Fort McMurray Area

[Galipo]

Hey guys,

I'm just wondering what it's like out North of Edmonton there. Has the increased human population and mining affected the area at all? What are the hunting regulations out there like with all the reserves in the area?

Thanks
G

 

[cheb]

The mining area is concentrated over a relatively small area. Plenty of wilderness left. There are of course cut lines and access roads leading to SAGD pads, but the disturbed area is nowhere near as large as the medias would let you believe... That said, I will let the local guys pipe in...

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Northern Alberta is unbelievably huge, a good portion of it is muskeg, tough to access.

Grizz

 

[stubblejumper]

While living in Fort McMurray for 35 years, I spent a fair amount of time in the wilderness in the area. Yes there is a lot of territory, but there are many, many people in the area, and pretty much everyone has an atv or a jet boat, so the areas that are accessible, have seen a lot of hunting pressure, and it has certainly effected the game populations. The unregulated hunting has also been a factor. I gave up hunting big game anywhere near the city after the first few years.

 

[Bustercluck]

There's quite a few white tail around. Like it was said before, it's hard to access most of the terrain unless the ground is frozen. There's definitely not as many animals as northern bc. Ive seen four moose north of Fort mac in the last five years and I've seen maybe six more driving the highway between Edmonton and Fort mac.

I don't know if it's over hunting or the amount of wolves around right now. There's also a group of unregulated hunters that tend to shoot quite a few cows.

 

[Fuzzybiscuit]

As mentioned, there is a lot of area around Fort McMurray but very few spots you can get even a quad into before freeze up. There is Muskeg in every direction and getting around without an Argo is pretty tough. The few roads in the area get hit pretty hard and most animals anywhere close to a road get shot long before the season opens for Joe blow public. Moose hunting from the water can be productive but again, like mentioned earlier, everyone has a jet boat.

I do a fair amount of Whitetail and Moose hunting within an hour or so from town and while it’s been somewhat productive I do put a fair amount of time in. I’ve had a Moose tag be it an early season draw or late season undersubscribed tag each of the last 5 years and last year was my first bull in the area; an Immy on November 27th.

When I do get real serious about getting a decent buck I head down South towards either Lac La Biche or Athabasca. I can see more deer in a day down there than I do up here in a whole season.

Lots of Wolves and a million square miles of pretty much inaccessible country can make hunting up this way a challenge for sure.