Deer menace Gulf Islands habitat

david doyle said:
IIRC the LEH allocation for the park went to the FN.

There are lots of Blacktail hunting opportunities on the southern/northern gulf islands. The opportunities are not exploited.
Click to expand...

It did this year. Of course that was after Parks Canada and the private owners of Sidney island did a cull of thier own. Crazy part is, there still are a whopping herd of deer left on the island!

Its all about access. Meet the right landowner and they cheer you on as you shoot deer on their property. Meet the wrong landowner and they will ##### you out for asking permission (after they are done building a 8' fence around their garden and fixing the dent in the front of their car :p).

People just need to get out and spend the time getting access. Its just as important as any other kind of scouting and pays off nicely when you are the only guy in an area.
At least that has been my experience....... :p;)
 
The owners group on Sidney are not interested in outsiders hunting there. They basically use the island as their own little hunting reserve - it's all private - and as mentioned they do a cull and, iirc, sell the meat. I tried to get permission many times, including writing letters to the group's representative. They don't even bother answering.
 
Well...Why not become an owners group? Start a LP with each unit @ $50K for a total of 20 owners and buy some land on one of the islands.


1899 said:
The owners group on Sidney are not interested in outsiders hunting there. They basically use the island as their own little hunting reserve - it's all private - and as mentioned they do a cull and, iirc, sell the meat. I tried to get permission many times, including writing letters to the group's representative. They don't even bother answering.
Click to expand...
 
Suddenly this thread has take a change of course.
Sidney Island is a very unique situation.
It was originally bought by a group of business men who had interests in hunting and forestry.
They did select logging and that money went into the pot to pay for taxes and such.
It was a version of a strata if you will.
Somewhere along the line a couple of original property owners found a way to exploit it a little further to their benefit , allow someone to sub lease property in their parcel of land and use that money to improve their homestead.
This is where it gets a little fuzzy, but eventually someone introduced realtors to the island and even more land was carved up from the original reserve for select development.
They still have limited hunting on the private land , but that to is shrinking due to land owner concerns (non hunters) where swimming pools and tennis courts are popping up.
The Federal Park(Gummberment) has since only allowed certain First Nation Bands access to the Park for Hunting during a limited window as well.
I may or may not have all my information correct, and this is not to misslead anyone , it is just that my contact for the Island who was an original investor was killed in an MVA 20 years ago.
As DrJitney has suggested there is lots of land available that a group could be set up to buy some Good area that backs onto Crown Land ( top of Pitt Lake comes to mind ) equal shares and expenses on taxes and you are good to go !
Problem lies in trying to find 20 groups who are like minded and can afford $20 or $50k for such a venture.
Tight Groups,
Rob
 
IIRC one of the big impacts with these heavy deer populations is damage to critical song bird habitat. Basically no shrubbery left and life is tough on a bird with out cover.
There have been at least a couple bio-diversity studies comparing fenced plots with deer access land. One of them may be on the Parks Canada web site.
I would imagine the deer also speed the transfer of nutrients off the land and into the ocean. It is not too much to imagine alot of lush island becoming bare rock and lichen if deer populations are continued to be artifically maintained at such levels. Most coastal forests are a very very thin veneer.
 
FLHTCUI said:
As DrJitney has suggested there is lots of land available that a group could be set up to buy some Good area that backs onto Crown Land ( top of Pitt Lake comes to mind ) equal shares and expenses on taxes and you are good to go !
Problem lies in trying to find 20 groups who are like minded and can afford $20 or $50k for such a venture.
Tight Groups,
Rob
Click to expand...


I didn't think there was any land available at all, and that, combined with the strata-like nature of the whole situation makes it very unappealing.
 
Are these deer good eating? Equal to white tails?

In a few trips out there I have seen them feeding on the seaweed on the shore.
I suspect they eat a variety of plants every day like deer tend to do.
 
Coastal blacktails are delicious- especially the island populations that have never experienced a predator in their life. There is something about meat that has never had a shot of adrenaline in its life. ;)

Most coastal islands are privately owned by a large number of people- hence the issues with getting access to hunt. Its legal, just figure out *where* to do it. As far as a group buy goes- good luck getting enough land for sale to make it worth your while.

My dinner tonight reminded me that the hassle of hunting island blacktails is worth the pain though. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom