Hi all,
Long thread warning. Buckle up.
I love reading all the threads and knowledge from some of the old timers and wiley hunting vets on this page. Lots of insight and wisdom to be gained from stories about the good ol' days.
As a guy that got into hunting six years ago in his mid 30's with no mentorship and just a "sh!t or get off the pot" mindset, I still have a ton to learn. I also am dead set on giving back more than I receive in terms of conservation and passing on this way of life to as many friends and future generations as I can.
This question has been nagging at me for a while now, and I thought it would be interesting to see if a tangible list of changes, additions, subtractions or amendments could be created amongst the HBC family.
hoping we can all agree that pointing fingers at the government is obvioius, and we can just avoid that and instead focus on what we can actually do, here and now for the future of hunting.
let's also try to avoid finger pointing at any particular user groups, as that doesn't lead to any positive solution oriented ideas either.
Questions:
- what are some things that we as hunters can do right now to make hunting in BC better now and in the future?
- what are some attainable goals within our collective capabilities that we could work towards?
- what would it take for wildlife populations to thrive more then they are now, to a point where the government had no choice but to increase tags and sustainable harvest quotas?
in my mind, BC has so much more opportunity with hunting as a natural resource. it should be way better for BC residents and non resident hunters alike.
some things to consider:
hunter participation:
There were 85,000 hunters in BC in 2005. as of 2020 there were 107,000. Some might see that as a negative. I see it as an opportunity. that should equate to a larger voice to our government. perhaps more importantly, it represents an opportunity to push more money back into the resource.
- is BC doing a good job at pumping money back into fisheries and wildlife? I am pretty sure we're not, since Idaho has more elk than BC (as an example).
- how would we go about changing this?
fund raising:
What if we expanded auctioning off special tags to raise more money, similar to the special sheep permit, which went for $270,000 USD.
Imagine what five special permit Grizzly tags could go for at Auction. is that an additional $$500K - 750K right there? I would be up for that, even if the hunt remained closed to BC residents. If anything, that would be a catalyst to show the government the opportunity with a potential LEH restarting.
Divided stakeholders:
from a relative newcomer, it seems like there are too many smaller, individual organizations, and an opportunity to do a better job at being one unified voice.
the BCWF is the largest in terms of membership, but then you have BC BHA, Hunters for BC, Wild Sheep society, RMEF, Ducks Unlimited, One Campfire and many more.
are we as hunters best served this way, or is there a way that our voice could be better heard through one unified agency? one example would be the NRA down south. They have massive levels of push back, but the sheer size of the organization (in terms of people and financially) is such an asset.
what if all of those organizations all agreed to fall under one umbrella organization? more dollars to aid in conservation and fight legal battles. more names for petitions.
it seems like we as hunters are often our worst enemies. I see a lot of people getting side tracked because of one or two things that they might not like. an example would be some people not wanting to support the BCWF because they weren't strong enough on one thing or another.
is an NRA style BC hunter organization even possible? if so, how?
Promoting an accurate and positive view of hunters and improving "the brand".
I think we are doing pretty good here. Special shout out to Mark Hall (Blood Origins), Dylan Eyers (Eat Wild) and Jesse Zeeman (BCWF) who are great ambassadors for hunting here in BC.
-the more we can get loud and transparent about the multi directional benefits of hunting, the better. I think there's probably an opportunity to better cross promote via social media to the younger demographics.
my initial takeaways:
regardless of who is in power, we can do a much better job of becoming a unified voice, and need to unless we want to be "managed to zero".
Money Talks and cash is king - the more money we can generate for hunting and conservation, the better. we need to find better ways of:
1. generating more money and effectively spending it.
2: getting more grants / tax money allocated out of the provincial budget for hunting and conservation.
In summary: what are 1 - 3 things that we can tangibly, measurably and realistically do better as hunters to improve hunting in BC now and in the future, to make it like "the good old days"?
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Originally Posted by mini huey
