Sask looking at depredation tags

Had some duck “hunters” trespass on our land, no hunting or trespassing signs up. We parked our swather next to the swather hauler in the yard on the quarter because we got rained out. Just a few days after the rain when things dried up it was time for swathing again. Went into the yard to find they cooked up their birds in the yard. Piles of feathers, onions peels, beer cans and empty 22LR and shotgun shell boxes just left on the ground. They shot the windows out of the swather and shot the tires on the hauler. I’m in Alberta though not Sask. But my experiences like this one, or getting shot at (5 shots) while wearing blaze orange on our own field and having to kiss the dirt is why I don’t give permission to people I don’t know.

Sounds like Americans to me. They seem to think it’s the Wild West up here and make every farm yard their own.
 
The real reason that deer hunting participation has decreased is largely Chronic Wasting Disease.
Who wants to hunt, do all the work to dress and prepare meat, only to have a high likelihood of a positive test, and have to throw it out?
Hardly any of my friends or acquaintances are still hunting deer.
 
The real reason that deer hunting participation has decreased is largely Chronic Wasting Disease.
Who wants to hunt, do all the work to dress and prepare meat, only to have a high likelihood of a positive test, and have to throw it out?
Hardly any of my friends or acquaintances are still hunting deer.

Keep that s*** there
 
The only thing Sask is looking for is revenue when they create these depredation tags.......
Rob

Not even close. We're looking at a few thousand dollars at the most in revenue and it is probably more costly to organize a depredation hunt in terms of Gov't employee wages, admin fees, tag fees, etc. I would be willing to bet that organizing an out of season depredation hunt/shoulder season would be far more costly to the ministry than any revenues generated by the additional season itself. Let's not kid ourselves here, even if they were to issue 1000 extra permits at $30-40 would only generate $30-40,000 and that IF you can find enough suckers to buy them all...

If Saskatchewan's hunting model was about revenue/money, it would be open to non-residents like the Colorado, Montana and Wyoming models... Saskatchewan's model, from the last letter I've received from the Minister of Environment, prioritizes the following and in order: First Nations, residents of Saskatchewan and Canadian non-residents/non-residents.

Very few tags are actually available for non-residents and it should stay that way. US States that have opened the flood gates of selling their wildlife are mostly all in the crapper when it comes to management.
 
The real reason that deer hunting participation has decreased is largely Chronic Wasting Disease.
Who wants to hunt, do all the work to dress and prepare meat, only to have a high likelihood of a positive test, and have to throw it out?
Hardly any of my friends or acquaintances are still hunting deer.

So chronic waste just came about last year?
 
Not even close. We're looking at a few thousand dollars at the most in revenue and it is probably more costly to organize a depredation hunt in terms of Gov't employee wages, admin fees, tag fees, etc. I would be willing to bet that organizing an out of season depredation hunt/shoulder season would be far more costly to the ministry than any revenues generated by the additional season itself. Let's not kid ourselves here, even if they were to issue 1000 extra permits at $30-40 would only generate $30-40,000 and that IF you can find enough suckers to buy them all...

If Saskatchewan's hunting model was about revenue/money, it would be open to non-residents like the Colorado, Montana and Wyoming models... Saskatchewan's model, from the last letter I've received from the Minister of Environment, prioritizes the following and in order: First Nations, residents of Saskatchewan and Canadian non-residents/non-residents.

Very few tags are actually available for non-residents and it should stay that way. US States that have opened the flood gates of selling their wildlife are mostly all in the crapper when it comes to management.

Should they ban outfitting?
 
I'm not convinced the main reason for the decrease in license sales is because of having to ask permission, at least in my part of Sask. If that's the case, would mean those hunters went without permission in the past, and are now stricken by conscience and following the rules. Hunter safety has taught for decades to ask permission from the land owner, good stewardship. Yes it's not always easy to find out who the land owner is, but it's far from impossible. Ask a neighbor, or ask at the RM where you are buying your map. Ask the owner you did last year. If you are new to an area or new to hunting, these issues would be bigger, but again not insurmountable. Join your local Sask Wildlife Federation Club, promoting hunting is their thing. If it's farm land, ask at the local co-op, grain elevator or farm supply store.
IMO, the main cause for the decrease in sales is the economy, followed by CWD concerns (related, who wants to spend a pile of money hunting only to throw away the spoils). Some will have been affected by the new law, but not 15%.


^
without a doubt the main factors^

Where to start......

- BILL whatever is currently ongoing
- How much was gas at the pumps last Nov-Dec 2022? Currently $1.569 in south east Sask
- Everyone here knows what a box of 20 .270 or .30-06 currently costs at the LGS or Canadian Tire
- justinflation

- the trespassing thing is just the icing on the cake.

It all adds up. I would say the 15% drop in license sales was due to the cost of getting out to hunt.
 
I’d guess hunter numbers at 50% of normal around here last season. Stack the new law, tough weather, cwd and you’re left with the die hards.
I’m one of those evil trophy hunters when it comes to deer. With low confidence of finding a big buck locally I headed to south central sk for a change of scenery. The first day I thought I’d keep a talley which proved difficult to do. I’d drive a few miles and set up the spotting scope, scan cover and repeat. Confident to say I saw a thousand deer a day, about half whitetails. Really enjoyed the trip but of about 500 whitetail bucks there were zero that I wanted to shoot. They’re itty bitty deer.
These zones already offer low cost supplemental doe tags and you can easily draw 2 mule deer doe tags putting you at a 5 deer limit. Number of other hunters I saw on my trip? Zero.
They’d have to bring in the New Zealand team.
 
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