Banning snow sleds and Abo' hunting "rights" will.
CBC poll on culling wolves- needs yes votes
- Thread starter Bulkley Mouse
- Start date
Banning snow sleds and Abo' hunting "rights" will.
I am not a snowmobiler but I think blaming recreational sledding for caribou declines is another freakin' joke. Bombing around through ungulate winter ranges on sleds certainly doesn't help them but banning them from caribou country is once again failing to see the bigger picture....loss of old growth forests. We all like O&G, and forest products too much as well as all the jobs created from it here in the west to change.
caribou....it's sad but let's get over it...focus on some areas where there is enough intact habitat for the caribou to stand a chance.
Ok. I have ordered your book because it sounds like interesting firsthand history. Respectfully, I think I will still do some research into what present day wildlife managers think of 1950's style wolf management before I decide what sounds reasonable in today's game.
Note that, like some of the others on this thread, I am not going to take the CBC poll seriously for all of the reasons you can probably think of.
Also, I am old enough to remember finding poison sets all around the bush back in "the good old days". Even then I thought there ought to be a better way.
With all of that there is getting to be an awful lot more wolves around here than there used to be and it may well be time for a reduction in the wolf population. (And no! You may not tell my wife that I said this!)
There is no question about what modern game managers think of the 1950s wolf control program.
Very shortly after that time, game management took a near 180 degree turn. Back then, the philosophy was to save the game and valuable fur. For example for many years, ending about 1950, there was a bounty paid by the government for dead eagles. Eagles killed all sorts of small game, including taking young (kit) beaver. All through the 1950s it was legal to shoot eagles, as well as any other hawk or owl. Game wardens shot them, also.
You can't look back 60 years and say the wrong thing was done. People did what they thought was the right thing to do.
If the world is still going in 60 years, the people then will likely look back at some serious mistakes they will say people made 60 years previous.
What went on 50 or 60 years ago should be read as history, without trying to judge it, by todays standards.
I hope you enjoy the book. Quite a number of CGN members are among the thousands who have the book and I have had a great amout of good feedback from it.
My current concern is that there is often too much focus on only one aspect of the problem. Although the wolves may be one potential threat to the dwindling caribou populations, a wolf cull redirects attention from other potential threats. In past, I was very opposed to the wolf hunt and part of me still is, but I have not completely excluded the possible necessity for an increased hunt of wolves. But, we as hunters and conservationists must address all of the threats to the caribou, not just the wolf. I am concerned that the heavy focus on the pros and cons of the wolf hunt or cull redirects public attention from other threats such as loss and/or changes in habitat and hunting pressures within particular regions of the province. Even these two additional threats result in ongoing arguments and finger pointing.
Once we deal with the increasing number of wolves, we need to ponder a few other questions. How do we best keep the wolves in check? Why are the wolf populations booming? Is the caribou population in Alberta sustainable? Is the required old-growth habitat sustainable? Is First Nations hunting of caribou going to continue? Are First Nations hunting rights having a significant impact on caribou?
I am sure we can add a boatload of more issues to be addressed.
Once we deal with the increasing number of wolves, we need to ponder a few other questions. How do we best keep the wolves in check? Why are the wolf populations booming? Is the caribou population in Alberta sustainable? Is the required old-growth habitat sustainable? Is First Nations hunting of caribou going to continue? Are First Nations hunting rights having a significant impact on caribou?
I am sure we can add a boatload of more issues to be addressed.
Your wrong, snow mobile tracks create wolf super highways. Sleds are just one component to caribou decline but they are a component and a signifigant one at that. Luckily thinking is not the measure of fact. Peer reviewed research and analysis of sound data is.
Caribou survive by exploiting habitat that no other ungulates will have anything to do with and by dispersing in that habitat to deniities low enough that predators can't warrant the energy to find em. It only takes a couple sleds running over the protecting snow to allow wolves to travel efficiently enough to make the hunt worth while. This is all undergraduate ecology stuff not tree hugger ideas.
Sleds or no sleds caribou are as Fk'd in Alberta as are the grizzlies and the hippies. Aint room for all the players to get ahead in the advantage province. No big deal caribou are ugly and stupid and we have enough on quarters to take care of the aesthetics.
Coming from a fellow Albertan, I must say I agree with what you are trying to say Duncan Idaho...and you are trying to be very "gentle" with your documented issues...
Seems like most are trying to avoid an obvious factor, which most politicians will never admit (and others), because same would be considered as "political suicide". Nuff said about that.
In any event...wolves have been subject to many debates in the past decades. Alberta exported many to some Western States, which caused many issues with "ranchers". I'm sure many here are familiar with that. What did they expect?
