

[Apolonius]

Outfitters are the same breed(greed) everywhere.The more they sell the more money they make,the more they make ,the more they want.The more they want ....has to come out of the resident share.And they couldn't care less about the resident hunter.

[GoatGuy]

Not sure where you are going with this..... ? An awful lot of hot air and BS has been released since this 2012 document.

The current sheep issue here in Alberta is that there are pressures to change our sheep hunting regulations now that researchers have "conclusively" proven that hunting under a general season 4/5 curl restriction has caused "Hunting induced genetic selection" resulting in smaller rams (3.5% for six year olds).:roll:



We can't give you any historical numbers as our government still refuses to release the Public domain ram harvest data... but we do have the data for 2014.


Total Licenced Rams killed - 130
Resident - 101 = 77.3%
Outfitters - 29 = 22.3%

Ram Harvest in areas where Outfitters do not have allocations - 32

Ram Harvest in areas where Outiftters have allocations -98
Residents - 69 = 70.1%
Outfitters - 29 = 29.9%

As you mentioned, Outfitters are allowed 20% of the province wide AAH despite not being allowed to hunt in the southern SMAs 1-3.



Here is a funny bit of trivia. ESRD has not determined AAH levels, so it is impossible to determine if outfitters have exceeded their 20% threshold. :)

Hahahah, no AAH, no surprise, we are doing the same thing with some of our sheep.

Got these nuggets as well:

5. We advise a recognition of the value of the Sheep species by increasing resident sheep licenses immediately to levels consistent with other sheep jurisdictions (MO. = $125, ID. = $167, BC, $60, OR=$123). Outfitters already have a high value evidenced by the fact that NRA’s and NR’s are willing to pay high dollars to hunt sheep in Alberta, taxes (12.4 million annually) paid by outfitting businesses, and many donations to conservation.


6. We advise that any person who has harvested two sheep in his/her life immediately be required to wait at least 5 years after the year the second sheep is/was harvested prior to being able to hold a sheep license again.

[Walking Buffalo]

Hahahah, no AAH, no surprise, we are doing the same thing with some of our sheep.

Got these nuggets as well:

5. We advise a recognition of the value of the Sheep species by increasing resident sheep licenses immediately to levels consistent with other sheep jurisdictions (MO. = $125, ID. = $167, BC, $60, OR=$123). Outfitters already have a high value evidenced by the fact that NRA’s and NR’s are willing to pay high dollars to hunt sheep in Alberta, taxes (12.4 million annually) paid by outfitting businesses, and many donations to conservation.


6. We advise that any person who has harvested two sheep in his/her life immediately be required to wait at least 5 years after the year the second sheep is/was harvested prior to being able to hold a sheep license again.


To be fair, those comments are from an internal discussion paper are not currently an official position of APOS. However the mindset of these points is enlightening.

Personally, the biggest concern I have with the current Sheep management discussions in Alberta relate to the lack of transparency by the government and the difficulty in having the managers consider concerns other than hunting harvest. Once again we are being faced with an attack by individuals within the government attempting to eliminate hunting harvest opportunity based on an anti-hunting philosophy. Researchers promoting Hunting induced genetic selection and the new "compassionate" wildlife management model are neck deep in the Alberta sheep issue. With a little more effort we might have these people dug in a foot deeper. ;)