No offence, but this attitude is what got the moose population to where it is now in the first place. For someone who feels entitled to moose, the newish system makes no sense. For those who look at management in the long term and put moose before selfish humans, the new system makes perfect sense.
It’s all about taking pressure off populations that need time to recover before hopefully sustaining higher populations so we don’t have to wait so long to get drawn.
None taken, I’m the hunter that feels a notched tag is a bonus, not a given every season.
By the same token, there are merits to the points I’ve raised. The MNR should've instilled from the get-go that if it costs a successful hunter X amount of pts to draw a tag, then use X amount
only.
Don’t belittle the hunting base by claiming whatever amount the successful applicant had banked up completely. If you were to look at it critically, it’s almost like they are taxing Ont Hunters the extra pts beyond whats required, for their (MNRs) lack of animal management for decades.
Where I hunt we saw a significant reduction in hunters afield this past week. Through conversations with other groups this past week, those other camps/groups felt it was moot point to make the annual trek without a tag, ‘cause what’s the point? Were others showing up the second week? Only one of a known 1/2doz or more camps/groups. Maybe this is part of the fallout for the MNR taking all of the Hunters pts regardless of whats actually required to draw a tag as I mentioned previously. Who knows..
The question I have for yourself (and others) is…
How long into the system is enough? 5, 10, 20yrs?
Are you willing to take that chance and keep applying/accumulating pts up to that length of time, only to have the MNR state the population is not rebounding as predicted/planned (which is a possibility) or it will now take more pts then planned because of that possibility and then costing you everything that you waited on and bought into the hype on for just
one hunt, knowing it could take you another 5-10yrs to even be successful at a Calf Tag, let alone a Cow or Bull that could be more pts on top of the Calf requirement because of said lack of population increase? Not all Ont Moose Hunters have that kind of time on their side and that’s how a lot of hunters are currently looking at it.
And let’s not get into the new proposed changes about the second chance, first choice drawing and refusing or declining that successful tag potentially and losing all of your pts..
IMO its a big risk on both the MNRs side and ours as Hunters. We all want to be afield every season with some sort of tag avail that’s not going to take 5-10yrs or more to procure again. Why? Hunting is actually revenue generating and part of Herd management/Conservation… funny that eh?
What the MNR says, actually does and may or may not happen only time will tell, as none of us can predict the future. Yet here we are 4yrs in and still no official word from the MNR on their initial proposed and touted “Hunter Survey/Feedback Form” that was promised when the system changed. Just their annual draw results from the previous yr in the yearly regs.
When I called Pboro last year and asked about this and the troubling use of all my pts for a Tag that requires far less, I got
“we’ve heard this concern from a lot of moose hunters and are still acquiring data and looking into it” In other words… “We have no intention of changing that currently or in the near future”…
OMMV (our mileage may vary) on this. We are kind of stuck in a wait n see mode regardless of whether we are for or against the current system…
.
