Hunters Face Restrictions - Selling our Wildlife

[GoatGuy]

Williams Lake Advisor May 6




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[Philcott]

Well there you go. It has started.

Y'all better start calling and writing your Mla's to get this reversed if you want to keep hunting for the average guy/gal and their kids.

[bridger]

great article it really explains what is going on not only in region 5 but around the province. It is time that resident hunting opportunities be given priority over that of the commercial interests.

[PressurePoint]

Thanks Barry Penner

[x-hare]

This is a sad day!

[.284]

I`ll be writing as soon as the election is decided!

[leadpillproductions]

what the heck are the people who hunt for food going to do with being able to shoot one deer

[Charlie]

what the heck are the people who hunt for food going to do with being able to shoot one deer


I fear this will push people to the other side and just shoot what they need to in order to survive.

The government will force some legitimate hunters in need of food to feed their families to become criminals.

As stated in the article, between the Moose LEH and the new Mulie regs, the bush will be virtually empty. Much to the joy of the Guides.

[boxhitch]

I fear this will push people to the other side and just shoot what they need to in order to survive.

The government will force some legitimate hunters in need of food to feed their families to become criminals.

As stated in the article, between the Moose LEH and the new Mulie regs, the bush will be virtually empty. Much to the joy of the Guides.
Only if we sit around and let it happen. If you believe in your right to choose to live the lifestyle of a hunter, now would be a good time to speak up.

[6616]

Only if we sit around and let it happen. If you believe in your right to choose to live the lifestyle of a hunter, now would be a good time to speak up.


Right on the money Bill. Perhaps this will push resident hunters over a threshold where they won't take any more $hit, and move us away from the complacency and NIMBY
attitudes that has plaqued us for the last 20 years.

It's time to speak out. Bring this up at club meetings, get your club to write a letter and make sure they bring it up at regional meetings. Everyone write a letter.
We've got to stir this up enough that our MLAs and Minister Penner take note that the Fish and Wildlife Branch is slowly alienating what is supposed to be one of
their main client groups.

[born2hunt]

I really fear this is going to create more poaching:(( and as i stated before were heading to a pay as you go system for hunting !! It's all about the almighty dollar . And what a shame none of us will be taking our grandchildren hunting :( I can hardly wait to see whats gonna become of the fishing it's got to be next:(.

[traveller]

What I can't understand about the 4 point rule is when I was down hunting around Williams Lake some years ago during mid November season there was alot of mature 3 point mulies running around doing all the mating as they were far more dominent than the smaller younger 4 pointers. So how does this improve the trophy quality or even the gene pool when the average muly will become 3 points and the 4 point blood gets bread out.

[Singleshotneeded]

It looks like it's time to put some heat on the Minister of Environment after this election, and let him know that we B.C. taxpayers and voters aren't interested in getting the shaft. The wildlife of B.C. is first and foremost a resource for the benefit of British Columbians and their families, not a bunch of damned foreigners with space in their trophy room...

[Devilbear]

It HAS been happening with the freshwater fisheries for years. In 1986, I was elected to the Lower Mainland B.C.W.F. exec. and promptly asked the then F&W head fisheries guy, Dr. Dave Narver, WHY the government allowed so many foreign anglers on high use waters such as the Vedder. His reply, and Narver IS an American, was that this was to encourage "tourism" and he doubted whether I could really affect it very much.....

At that same annual L.M. meeting, the then top wildlife guy, also not a native B.C. boy, took almost all of his presentation to quite arrogantly inform we local peasants how to correctly address the "minister" and the bureaucrats when presuming to comment to them on the management of OUR wildlife....this attitude STILL exists and it is a large part of our problem.

WE need to TELL them that WE OWN B.C. and WE do NOT want foreigners using our resources while we are denied access to them. The "tourist dollars" issue is a scam as most Yanks bring their food, booze, fuel and anything else they can with them.

We used to be able to obtain a substantial portion of our large family's annual food by fishing and some hunting. We NEVER took even close to our legal limits and had all we required and now this is not possible, but, the "trophy" hunting and "trophy" fishing for foreigners seems to be doing real well.

Ban foreign hunting and fishing in B.C. and deport anyone not born here who is convicted of wildlife/fisheries offences. Put native-born eco-criminals in spartan gaols for LONG sentences and we can return to using what is OURS.

[hunter1947]

I have copy and pasted the wright up on this post Goat Guy and I will be sending it as for a wright up to my local MLA for a few others ,man this boils me to no end ,its the same thing as the government selling our crown land to timber companies then keeping us off the land that we the tax payer once owned http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon8.gif.