I presently work (and have been in the past 3 years) in North Eastern BC during the winter months, which by the way is only one mile West of the Alberta border. I have seen (and photographed) tons of caribous roaming around...and yes...wolves, lynx, wolverines, etc also. Interesting enough, I have failed to see an unbalanced harmony.
I have been hunting big game for 40 plus years, most of them in Alberta. Although I may not be an expert, I do believe that wolves have their places in the food chain. In most occasions, they will pursue the weaker herd animals, thus making a stronger herd. I do however understand that there are some exceptions to that "general rule", depending on small geographical areas.
If I have an opportunity, would I shoot one? You bet I would. Who wouldn't?
But a "cull"? I would have to say no to that, as I feel it they are not the "primary target" of what many uninformed people may think...meaning a worthless CBC poll.
My $0.02 worth
Coming from a fellow Albertan, I must say I agree with what you are trying to say Duncan Idaho...and you are trying to be very "gentle" with your documented issues...
Seems like most are trying to avoid an obvious factor, which most politicians will never admit (and others), because same would be considered as "political suicide". Nuff said about that.
In any event...wolves have been subject to many debates in the past decades. Alberta exported many to some Western States, which caused many issues with "ranchers". I'm sure many here are familiar with that. What did they expect?
I presently work (and have been in the past 3 years) in North Eastern BC during the winter months, which by the way is only one mile West of the Alberta border. I have seen (and photographed) tons of caribous roaming around...and yes...wolves, lynx, wolverines, etc also. Interesting enough, I have failed to see an unbalanced harmony.
I have been hunting big game for 40 plus years, most of them in Alberta. Although I may not be an expert, I do believe that wolves have their places in the food chain. In most occasions, they will pursue the weaker herd animals, thus making a stronger herd. I do however understand that there are some exceptions to that "general rule", depending on small geographical areas.
If I have an opportunity, would I shoot one? You bet I would. Who wouldn't?
But a "cull"? I would have to say no to that, as I feel it they are not the "primary target" of what many uninformed people may think...meaning a worthless CBC poll.
My $0.02 worth
sometimes the balance gets out of whack and a cull is necessary in my opinion for the good of all species.
I believe in managment whether it be seals, furbearers or game.
What I am trying to says is: if the habitat was there a few sleds wouldn't matter. Blaming sleds is another way for people to avoid having to say we raped and pillaged the landscape for resource extraction (resources I quite enjoy, mind you). Personally I get really sick of the hundreds of research papers that float around. There's papers backing up thoughts going one way or the other...pick your camp I guess.
Regardless, if OHV access became limited in back country areas it would make me kind of happy....until I see the seismic crews, heavy equipment, drilling rigs, faller bunchers, etc. in the same area but at least those hellish snowmobiles would be gone!
Yep, just voted. We went deer hunting in a once heavily muley populated area in Clearwater BC region in the fall, and saw the destruction the wolves are doing. We hunted hard and covered a lot of area, and saw very very few tracks, the worste i've ever seen. Wolf tracks everywhere, and some even chasing a moose down a road. We tried our best to bag a wolf on that trip, but we didn't see one. I realized they are hard to hunt. The CO in the region mentioned we'll see wolves, but we won't see deer here. Too bad. Something needs to be done.
This is what I mean, when I say it is an exercise in futility to try and cull wolves, by letting hunters have free reign over them.
You hunted in an area infested with wolves, but didn't get the chance to shoot at even one wolf.
I will bet the wolves knew you were in the area. Probably kept track of your travels!
rustysdream
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Estevan, Saskatchewan
Voted.
Yes: 55%
No: 43%
Yes: 55%
No: 43%
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I agree bumping into wolf (wolves) is a rare event indeed. In north eastern Onatrio I shot a lone wolf (using a 222) in 1988 and I might have been the last person in the Petawawa township that collected bounty as that winter was the last for the provincially funded bounty program. In the fall of 2009 I came very close to a wolf, up here, not far from the Primrose Lake Airweapons Range during the big game season. The only reason I did not even try to take him, was that I was only carrying a 20 gauge loaded with #7.5 birdshot and I left my deer rifle at home that day. Now the close range deer slugs along with the appropriate deer tags accompany the O/U during the fall/winter season for big game here.
In the past, I have been shadowed by wolves most likely hoping for a chance at a gut pile or wounded game, in that area of Ontario near Black Bay and up here near Cold Lake (north of Tucker Lake) & Winnifred Lake while deer hunting, but I don't really count those as close encounters myself because in these last scenerios they were more often heard than seen within gun range. I strongly suspect I'll see more lynx in the near future up here, as I've seen two within the last six months, other than another rare wolf sighting at close range.
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there is a guy on Alberta Outdoors that is inside a tracked excavator and has his camera with him. He is visited by a pack of 16 wolves! Cool movie.