[The Hermit]

Wayne, send that to me too please.

[Sniper]

Business interests of course will manage the wildlife better and generate more revenue from it, everything must be privately owned and operated just like the U.S. of A. remember? I think most people do not realize that this Liberal government is actualy much farther right than WAC Bennet and the Socreds and people just keep on voting for this? I used to think WAC Bennet and company where right wing but they had a much better aproach you know like BC Hydro making money for the government not some corporation from the U.S. As for the people owning B.C., well that does not fit with the ideology of Gordon Campbell I tried to get this accross to the government along with many others when the TFL's where virtualy made the property of the forest companies. TFL's no longer belong to the people of BC they now can be bought sold and subdivided by the forest companies! After all only private enterprise can manage our forests right!

[pikey]

I fear this will push people to the other side and just shoot what they need to in order to survive.

The government will force some legitimate hunters in need of food to feed their families to become criminals.

As stated in the article, between the Moose LEH and the new Mulie regs, the bush will be virtually empty. Much to the joy of the Guides.


So when is a poacher not a poacher?

I recall when the commercial boys went out on the Fraser during a Native only fish as a protest, they were fishing "illegally" and were prosecuted but I don't recall ANYONE I know calling them poachers, in fact they had a lot of support.

If they close an entire resource and it has absolutely nothing to do with conservation but to do with reserving our resources for foreign interests how many people are going to see it has poaching?

If people stop buying licenses who is going to pay for the CO service?

[Charlie]

So when is a poacher not a poacher?

I recall when the commercial boys went out on the Fraser during a Native only fish as a protest, they were fishing "illegally" and were prosecuted but I don't recall ANYONE I know calling them poachers, in fact they had a lot of support.

If they close an entire resource and it has absolutely nothing to do with conservation but to do with reserving our resources for foreign interests how many people are going to see it has poaching?

If people stop buying licenses who is going to pay for the CO service?

I avoided the use of the word poacher deliberately. If you are in dire straits and needed to feed your family, then all bets are off.

[pikey]

I'm playing Devils' advocate with my reference in trying to show that there is more than the law that comes into play.
The law said the fishermen were poachers but they were not viewed that way by a large segment of the population.

If you are in dire straights and had to feed your family then I doubt you would be viewed as a poacher in your community,
if there was no conservation concern and it was closed to residents purely to make money for the guides and hunting for foreign interests.

[dime]

This is exactly the same as the "region 5 response" thread, and I have already written a letter that I encourage others to paraphrase or copy. The modified version is here, which could use some work, but is a good rough draft:


To those who have implemented the restrictive changes to the Region 5 hunting regs:

Firstly, by every indication, including an admission by the director of the fish and wildlife branch Tom Ethier, region 5 does not have a conservation problem with mule deer. In fact the number of mule deer are at record highs, as evidenced by many different measures. It has been suggested by Tom Ethier that there is a "problem" with a buck:doe ratio, and this is the justification provided for the radical changes to the harvest allowance in the area. In reality, to correct this imbalance, would it not make more sense to expand the LEH allocation for females, or better yet implement a general open season to bring the numbers in to alignment with the provincial standard?
Secondly, it has been stated in Tom's response that these changes "should have a relatively small impact on most hunters" but this statement is based on the flawed logic. It is incorrect to assume harvest success will be directly correlated to number of hunting days. This is certainly not the case if the number of deer that are available to hunt during the four point or better season is dramatically smaller than the number during an any buck season. As 50 out of the total of 81 days have this restriction how can you reasonably claim that the opportunities are not lessened.
Finally the change from a regional bag limit of two bucks to one will also have a negative impact on a hunters ability to provide for their families.

Perhaps when formulating these arguments one should think of the small business owners who depend on the money generated by hunters traveling to the Cariboo/Chilcotin, the local hunters who now have a diminished ability to provide for their families and the current economic crisis that sees this decision come at the worst possible time.

The decision has clearly already been made, but I think that it is shameful to try to dupe the hunting public into believing that there is sound scientific logic behind the changes you have made, and not a political agenda.

Sincerely,
XXXXXX



Feel free to paraphrase or copy, and send to the following people:

Rodger.Stewart@gov.bc.ca <Rodger.Stewart@gov.bc.ca>

Tom.Ethier@gov.bc.ca <Tom.Ethier@gov.bc.ca>

bob.simpson.mla@leg.bc.ca <bob.simpson.mla@leg.bc.ca>

charlie.wyse.mla@leg.bc.ca <charlie.wyse.mla@leg.bc.ca>

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